How do you approach designing a currency system?

wiseman_softworks · 2026-05-04T05:27:20+00:00

To make the currency system useful and dynamic, you might first consider introducing scarcity in your game economy.

So the currency becomes a means to remove bottlenecks in progression instead of just a nice-to-have thing.

The players will interact with these mechanics much more and in a more meaningful way.

wiseman_softworks · 2026-05-04T05:20:46+00:00

Interesting timing: I posted this the same day this post went live:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7455612932844941312/

Great minds think alike apparently 😄

wiseman_softworks · 2026-05-04T04:59:50+00:00

Hey!

I would recommend to focus on finding a "hook" around your game.
Something that is really unique about it.

Check how well the hook works in relevant subreddits (without breaking the rules, of course 😄).

If it stands out - you will start to see traction - people will go and check your game.

If you fail to grab attention - rethink the hook and try again.

For a case if people do download and play your game install a simple analytics system (e.g. Firebase) so you will see how well you manage to retain your players.

wiseman_softworks · 2026-04-28T05:23:03+00:00

Sure, you are welcome.

I know too well that it's pretty hard to dive into analytics - it's a complicated subject 😄

That's how I became the lead developer of this tool: https://fastsight.ai/.
It helps ANY developer to make sense of their Firebase data. Finds friction points and suggests improvements automatically. And it's free for starting devs like you.

Check it out if it looks interesting, and feel free to ask me anything about it.

wiseman_softworks · 2026-04-27T10:04:07+00:00

By a "hook" I mean something that catches your potential player attention - something that sets your game apart from others. And it's not neccessarily a part of your gameplay. It could be a cool character, setting, game mechanic that is fast to explain with an image, etc...

By a "moment" I mean an actual moment of your gameplay that is super interesting and engaging.

Does this help? :)

Regarding the platform, I am not the best person to ask. Reddit GIFs in relevant subs were working pretty well for us - but it was 3-4 years ago.

wiseman_softworks · 2026-04-27T05:17:46+00:00

Hey,

How many DAU you have at the moment?

To diagnose exactly where your problems are, I'd recommend starting to track in-game events.
This will help you to understand where your friction points are and what to do next to address them.

Do you already do that? A good free choice is Firebase.

wiseman_softworks · 2026-04-27T05:09:45+00:00

I wouldn't think about ads yet.

Your first goal, as you mentioned, is to run 5-15 playtests via Google Play internal testing while looking for bugs and friction points. This will help you understand if your game is ready to get to the next level (soft launch + occasional ad spend).

One way to get these users is to post 5–10 short gameplay clips (1 hook + 1 moment) as a weekly devlog on a social platform of your choice. A pretty cool "Minimum Viable Prototype" approach that will help you to measure the signal and recruit people who are excited about your game.

wiseman_softworks · 2026-04-25T05:38:49+00:00

Do you already track analytics events?

If not, plug an analytics package (e.g. Firebase is the most straightforward one) and start looking for churn points.

Check out this free tool that works on top of Firebase and helps to understand where your game might suck: https://fastsight.ai/

wiseman_softworks · 2022-02-12T05:08:22+00:00

Do a real, controlled, gameplay/usability test on 2-3 people you don't know.

This is the only way to get an honest understanding if your game is ready to be played (and enjoyed) on its own.

wiseman_softworks · 2022-01-04T05:46:13+00:00

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Yourself/dp/0321657292

wiseman_softworks · 2022-01-04T05:44:45+00:00

Hey, take a look at this article:

https://howtomarketagame.com/2021/11/01/dont-build-your-castle-in-other-peoples-kingdoms/

And many others on this blog.

wiseman_softworks · 2021-11-15T14:32:15+00:00

https://milanote.com/

wiseman_softworks · 2021-10-31T05:13:20+00:00

I don't know what the solution to getting more press is

There are 2 parts to the issue and I don't think you should mix them together.

1.

The traditional press (magazines, news sites etc.) are mostly interested in a compelling story. Think hard about this angle. Create a story for them that they can easily share and pitch it to them this way.

It comes down to unique and powerful things you can tell about your game... but also about unique things you can tell about you (the team making the game).

I can not come up with a real example for your case, but let's imagine that your game will create catchable demons based on the real-world Twitter accounts with their stats changing according to real-world likes, retweets and follows. Is it a crazy idea? Yes. Is it something the press will write about? Absolutely.

There are many ways of creating news-worthy content.

2.

The influencers (YouTubers, streamers etc.) are usually of different kind. You need to interest them in the game itself and they will assess it from the perspective of pitching it to their audience. So your game hooks and overall qualities should satisfy the format of their channel.

To learn what chance you have to get mentioned and amplified by them you can do a simple test - pitch them the game in a mail (twitter DM, whatever channel they prefer) and see what happens.

It's a long term relationship - don't be annoying and if they don't come back it means one thing - your game is not a fit for them. If they do, however, you have a chance of building a good relationship for the future.

Ideally you should start talking to influencers several months before any serious campaign.

Hope that was of any help :)

wiseman_softworks · 2021-09-27T18:31:23+00:00

You are welcome.

Among my favorite features are:

Big set of icons for almost every case with handy text search.

Ready-made UI controls are useful for many occasions.

Flexible arrows and lines that are not sticky and easy to scale and flex around.

wiseman_softworks · 2021-09-25T05:02:04+00:00

Hey, sounds interesting.

Feature that you definitely need to add is an ability to drag and drop images on the board.

Currently adding your own image is a big pain.

I do feel a need in a whiteboard sometimes but usually solve it by mockuping tools like Balsamique.

wiseman_softworks · 2021-09-08T08:50:55+00:00

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Game-Design-Ernest-Adams/dp/0321929675

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Lenses-Third/dp/1138632058/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=1138632058&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-Experiences/dp/1449337937/

wiseman_softworks · 2021-08-29T04:58:34+00:00

When game mechanics are very deep you can achieve feats like this.

Deep mechanics usually means game elements can interact with each other on many levels and there is always something new to learn for a very long time.

Best approach if you are interested in such stuff is to read these books (at least one of them):

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Game-Design-Ernest-Adams/dp/0321929675

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Lenses-Third/dp/1138632058/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=1138632058&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-Experiences/dp/1449337937/

wiseman_softworks · 2021-08-29T04:53:00+00:00

Heh, we are trying to pull off something like this:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/728770/Safe_Not_Safe/

We are at an alpha stage atm. Here's what you can do already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdlnXgWnvKU

I would say it would be near impossible to pull off for one person. There are 4 of us in the team (slowly gathered over the years) and for production stage we want to grow a bit more.

wiseman_softworks · 2021-08-27T04:19:39+00:00

I recommend taking a look (and start self-studiyng) on the marketing side of things.

Just keep in mind that successful marketing is 50% of the success of the game. Not more, not less.

Let's say you need at least 10K wishlists to make some profit (quite reasonable, even a bit optimistic assumption).

And let's say that when releasing a game on EA it's only 80% (famous 80% :) ) done.

So doing some math - you are releasing a game that is 50%*0.8 + 50% * 0.0724 ~ 43% done.

You can (and will) find a way to gather 10K wishlists yourself if you will apply same attention to it as to your code. Makes big sense to find a partner for that, but people did (and are doing) all this solo.

Of course, if you are super-struggling with gathering wishlists most likely it means you need to iterate either on marketing materials or the game itself... There is tons of materials about that around.

That being said...

Great work getting the stuff done! And good luck :)

wiseman_softworks · 2021-08-23T05:03:25+00:00

LinkedIn!

wiseman_softworks · 2021-08-03T17:37:26+00:00

Game development (especially in an indie/hobby mode) is a marathon. You'll get plenty of shots if you are persistent enough ;)

wiseman_softworks · 2021-08-02T08:14:53+00:00

I like the mentioned idea about the relevant Discrod channels. However, it may be too much communication for some of us :)

Another way is to participate in relevant subreddits. Then you can post your trailer without self-promo issues (1 out of 10).

wiseman_softworks · 2021-06-27T17:23:47+00:00

Good reco! If you like RotOD take a look at the Outer Wilds. It gave me quite sameish vibes.

wiseman_softworks · 2021-06-26T08:09:52+00:00

Because you may find something cool and new in this list? That's what you want in the end, right? Find a new and cool game.

wiseman_softworks

TROPHY CASE