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Rivac AI Labs
Game Development

Economy Designer

A live game's economy is a machine that has to stay balanced for months or years after launch, every currency needs a believable source and a real sink, and if either side drifts, players either hoard everything and stop spending or inflation makes your rewards meaningless within a season. We model sources, sinks, and price curves against your actual player data (or, pre-launch, against comparable-title benchmarks) and build the spreadsheets or in-game tools your live-ops team needs to catch drift before it becomes a churn problem. This is the service that answers questions like why whales stopped buying, why new players feel priced out, or why a currency added six months ago quietly broke everything downstream of it. We hand over a model you can keep running the numbers on, not a one-time recommendation.

This is a capability we deliver for you as a service, not a role we’re hiring for.

How We’d Approach This

A clear, staged plan, not a black box

These are the service-specific steps inside our six-step process.

  1. 1

    Audit every currency, source, and sink in the current economy (or the design doc, pre-launch) and map where the numbers don't add up.

  2. 2

    Model a fix or a new system in a spreadsheet and pilot it against a small player segment or a controlled test build.

  3. 3

    Review the pilot's actual spend, retention, and inflation data with your live-ops and monetization team before a full rollout.

  4. 4

    Ship the tuned economy with monitoring thresholds so drift gets caught automatically, not three patches later.

What You Get

Deliverables from this engagement

  • A full source-and-sink map of the current economy
  • A working economy model (spreadsheet or in-engine tool) your team can re-run
  • Pilot test results with real spend/retention numbers
  • Monitoring thresholds and alerts for future inflation drift

Six Ways We Could Architect This

Different engagement, different build, pick the shape that fits

There’s more than one way to deliver on this service. Browse a few of the ways we’d structure the work, depending on your speed, budget, and integration needs.

Read all 6 architectures as text

Lean Fast-Start Architecture

Economy Audit

  • Currency Source and Sink Map
  • Spreadsheet Baseline Model
  • Success Criteria Definition

Pilot Test

  • Small Segment Rollout
  • Controlled Test Build
  • Early Iteration Pass
  • Stakeholder Check-in

Review

  • Spend and Retention Data Pull
  • Live Ops Review Meeting
  • Feedback Incorporation Pass

Output

  • Tuned Economy Model
  • Monitoring Threshold List
  • Handoff and Next Steps

Cloud-Native / Managed Services Architecture

Managed Data Platform

  • Cloud Analytics Warehouse
  • Player Transaction Database
  • Managed BI Dashboard
  • Managed Backup and Recovery

Modeling Layer

  • Economy Simulation Service
  • Source and Sink Model Repo

Collaboration

  • Live Ops Review Portal
  • Monetization Team Workspace
  • Shared Knowledge Base

Delivery

  • Tuned Economy Config Push
  • Alert Threshold Service
  • Executive Reporting Dashboard
  • Uptime and Reliability Monitoring

Event-Driven & Automation-First Architecture

Triggers

  • Currency Sink Below Threshold
  • Inflation Spike Alert
  • New Item Shipped Event

Automation Layer

  • Telemetry Ingestion Queue
  • Auto Inflation Calculation Job
  • Drift Detection Engine

Routing

  • Live Ops Task Queue
  • Escalation Alert to Economy Designer
  • Routing Rule Configuration

Feedback Loop

  • Auto Rebalance Suggestion
  • Live Config Hot Patch
  • Post Patch Monitoring
  • Continuous Improvement Log

Enterprise-Grade & Compliance-Ready Architecture

Economy Governance

  • Pricing Change Control Board
  • Regional Pricing Compliance Check
  • Policy Definition Owner

Controlled Process

  • Gambling Regulation Review
  • Loot Box Disclosure Check
  • Regression Economy Test Suite

Audit Layer

  • Pricing Change Log
  • Spend Data Retention Policy
  • Access Controlled Model Repo

Release Governance

  • Legal Sign-off
  • Platform Store Compliance Review
  • Immutable Economy Record
  • Post Release Verification

AI-Augmented, Human-in-the-Loop Architecture

Data Ingestion

  • Live Transaction Stream
  • Player Segment Data
  • Historical Data Backfill

AI Processing Layer

  • AI Inflation Forecast Model
  • Anomaly Detection Engine
  • Auto Generated Rebalance Plan
  • Confidence Score Calibration

Human Review Gate

  • Economy Designer Review
  • Live Ops Lead Approval

Shipped Changes

  • Approved Config Patch
  • Live Economy Update
  • Post Launch Monitoring
  • Post Approval Audit Log

Integration-Heavy / Ecosystem-Connected Architecture

Studio Ecosystem

  • Game Client Economy Config
  • Payment Processor
  • CRM and Player Support Tool
  • Client Support Ticketing System

Integration Layer

  • API Connector Hub
  • Two Way Sync Service
  • Webhook Connector
  • Error Handling and Retry Logic

Economy Platform

  • Source and Sink Engine
  • Central Data Model

Output Channels

  • Live Ops Dashboard Push
  • Marketing Segment Export
  • Finance Reporting Feed

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Ready to get started?

Tell us what you’re trying to get done and we’ll help you find the highest-leverage place to start, scoped small enough to prove itself before you commit to anything bigger.

Talk to us about Economy Designer

Most engagements like this start as a $500–$2,500 pilot, see full pricing.

Questions? Book a free call