Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design

Chapter 4. Internal Economy

In Chapter 1, we listed five types of mechanics that you might find in a game: physics, internal economy, progression mechanisms, tactical maneuvering, and social interaction. In this chapter, we’ll focus on the internal economy.

In real life, an economy is a system in which resources are produced, consumed, and exchanged in quantifiable amounts. Many games also include an economy, consisting of the resources the game manipulates and the rules about how they are produced and consumed. However, in games, the internal economy can include all sorts of resources that are not part of a real-life economy. In games, things like health, experience, and skill can be part of the economy just as easily as money, goods, and services. ...