“From the Devs”: How to Add Currency to Your Game, with AlvinBlox

You can find in-game currency in many popular games today- both on Roblox and games not on the Roblox platform. These currencies play a greater role than just allowing players to make purchases or trades in their game; they also give developers insight into how players spend and earn currency in their games.

Some developers may want to add in-game currency to their games, but not know how to add this feature to your game. Well, look no further! AlvinBlox has put together a tutorial to help you learn how to add DataStores and Currency Systems into your game, check it out:

For those who have already watched the monetization panel from RDC 2018 in San Francisco, you would have noticed that in-game currency was a common topic discussed by AlexNewtron and Berezaa, and how they use analytics to track player spending with these currencies.

AlexNewtron protected himself by picking a single in-game currency to help prevent money farming, and focuses on monitoring how many coins are put into the economy. Comparing the fluctuation of coins to the amount of time a user has spent in-game also helps AlexNewtron determine whether users are there to play the game and unlock items, or if they’re impatient and buy the items outright. Players having too many coins that they’re not spending is indicative of a lack of content.

Berezaa also has in-game currencies that he leverages to push players to buy items. In instances where players have too many crystals and aren’t buying items, Berezaa will release a limited edition item, followed quickly by a high-demand item. He speculates that the limited edition item purchase makes players more likely to spend for the high-demand item.

Jeff Maher, in charge of Data Analytics at Roblox, provided some insight into some of the potential behavior behind spending in-game, which led to a bigger conversation around making your game more social. Jeff advises to make people feel good about spending in game and unlocking loot. AlexNewtron talks about doing this in his game; he has a celebration emote programmed in for when players purchase or unlock loot and players around that player can see the emote. Other games do this map-wide, so that a notification is sent to all players. This provides a social incentive for players to spend and unlock.

Have you used Currency Systems in your game? How do you leverage these systems for player behavior insights? Tweet at us to tell us about it: @robloxdevrel

Thanks to AlvinBlox for putting together this tutorial! You can watch more tutorials by AlvinBlox on his Youtube page, follow him on Twitter for updates on his tutorials, or follow him on Roblox! You can also check out AlvinBlox’s website for all of his content.