Flow of resources in the game

Flow of resources in the game

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is pushed to the limit in a voluntary effort to achieve something difficult and worthwhile.”
Mihai Csikszentmihaiyi

The movement of resources in the game is a key aspect that affects balance and player engagement. Key concepts to help guide this process include creating an emotional swing and timing content wisely.

But how to properly allocate resources so that the player is not bored and is constantly in the state of flow described by Csikszentmihalija?

Create an emotional swing

Creating an emotional swing is one of the key elements of player retention. But to understand exactly how it works, let’s turn to the science of the brain – neurobiology.

Our brains, the result of millions of years of evolution, are constantly searching for a balance between stimulation and pleasure. Two neurotransmitters play a major role in this process: dopamine and endorphin.

Dopamine – This is the same “anticipation hormone” that motivates us to continue to act in the hope of a reward. It activates in moments of foreboding, whether it’s waiting for a new level, a rare item, or defeating a difficult boss. In an evolutionary context, dopamine was a key factor for survival. Imagine our ancestors: finding food, avoiding predators – all this required constant searching and activity. Dopamine in such situations “turned on” motivation and maintained interest in finding the reward, even if it was over the horizon.

Endorphin it is a substance that is released at the moment of receiving a reward and causes a feeling of joy and satisfaction. This is a kind of internal “reward” for the achieved goal. Endorphins also have an analgesic effect, which literally helps us “forget” about the difficulties we had to overcome on the way to success. In games, as in life, endorphins stimulate us to return to what brings us pleasure and fulfillment.

Now, by understanding how these neurotransmitters work, it becomes clear why the emotional seesaw is not just a game of resources, but the science of how to keep the player in a state of constant search and satisfaction. It is important not only to reward the player, but also to skillfully create moments of anticipation so that dopamine pushes him to new achievements, and endorphins consolidate success and the desire to continue.

Imagine a player named BeautyQueen278. She stuck on 189 levels in Candy Crush Saga. Every time BeautyQueen278 approaches the final combination, but the candies do not add up, her brain is literally bathed in dopamine: “Well, one more try, there’s only a little left!”. It’s almost like that, a little more – and the level will be passed. At this moment, she is ready to buy a booster. but here’s the interesting thing: it’s this balance between frustration and foreboding that keeps her in the game.
And so, on the 11th try, BeautyQueen278 finally beats the level and her brain is literally drowning in endorphins. She is so happy that she is ready to fly like candy on the screen. But you know what makes the difference here? BeautyQueen278 is given not only victory, but also a small gift – another life after many attempts. This is the perfect moment of balance: you’ve won, but you’re given a little more resources to keep playing without feeling completely exhausted.

Players should experience two or three different emotions in one session. This helps maintain interest and motivation. If players experience frustration several times in a row, they may lose interest in the game. Proper management of emotions through allocation of resources and levels is the key to success.

Distribute content over days

Timing of content is another important aspect of keeping players interested. At the beginning of the game, you should be generous with content to capture the attention of the players and give them the opportunity to feel successful. In the first few sessions, players should be able to earn rewards quickly and easily. This will give them an opportunity to appreciate the game’s resources and get used to them.

Imagine a puzzle where the player has just started playing. On the first day, he encounters an incredibly difficult level and, despite his best efforts, cannot pass it. Instead of giving the player a chance to advance quickly at the beginning, the developers decided that a level with impenetrable puzzles was a great idea. A PuzzleNoob player spends all day trying to get through the first level, and ends up deciding that it’s easier to delete the game than to waste his nerves.

As you progress, the pace should slow down, forcing players to put in more effort to earn rewards. This helps create a sense of scarcity that encourages players to invest more in the game. For example, if players start to experience difficulties in completing levels, they can turn to boosters or other paid enhancements if it is part of the game’s monetization strategy.

Donation sources and points: We manage the flow of resources

Now let’s move on to the basic concepts of resource allocation — concepts come to the game designer’s aid here donation points and sources. [3]

Here everything is like when accounting for finances in your personal banking application.
Sources – Where does the player get the resource. It can be in the game

  1. Mission rewards

  2. Short-term events

  3. Loot (trophies, loot)

  4. Achievement

  5. Passive income

  6. Season Rewards and Battle Passes

  7. Social interactions

  8. Game mechanics

  9. Viewing advertisements, etc.

On the other hand, Spend points – this is where the currency obtained from sources. We will discuss the spend points and sources in more detail in sections 4 and 5.

Too many resources from the source and the balance will overflow, leading to inflation. Too little – and players will lose interest. Balancing sources and spend points is the key to a stable game economy.

In Clash of Clans, developed by Supercell, resources come from mines and collectors (sources) and are spent on buildings and upgrades (spend points).

In EVE Online, resources come through mining, manufacturing, and trading (resources), and are spent on building ships, buying modules, and fighting wars (spend points).

In World of Warcraft, players obtain resources through quests and raids (resources) and spend on crafting items and upgrading equipment (spend points).

The developers of these games carefully monitor the balance of resources to maintain the interest of players.

And now, knowing what sources and spend points your player has, we can build Resource scheme (which, by the way, we can do even in the early stages of game development).

When drawing up the resource flow in your game, even the smallest sources of spending and income must be taken into account – so that developers can see the full picture

As a developer, you have placed analytics events on all the iconic mechanics of your game, and you have your product analytics at your disposal – you know how much of a resource, such as money, a player has received from the Loot or Quest category. By calculating the % of the total flow using Resource scheme you can easily see where there is room for improvement in your game, where you are overflowing, and where you are not asking enough.

A similar scheme can be built for all the mechanics of your game, linking them into a single ecosystem with connections to understand how the introduction of new mechanics will affect the economics of your project. To build such schemes, you can use Machinations.io, Miro or classic GS/Excel tables.

During game development “Dreamdale” we noticed that players quickly accumulated base currency through the exchange of resources at their own expense, but almost spent it. Analysis of the resource scheme showed that the Spend points were not attractive enough. We’ve added new upgrades and special events that require resources, and the game’s economy has become more balanced.

Questions for reflection

  • What sources and funding points are available in my game?

  • What incentives do my players have now? Are there enough of them?

  • Do I “play” with the player, forcing him to feel a lack, then an excess? Does he always have enough?

Now that we have dealt with resource flows in the game, I propose to look a little deeper at the player for whom we are trying, using examples of scientific research, we will try to better understand the nature of people who play our games and try to answer the questions:

Can we know if the player will actually enjoy playing the updated balance?

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List of literature

[1] Newzoo.com (2024). Games market trends to watch in 2024. [online] Available at: https://newzoo.com/resources/trend-reports/games-market-trends-to-watch-in-2024.
[2] GamesIndustry.biz. (2020). The Core Principles of Building Prosperous Game Economies. [online] Available at: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-core-principles-of-building-prosperous-game-economies.
[3] Udonis Blog. (2023). How to Create a Balanced Mobile Game Economy. [online] Available at: https://www.blog.udonis.co/mobile-marketing/mobile-games/balanced-mobile-game-economy.

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