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In progress

Kin (Life Simulation Game)

A life simulation built around a coherent economy: resources, prices, jobs and flows, and systems that react to player choices over long playthroughs.

Game design Economy systems Simulation WIP

At a glance

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Role

I’m designing the core game loops and economy systems, focusing on making the simulation explainable, balanced, and expandable over long playthroughs.

Stack: Game design ยท simulation systems (implementation details evolving)

Scope of work

This project is about building the underlying simulation first (not just UI): how resources and money move, what happens when one variable changes, and how systems interact so the world feels coherent.

  • Economic loops: income, spending, production/consumption, and simplified supply/demand equivalents.
  • State consistency: data structures that support long runs without broken or contradictory state.
  • Player clarity: pacing and feedback so cause-and-effect is visible and learnable.

How it works

  • Entities: actors (people/households), businesses, and resources with rules for creation and consumption.
  • Flows: money and goods move through jobs, purchases, production, and upkeep.
  • Constraints: budgets, scarcity, and time-based updates create trade-offs.
  • Feedback: the game exposes key signals so players understand why outcomes happen.

Figures

In-game UI (Flutter) across life, kin, town, and work flows, then a single diagram for how economy entities connect.

Kin game screen: character profile, stats, year, and chronicles event log
Life view: character, resources, current year, and chronicles (events, health, family).
Kin game screen: town map with locations and bottom navigation
Town map: illustrated locations (market, chapel, tavern, etc.) and core navigation (Life, Kin, Town, Realm).
Kin Kin tab: family tree style list with parents, spouse, children, and siblings
Kin: Holdings / Kin / Dynasty tabs and household list (parents, spouse, heirs, siblings) with relationship bars.
Kin town location: tavern pop-up The Drunken Goat with people present on the map
Town location UI: venue panel (The Drunken Goat) with People tab and NPCs present over the illustrated map.
Kin Duty tab: job tiers from entry labor to guild leadership with requirements
Duty: Town / Duty / Estate tabs and tiered work list (pay, class, skill gates) tied to the simulation economy.
Diagram: Work and Duty, Households, Town and Market, and Time and chronicle with labeled flows
Economy layer: work/duty (wages), households (Kin and budgets), town/market (venues and spend), and the yearly chronicle tying outcomes together.

Results

  • Systems-first foundation: a clear direction for building the economy and simulation before content.
  • Coherent loops: a framework for resource/money flows that can be extended over time.
  • Iteration-ready: designed to test balance changes quickly and observe second-order effects.

Future features

  • More depth: additional industries, jobs, and resource chains.
  • Policy/events: shocks (taxes, weather, migration, demand spikes) to test resilience.
  • Better tooling: debug views/graphs for economy health and player decision impact.
  • Story from play: a narrative recap or yearly story summary that turns player choices and outcomes into readable beats alongside the raw chronicle.
  • Improved UI design: tighter visual hierarchy, polish, and consistency across Life, Kin, Town, and Duty.