Urbanscapes game economy

About this model

The diagram represents a complex simulation of a city-building and resource management game, where players engage in activities such as harvesting gems, generating cash and energy, completing stages, and developing various city zones and structures. It incorporates mechanisms for resource generation, expenditure, leveling up buildings, and unlocking new zones. Specifically, sources generate different types of resources such as gems, cash, and energy, which are utilized to complete stages ("stage play"), level up buildings like Power Plants, Research facilities, Malls, and others, each with its capacity limit and upgrade mechanisms involving cash and gem expenditure.

The interplay of converters, pools, gates, and drains depicts the economic system within the game, where players manage resources to progress. Converters represent actions such as leveling up structures by converting cash or gems into upgrades. Drains are used to simulate resource consumption for activities like playing stages. State connections modify the game state, reflecting conditions and outcomes of player actions, like unlocking new zones based on completed contracts or upgrading building levels. Registers calculate and regulate rewards and requirements, influencing the game's progression system. This setup offers an intricate view of a game world where strategic resource management and progression planning are essential.

This public Machinations diagram, “Urbanscapes game economy”, was shared in the Machinations Community by Scooby Snacks.

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.