Core Discipline
Game economy design is the discipline of structuring all virtual systems through which players acquire, spend, trade, and lose resources. It spans currencies, item rarity, progression pacing, pricing, and reward loops — all working together to create an experience that feels rewarding rather than exploitative.
A well-designed economy keeps free-to-play players engaged and paying players satisfied. It controls inflation, prevents pay-to-win perception, and creates meaningful choices at every stage of a player’s journey. When done poorly, economies collapse: players hit a paywall, churn spikes, and no amount of new content recovers trust.
Economy Design Covers
What We Deliver
EJAW provides end-to-end economy design for mobile, PC, console, and browser games. Whether you’re building from scratch or rebalancing a live title, our team structures systems that sustain long-term retention and revenue.
We review your existing economy spreadsheets, live metrics, and player feedback to identify where the system leaks value — or creates frustration. You receive a prioritised list of fixes with expected impact on LTV and D30 retention, not a generic report.
For new projects, we design the full economy before a single line of code is written. This includes resource taxonomy, currency flows, player funnel segmentation, and a simulation-ready spreadsheet model that developers can implement directly without guesswork.
Events, seasonal passes, limited-time offers, and content drops all need economic planning. We design each LiveOps wave so it generates a revenue spike without devaluing the core economy or alienating players who missed it.
We build monetisation models that match your game’s genre and audience — from subscription and premium unlock to cosmetic-only F2P. Offer design, price point localisation, and first-purchase trigger placement are all covered, with KPIs defined up front so success is measurable.
Using agent-based simulations and Monte Carlo modelling, we stress-test your economy against thousands of virtual player archetypes before launch. This catches exploits, dead-end progressions, and inflationary spirals that would otherwise only surface post-launch.
Token economies, NFT utility models, play-to-earn balancing, and sink/faucet design for on-chain games require a different approach than traditional F2P. We design Web3 economies that avoid hyperinflationary token collapse and create genuine long-term player value.
Scope Comparison
Every project is different. Use this table to understand which engagement type best matches your stage and goals, then talk to us — we’ll confirm the right scope before any commitment.
| Engagement Type | Best For | Typical Duration | Key Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economy Audit | Live games with retention or revenue problems | 1–2 weeks | Prioritised fix list + impact estimates |
| Full Economy Design | New games in pre-production or early production | 4–10 weeks | Economy GDD + simulation spreadsheet |
| LiveOps Economy Support | Live titles running regular events and updates | Ongoing (monthly) | Per-event economy plan + offer designs |
| Monetisation Strategy | Games preparing for soft or global launch | 2–4 weeks | Monetisation model + IAP catalogue |
| Economy Simulation | Pre-launch titles with complex resource systems | 2–3 weeks | Simulation model + stress test report |
| Web3 Economy Design | Blockchain and P2E game projects | 4–8 weeks | Token model + sink/faucet architecture |
How We Work
We don’t start with templates. Every engagement begins with your specific game, genre, audience, and business targets. Our process is iterative, documented, and built to hand off cleanly to your development and product teams.
01 Discovery
We review your GDD, metrics, competitive benchmarks, and player personas to understand the full context.
02 Architecture
We map resource flows, define currency roles, and design the high-level economy structure before any numbers appear.
03 Modelling
Numeric models are built in spreadsheets: XP curves, price points, drop rates, session value, and lifetime projections.
04 Simulation
Virtual players run through the economy to expose exploits, dead zones, and pacing issues before any code is written.
05 Handoff
Full documentation, implementation notes, and a tuning guide are delivered so your team can adjust the economy post-launch.
Deep Dive
Every sustainable game economy rests on four pillars. Weakness in any one pillar causes the others to fail, which is why a piecemeal approach — fixing only the monetisation without addressing progression, for example — rarely solves the underlying problem.
Resources must feel limited enough to create desire but plentiful enough to enable meaningful play. Too scarce and players quit; too abundant and purchasing power disappears. We calibrate every resource tap and sink to maintain this tension throughout the player lifecycle — from day one through year two.
Free-to-play games serve three distinct player types simultaneously: free players who provide volume and social proof, occasional spenders whose LTV is unpredictable, and whales who drive disproportionate revenue. A good economy offers each group a satisfying path without making the others feel penalised for how they engage.
As veteran players accumulate resources, their spending power inflates. Without well-designed sinks — crafting costs, upgrade fees, timed content — currencies lose meaning and the store stops converting. We build inflation curves into the model from the start, not as an afterthought when ARPU starts declining.
Players tolerate inequality they consider earned. They reject inequality that feels purchased. Economy design must keep paid advantages in the cosmetic or convenience category — not the power category — unless the genre explicitly supports pay-to-win. Even then, there are ethical and legal thresholds that differ by market. We design economies that pass player scrutiny and platform review.
Players won’t write negative reviews about bad UI. They will write them about a paywall they hit on Day 14. Economy problems become store rating problems within weeks of launch.
Why Choose Us
Game economy design is a narrow specialisation. Most studios wing it with spreadsheets or copy a competitor’s model without understanding its assumptions. EJAW brings dedicated expertise across mobile, PC, and blockchain genres.
Common Questions
The earlier the better — ideally during pre-production, when the core loop is defined but implementation hasn’t started. Economy assumptions baked into early code are expensive to change. That said, we regularly work with titles in alpha and beta to course-correct before launch, and we support live games that need post-launch rebalancing. There is no stage where economy work is wasted.
Yes. We always start by reviewing whatever exists — GDDs, spreadsheets, analytics dashboards, or even informal notes — before proposing any changes. We extend existing systems where they’re sound and redesign where they’re not. Our goal is to work with your team’s output, not replace it unnecessarily.
Absolutely. Premium games, subscription games, and games with DLC models all have internal economies — crafting systems, loot tables, progression balance — even without explicit monetisation. A poorly balanced premium game loses reviews and word-of-mouth, which is equally damaging to long-term revenue. We apply economy design principles regardless of the business model.
We sign NDAs before any project materials are shared. Economy models, design documents, and analytics data you provide remain your intellectual property throughout and after the engagement. We do not use client data as benchmarks for other clients without explicit written permission.
Deliverables are scoped to each engagement. A full economy design project typically includes an economy design document (structured for developer handoff), a simulation spreadsheet with modifiable variables, a monetisation catalogue, and a tuning guide. Audit projects deliver a findings report with severity ratings and recommended changes. All documents are reviewed with your team in a live session before final handoff.