Dollars & Denarii Project
Roles: Project Lead Designer Economist
Dollars & Denarii has always been a dream project that I finally had the time and resources to complete. Working alongside a dedicated programmer, I was able to design an economy from the ground up incorporating my previous schooling. My focus was on designing, testing, and analyzing the simulator.
Instructions: Click 'Month' once and wait for scroll bar to change size. Once complete select 'Metal' too see outcome. Other time periods and goods are available. Full simulator avaliable for download at bottom.
Project Objective
The objective of the project was to concept, prototype, and deliver an economic simulator in 10 weeks. The simulator had to have real world value for game developers, economists, educators, etc. Additionally, it had to be approachable by its intended audience.
Outcome
Dollars & Denarii met and exceeded our expectations. Created using real economic theories, the simulator behaves as I would expect (within a margin of error). I purposefully created the economy with as much realism as possible, except that I removed all monetary/fiscal policy - there is no government involvement. As such, the simulator is as close to a Libertarian economy as I have ever seen. Eventually, the economy runs into problems that would result in complete societal collapse. This is not a failure of the simulator, but rather proof of the flaws in Libertarian economic theory.
Key Contribution
Thanks to the freedom to completely dedicate myself to design, I developed an idea derived from my economics background called Utility Per Gold. This is essentially a bang for buck calculation. The simulator calculates how much a person wants a good and divides that by the known price of the good. Next, for each person, the simulator ranks goods by each person’s UPG and attempts to purchase goods in this order.
As such, each person has their own numerical value for goods and their own known price. Information is imperfect just as in real economies. Different people have different prices and wants but they always act to maximize their own utility/ benefit. In economic theory this is homo economicus - meaning a rational person who always maximizes their utility (maximizing their personal benefit or happiness).
The economy is dynamic because there are no price minimums or price maximums for any individual or good. This is possible by using the UPG rank system. Additionally, this created a way to categorize purchasing success and failure. If a person could not buy something the reason why could now be determined and be relayed to the vendor who would then change their prices accordingly- even if no good was purchased.
To view the code and run the simulator locally the files are available for download in the attached zip file: