![]() There’s a lot that’s not specified here in the shorthand version. The chain terminates with an anchor node representing player motivations.No strange loops or spaghetti-like diagrams. The nodes are connected to one another in a linear fashion that’s easy to read.Each node contains an output of some (currently unspecified) action.Which satisfies your need for self expression, the ultimate motivational anchor for wanting the stick in the first place.This is the shorthand I use when jotting these out on paper. The value chains combine to form a full faucet-and-drain economy. These networks are composed of value chains. We’ll model game economies and associated activities as endogenous (self-contained) value networks. ![]() But if you are interested in game economy design, this is a good crash course. The whole essay is around 30+ pages and can be a bit technical. Chapter 4: Establishing endogenous meaning in games.Chapter 3: Architecture of multiple value chains.There’s an inherent complexity to the topic that makes matters even worse. And hard to hold constructive conversations with your team. Yet game economies are also a rarely discussed black art. Getting your economy design wrong costs time and money. There’s a huge demand for economy designers who know how to build and balance robust game economies that provide rich value to players. Understanding how to generate meaning with sticks is not an idle concern! High retention, progression focused economic systems are at the heart of most games as a service (GaaS). Often players engage in long chains of rote economic activity in order to reach their actual final goal.Value for a particular action comes from how it facilitates subsequent activities.The core mechanic is not the sole or even the primary driver of player value.You tend to see this scenario in high retention, progression focused games And if those future goals don’t exist, the sticks have no value. Because it turns out the value of sticks was entirely driven by their utility in reaching future goals. It wasn’t until we spent 12-months building out the rest of the game – the crafting, the decorating, the daily pacing structures – that players finally began to value picking up sticks. Clearly there’s more to establishing value in a game than just perfecting a ‘fun’ core mechanic. Yet life-sims do exist! And they are delightful. We tried extending the loops out from 5-seconds (gathering), to 30 seconds (wandering), to 5-minutes (selling). If we were following the standard advice on prototyping core mechanics, we might as well stop development right there. They’d turn to me and ask “Uh, okay, where is the game?” Our playtesters would harvest a leaf pile, get some sticks, and then put down the controller. ![]() The core activities in a life sim are generally not full of mastery and depth. Recently I was designing the harvesting and crafting system for our Animal Crossing-like game Cozy Grove when I ran into a problem: picking up a stick is not that fun. INTRODUCTION The problem with picking up sticks
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