Nighthawks - New Update

A new update for Nighthawks discusses the problem of economies in games among other topics.

The Twisting Root Of All Evil

Posted by Richard Cobbett (Collaborator)


All hail the blood god. Richard here once again, whatever it might say at the top there.

This month, amongst other things, I've been experimenting with a couple of ideas. There's enough of the game systems in now to get a feel for what works, and what worked better in my head. More to the point, there's enough to start asking a few questions about what's there because it 'has' to be there, and what actually suits the experience that we want to provide.

More than most, think of this developer diary as a 'Things Being Pondered' type look behind the scenes rather than an actual feature/design promise, because while the ideas work in my head, there's a chance they just won't work in practice and so I'll decide to go back. However, I think it's interesting to talk about this kind of thing as something living and being played with, rather than just pretending that every system emerges fully formed and perfect from the cosmic brain. So, just to be clear: this might not make it into the game. Right now though, I like the idea.

Specifically, I'm thinking of how money is handled.

Economics With The Truth

That might not seem like a big deal, but if you've played RPGs before, you'll know that the economy is pretty much the first thing to break. The usual arc is that in the first chapter, you're broke, then by about five hours in you've picked up enough crap to sell to vendors or done enough quests that you're basically the richest person in the universe and money ceases to have any real value. This is why many RPGs offer what's called 'money sinks', just to give you something to do with it - rebuilding a castle, say, or buying gold armour for your horse.

For a while, I've worried about this being basically the deal with Nighthawks as well. It actually follows that economic arc almost exactly - you start broke, you become (spoiler) successful as a nightclub owner. Realistically though, that means you only really have cause to care about your bank balance right at the start of the game. By the end of Act 2, it becomes a non-issue. Either that, or it starts to become super-noticeable that you're still struggling to buy a fancy knife at a point where you should be able to throw money around like Kiryu Kazuma in Yakuza 0. Or, conversely, you end up with the Grand Theft Auto 4 situation, where you're roleplaying as someone without money, despite mechanically having about $30,000 in your pocket.

So, I started Pondering. Idea 1, which I swiftly got rid of, was to borrow from Zelda, with the idea that your money is limited by the quality of your 'wallet'. This didn't taste right. It meant that, in-universe, someone would be giving you money and you'd be "Nope, I've already got a thousand bucks, I'll just put it into a shredder." Not particularly satisfying, and a poor experience.

Idea 2, which is the one I'm currently trying out, is to just get rid of money.

Just get rid of it. Entirely.

…well, almost.

[…]

Thanks Farflame!

More information.

In a way I think the idea of wealth levels described in this update is a very sensible thing. It does, however, replace micromanaging shopping, with unlocking upgrades by "leveling up." I personally think its an interesting idea, but those who like shopping as a "mini game" probably won't enjoy it.

Now that Bloodlines 2 was announced my interest for this game has dimmed.