Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Summary
In this chapter, we introduced the essential elements of an internal economy:
resources, entities, and some of the mechanics that manipulate them, including
sources, drains, converters, and traders. We examined the concept of economic
shapes as seen through graphs and showed how different mechanical structures can
produce different shapes. Negative feedback creates equilibrium, while positive feed-
back creates an arms race among opponents. Implemented another way, positive
feedback can produce a downward spiral, because a player finds it harder and harder
to grow his economy. Feedback systems based on relationships between two players
can produce effects that keep games close or tend to cause the player in the lead to
stay in the lead.
Game designers can use internal economics in many ways to make games interesting,
enriching both the progression of a game and the strategic choices a player has to
make. The internal economy also affects the competitive landscape between diverse
or closely matched players in multiplayer games. The chapter ended with specific
suggestions about how to build games in which players construct an economy, as
in SimCity.
Exercises
1. Identify the resources and economic functions in a published game. (Your
instructor may specify particular games to study.)
2. Find an example of a game (not referred to in this chapter) that exhibits one of
these properties: negative feedback with periodic equilibrium, a downward spiral,
a short-term versus long-term investment trade-off, feedback based on players'
relative scores, or rubberbanding. Explain which resources are involved, and show
how the game's mechanics produce the effect you discovered.
3. Find an example of a game (other than a Zelda game) in which a deadlock may
occur. Does the game provide a means of breaking the deadlock? Explain.
 
 
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