Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Use an Internal economy to Add Strategic Gameplay
It is surprising how many of the strategic challenges in real-time strategy games are
economic in nature. In a typical game of
StarCraft,
you probably spend more time
managing the economy than fighting the battle. Including an internal economy is
a good way to introduce a strategic dimension to a game that operates on a larger
time span than most physical and/or tactical action.
One of the reasons that most real-time strategy games have elaborate internal
economies is that these economies allow the games to reward planning and long-
term investments. A game about military conflict with little forward planning and
no long-term investments would be a game of tactics rather than strategy, because
it would probably be more about maneuvering units on the battle field. To sustain
a level of strategic interaction, a game's internal economy needs to be more compli-
cated than the internal economies that simply complement the physics of an action
game. Economies in strategy games usually involve multiple resources and involve
many feedback loops and interrelationships. Setting up an economy like that for
the first time is challenging, and finding the right balance is even more difficult.
As a designer, you need to understand the elements of the economy and develop a
keen sense to judge its dynamic effects. Even if you have years of experience, it is
easy to make mistakes: There have been many tweaks to the economy of games like
StarCraft
to retain the right balance after players developed new strategies, even after
the game had been long published!
Even without a focus on the economics of production (such as
StarCraft
's minerals
and SCV units), internal economies can add strategic depth to almost any game. In
most cases, this involves planning to use the available resources wisely. As already
discussed, the economy of chess can be understood in terms of material (playing
pieces) and strategic advantage. Chess is not about production, and gaining a piece
in chess is unusual. Rather, the game is about using and sometimes sacrificing your
material in order to produce as much strategic advantage as possible. In other words,
chess is all about getting the most mileage out of your pieces.
You can find something similar in the game
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
. In
this action-adventure game, the player progresses through many levels filled with
dexterity and combat challenges. Early in the game, the player is awarded a magical
dagger that allows that player to control time. If anything goes wrong, the player
can use sand from the dagger to rewind time and to try again. This power can also
be used during combat, for example just after the player has taken a big hit. In addi-
tion, the player can use sand as a magical power to freeze time. This helps when
battling multiple enemies. The sand is not limitless, however. The player can rewind
time only so often, but fortunately, defeating enemies provides the player with new
sand. This means that, in additional to the usual action-oriented gameplay, the
player has to manage a vital resource. The player must decide when is the best time
to invest some sand. Different players will have different ideas about when they
should use their sand. Some will use it more often to help out with combat, while
