Resources

We've all played the game where a building costs 8 Wood and 4 Stone to build.

The classic computer game Starcraft has two costs — minerals and vespene gas.

Why?

You need to ask what your game is about. Where is the complexity? Is it about managing resources, or is it about something else? You can choose any point along this spectrum.

In the Wood and Stone example, wood and stone are fundamentally both just different building resources. This would be fine, if the game was about building buildings.

Games not about resources

If the game is not about the resources, there should be only one resource, and everything should be paid for with it. All the resource is doing is putting a limit on what you can do.

This game is about how the thing you've paid for fits into the bigger picture. It is not about the challenge of managing to play the thing at all.

In Radlands, you can do as many things as you like in a turn, but everything costs water. You get three water per turn. As everything is paid for with the same resource, choice is maximised, and you can easily do what you want.

Games significantly about resources

Some games are significantly about managing resources. In that case, how many resources should there be? Managing one resource is not interesting enough.

Each resource should have its own fundamental identity, tied to its own subsystem or important game concept.

No resource should be equivalent or similar to another resource.

"Block" is a common score I see in combat games. It reduces damage. It's very much equivalent to the health score.

In my gangster game, Health keeps you alive. Money/information lets you go to new places. Gang members make you do more damage. Rep wins the game if you have 10.

My farm game is a big game heavily about managing resources. There are many of them. Each resource has two sources, and at least two uses. This makes each resource interesting and flexible, while still making the game about getting the right resources.

Do not have a "lucky dip" resource, that's really just a complicated way of getting the other resources. The resource that moves you along a "track of random bonuses" is a common example.

Wingspan is a great game, but it has its flaws. Some bird cards will let you tuck cards underneath them. Others let you put food tokens on them. However, tucked cards and food tokens are all simply worth one point. These two systems are usually identical. I would've made the placed food tokens usable by lots of other birds, or given them some rule difference. Or, I would've just abolished the tucking of cards, and just used tokens some more.

Games fundamentally about resources

Some games are, at their core, about managing and converting resources, and getting the right ones. In these games, you can have more resources than you need, and they do not need an identity.

Catan has five resources, and they're not that distinct. Also, each thing you spend resources on has a complex and varied resource cost.

In Spice Road, there are four spice resources. You convert them into each other, and gain in the process. Then, you spend the right combination of resources to buy victory cards. That's the whole game.

What should your resources be?

Choose the simplest, most obvious resources. Do not get creative.

This helps your game objects tie logically into those resources.

In my castaway game, you could use stone to make an axe, which would help you get more wood. It made sense.

Choose things like health and money.

If your game is set in the past, you probably want wood. You may also want things like stone, gold, and food (or equivalent).

Do not worry about realism. Just let the player dig up iron, even though they'd technically be digging up "ore".

The resource in Radlands is water. It pays for everything. This has no thematic explanation, other than water being scarce in Mad Max. It works.

Try to choose resources with multiple functions.

In my farm game, I could've had swords. Instead, I chose axes, as axes are both a weapon, and useful for cutting down trees. When I later decided that axes were no longer required for cutting down trees, I made that resource into a spear. Now, you can still fight with it, but you can also use it to catch fish.

I added salt as a resource. You dig it up, and can use it in cooking. However, you can also use it to make a salt lick, for your animals.

Resource names

Don't try to theme cubes, where they have no strong function tied to their colour. Just have them be "green gem, yellow gem, red gem" or "blue goods, grey goods" etc. People will call them that anyway.

In Spice Road, there are four types of coloured cubes. I'm not calling the yellow one "turmeric" and the green one "cardamom".