Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
ChAptEr 9
So far, we have been treating the internal economies of games as static structures
that do not change as the game is played. The economy itself can be dynamic, but
its basic structure—the relationships among its elements—never changes. This is
true of many games such as
Monopoly,
which we've used extensively as an example.
But some games allow players to actually build the structure of the economy them-
selves, by adding new sources and drains, for example. In this chapter, we explore
economy-building games and how you can use the Machinations framework to
design them.
Most, but not all, economy-building games belong to either the construction and
management simulation genre or the strategy genre. Good examples are
Civilization
,
SimCity
, and, to a lesser extent,
StarCraft
. In these games the player constructs build-
ings and other edifices (we'll call them all
buildings
to avoid ambiguity) in the game
world. Based on their juxtaposition, these buildings establish economic relationships
with each other. The effectiveness of the economy depends on the player's decisions:
what buildings he built, where he put them, how much infrastructure connects
them together, and so on. The landscape itself also contributes to the economy, and
it is important that players make the best use of it.
Civilization
and
SimCity
offer
endless variety, because they come with build-in random world generators. Each
new world creates different challenges and opportunities for the player constructing
an economy.
Goals in economy building tend to be loosely defined, as in
SimCity
, or are very
long-term and offer many different ways to reach them. Often, players set their own
(intermediate) goals, and for many players, building a stable and growing economy
becomes a goal in its own right. If missions exist at all in these games, they often
consist of a single task: to build an economy that achieves a particular state or exists
within certain limits.
The economies in these games usually start with production of basic resources but
tend to get more complicated quickly. For example, in
Civilization
, players initially
worry about gathering enough food to feed their cities and collecting enough resources
to build a few defensive units. At a later stage, they need to start producing gold to
finance special buildings and research. The location of the city affects the produc-
tion rates: Building a city on fertile grasslands increases food production, rivers
increase trade and wealth, while hills and mountains offer the opportunity to build
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