Create a Machinations-style...
About this model
Create a Machinations-style game economy and gameplay loop diagram for a mobile + Steam indie game called "Death's Soul Market", a dark comedy spinoff inspired by Nirvana.
Core fantasy: The player is Death working a soul shipment desk. Each round, a soul arrives as a case file. The player inspects the soul, chooses whether to sell/send the soul to God, Satan, Reincarnation, Ghost Duty, or Void, then prepares shipment paperwork. The emotional hook is moral tension: Satan may offer more money for a good soul, while God may offer less money but more long-term Favor and lower Heat.
Main loop: 1. Soul case appears. 2. Player reads biography, crime, claim, hidden fact, and evidence. 3. Buyers make offers. 4. Player chooses buyer/fate. 5. Player fills shipment paperwork. 6. Player stamps a 3x3 stamp grid on the paper. 7. Stamp results generate resources, penalties, combos, or consequences. 8. Soul is shipped. 9. Resources update. 10. New soul arrives. 11. End of shift checks quota, Heat, reputation, and moral balance. 12. Player receives upgrades, unlocks content, or gets fired.
Important mechanic: The 3x3 slot-machine-like mechanic should not look like a casino machine. It is a stamp matrix printed on the shipment document. Each stamp can show icons such as Halo, Fire, Coin, Regret, Family, Paperwork, Fame, Corruption, Mercy, Debt, Appeal, Void. Matching rows, diagonals, or themed combinations trigger outcomes. The player gets small dopamine rewards after completing paperwork.
Core resources: - Money: earned from selling/shipping souls and stamp combos. Needed to meet shift quota. - Heat: rises from immoral sales, bad paperwork, suspicious decisions, or complaints. At high Heat the player risks being fired. - Favor: earned by pleasing God, making merciful decisions, or redeeming difficult souls. Used for protective upgrades and second chances. - Corruption: rises from selling good souls to Satan or abusing the system. Can unlock powerful dark bonuses but risks bad endings. - Paperwork Accuracy: affected by choosing correct documents and stamp placement. Higher accuracy improves combo odds and lowers Heat. - Soul Balance: represents moral integrity. Too low causes narrative consequences and bad endings. - Content Unlocks: new soul types, departments, stamp symbols, document types, endings, desk cosmetics.
Buyer/fate effects: - God: lower immediate money, more Favor, lower Heat, better long-term stability. - Satan: higher immediate money, more Heat and Corruption, stronger risky bonuses. - Reincarnation: medium reward, random future modifiers, may return later as a new case. - Ghost Duty: low money, generates recurring passive resources or future complications. - Void: removes complex souls, reduces immediate risk, but damages Soul Balance or unlocks dark endings.
Failure states: - Heat reaches 100: fired by afterlife management. - Money below quota at shift end: demoted or fired. - Soul Balance reaches 0: Death becomes corrupted. - Too many complaints: audit event. - Too much Favor debt: God forces restrictions. - Too much Corruption: Satan owns part of the office.
Progression: - Short session: 5-8 souls per shift. - Between shifts: choose 1 upgrade, unlock new case type, improve stamp grid, add new document tool, or buy cosmetic. - Meta progression: new departments, harder soul archetypes, special bosses, daily cases, weekly leaderboard.
Monetization model: Design the economy so the game can support both mobile and Steam. Mobile: - Rewarded ad to reroll one stamp row. - Rewarded ad to refresh buyer offers. - Rewarded ad to avoid firing once per day. - Optional Remove Ads + Death's Ledger pack at $4.99-$9.99. - Cosmetic packs: Death outfits, desk skins, stamp styles, department themes. - Content packs only after retention is proven. Steam: - Premium version with no ads. - Cosmetic/content DLC later. - Daily challenge and leaderboard for visibility.
Revenue target: Model a path toward $5,000/month using: - Mobile ads - Mobile IAP - Steam sales - DLC/cosmetics Show which resources and loops increase retention, replayability, conversion, and content creator shareability.
Viral/content creator goals: The loop should create funny, scary, and morally hard outcomes that are easy to record: - "I sold grandma to Hell because Satan paid more." - "Heaven rejected a soul because I forgot the Mercy Affidavit." - "My paperwork mistake started a demon complaint chain." - "I met quota but became corrupt." - "A soul I reincarnated came back as my boss." Include systems that generate shareable end-of-shift summaries and weird consequences.
Please produce: 1. A full game loop diagram. 2. A resource flow diagram. 3. A monetization loop diagram. 4. A retention loop diagram. 5. A risk/failure loop diagram. 6. A $5K/month revenue scenario model. 7. Identify balance risks, bottlenecks, and exploits. 8. Suggest the minimum prototype version with only the systems needed to test fun and monetization potential.
"Create a Machinations-style..." is a public Machinations diagram shared in the Community by Doron Ben Elisha, with 49 components.
It was created in August 2026 and last edited in August 2026.
Open the diagram in the Machinations app and press Play to watch the resources move, adjust its values to test how the system responds, or remix it to make an editable copy in My diagrams.
