Game Economics: The role of money in single player games, Part 3

Let's recap from the intro:

Part 3: Then what are the common pitfalls of not balancing money correctly?

1. Making money do nothing - The "I am a millionaire, but no one sells anything useful."
2. Excess of money trivializing money - The "I have enough money to do whatever I want. No limits!"
3. Paucity/Unevenness of reward - The "Why do I bother doing quests for 3 pennies when I can kill a sheep for 12,000?"
   
4. Making money overpower the player - The "I just bought my level 99 weapon at level 3 and now the game is EZ-mode." 

1. "I am a millionaire, but no one sells anything useful"

Some designers, out of a misguided sense of balance, limits all conceivably useful things to quest rewards and rewards for doing deeds and actions. Generally, this is an okay move...


However, you must ensure that money still has a purpose. If the only purpose of money is to get 99 potions and 99 hi-potions and then you're done shopping then money essentially has no point in your game. Consider just not having money entirely or loosening your restrictions on what money can buy.  


In this case, if you fear that something might be too powerful that it shouldn't be available in stores, think again. What if it was extremely expensive? What if there were several different "tiers" of that item that grew more expensive as they scaled in power? Why shouldn't the player be able to purchase this with money?

Additionally, consider simply making more options available for the player to purchase. Different cosmetic effects or style choices can be rewarding by themselves even if they don't affect the overall power level of the game. Or consider making money a convienience fund for the player by allowing them to skip sometimes annoying and boring parts of your game with money.

2. "I have enough money to do whatever I want! No limits!"

In this case, the designer's prices are too low or money flows too freely. If the player has unlimited resources available to them early on without restriction then all attempted gameplay balance by scarcity flies straight out the window. Look over at the amount of money the player is acquiring and drastically cut it down. Or introduce lots and lots of money sinks so that money doesn't overflow the game economics.

Now, for the player, this isn't a problem. But for the designer, a player with infinite resources can throw the entire game out of whack. High prices and money sinks should be in the game to drain the player of resources.

Aside: However, it is not uncommon in the end-game of many games to give infinite resources to the player. This is generally fine and quite awesome to boot. This skips the tedious farming stage that a player might have to do before progressing to the final dungeons of doom.

Just make sure they can't become overpowered by having infinite resources to make that final dungeon anticlimatic.

3. "Why do I bother doing quests for 3 pennies when I can kill a sheep for 12,000 dollars?"

This is a case of disporportinate reward.  Money as a reward is a key motivator for players to do actions in your game. Take a look at the most famous example in Mario.  Certain jumps and paths that were fun to take were literally littered with coins in their path. Streams or arcs of coins designated paths that Mario could take.

In this manner, look at the money reward in the game and see which path player's are being pushed to. If the most boring aspects of your game give the most money reward, you might want to tune your rewards so that what you want the player to do should be the most rewarding path.

4. "I just bought my level 99 weapon at level 3 and now the game is EZ-mode!"

This is a case of availability. It's very nice and all that the player *can* acquire end-game items if they only saved up enough money to do so. However, it is not in the best interests of any game that the player sits there and farms away the early portion of the game. This leads to player burnout and boredom.

There should always be an incentive for the player to move on and progress through the game. This is why shops have limited availability. At the very most, dedicated players can be rewarded with items that are a tad bit more powerful than they should have at the moment but nothing like getting the masamune while you're beating up slimes.