Economy modelling test

About this model

This diagram simulates a card collection and leveling system commonly found in digital trading card games (TCGs) or collectible card game (CCG) mobile apps. It features an intricate economy of sourcing, converting, and distributing resources (denoted as "cards" at various levels of rarity) amongst different pools which could represent players' collections, the game's dealing system, or milestone achievements. Resources are generated by Source nodes and maneuver through a web of Pools, Converters, and Registers to simulate the acquisition, trading, and upgrading of cards.

The diagram employs various Gates and Converters to illustrate decision points and conversion processes—for example, converting common cards into rare ones or leveling up player profiles based on the rewards earned. Registers are used to track and calculate the state changes within the game, such as total cards earned or player level progressions—factors crucial for both in-game balance and enhancing user engagement. The use of End Conditions might represent game thresholds for winning conditions or achievement criteria. This simulation could help game designers to visualize and balance the flow of resources necessary to keep the game engaging and rewarding for the players, optimizing the pacing at which players receive rewards or level up within the game ecosystem.

This public Machinations diagram, “Economy modelling test”, was shared in the Machinations Community by Matthew Wiggins.

You can open the original diagram in the Machinations app, press Play to watch how resources move through it, and change its values to see how the system responds. Machinations is a visual tool for designing, simulating and balancing game economies and other systems, where resources flow through sources, pools, drains, converters and gates. In a diagram, a source creates resources, a pool stores them, a drain removes them, a converter changes one resource into another and a gate decides where they go next.