How to simulate a game

Short summary

Game economy simulation is essential pre-launch, but four approaches—spreadsheets, Machinations, custom-coded stacks, and live-integrated solutions—each compromise between cost and a persistent design-to-production gap. The post systematically examines each approach's strengths, weaknesses, and the structural problem that every tool except the fourth creates handoffs that lose meaning and erode trust between simulation and reality.

• •Four proven approaches to game economy simulation, each with different costs and ceilings
• •Spreadsheets, Machinations, and custom code all share a critical weakness: the gap between design and live systems
• •Every handoff between design tool and production code loses time, meaning, and trust

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.