Creating an Economy System

So like the title says, I am creating an in game economy system and only really have a minor knowledge of javascript. This system isn't going to be anything too complex, but I wanted to set myself this task to gain a better understanding of how they work and how I can implement them into my games projects.

With this system I want to do the following :

• Gain money when I press a button
• Open an interface that I can navigate with either a mouse or a controller
• Buy items and have them subtract from my money variable
• Be unable to buy items I cannot afford

I am going to be spending the next week or so researching how to do this, and then trying to do it for another week, as part of a university experiment to see which engine (unity or unreal) is better equipped for creating systems such as this, to aid in choosing an engine for a games project.

So this post is just me generally asking if there are any certain tutorials I should be looking at, or any good way of setting this up, for example I guess the player controller / character will have the money variable, and the shop will handle the items prices ect ect.

Thank you all in advance and sorry if this is a lengthy post!

 

In the most basic sense, you don't need any sort of system per se.

Code (CSharp):

1. float myCash = 10.5f;    // $10.50
2.  
3. // Do this on button click
4. void GivePlayerMoney(float amount) {
5.     myCash += amount;
6. }
7.  
8. // Do this when buying an item
9. void BuyItem(YourItemType item, float cost) {
10.     if (myCash >= cost) {
11.         myCash -= cost;
12.         GivePlayerItem(item);
13.     } else {
14.         DisplayMessageToUser("Sorry, you can't afford this");
15.     }
16. }

Obviously with things like GivePlayerItem, DisplayMessageToUser, and YourItemType being things you've defined elsewhere.

For the interface to handle all of this, I highly recommend looking into Unity's built-in UI system. That said, this is all pretty basic stuff, and any game engine would be equally capable of handling it.

 

Sorry for such a long reply! But this was really helpful! I guess I'll keep this post updated if I have any questions? Or would it be better to post on the Unity Answers forum instead now? Again thank you for your help!

 

Absolutely post back here! Unity Answers is more for direct answers to technical questions, while the forums are a place for discussion and evolving content.