How Do I Add Value to my In-Game Currency?

[WayCoolPlayer (Way)]

Introduction

Hello! I am WayCoolPlayer and I have been developing a game for about 2.5 months, and I am currently trying to figure out how I should add value to my currency. For some context as to why I am having trouble, here is some information about my game:

The Game:

The game is a marble race game. Players will fall through a tube and attempt to avoid obstacles they encounter along the way, kind of like an infinite dropper type thing. The player furthest down the tube will lose points given at the start of the round. Once these points hit zero, they are teleported into the lobby and given their placement and awards (coins and experience points) The round continues until all players have zero points.

The Problem:

Currently, the coins system is only used to purchase cosmetic items in the cosmetics shop. (Trails, Textures, Marble Models and Player Titles.) That is all that you can buy with coins. The main reason this is bad is because I would like to offer VIP cosmetics in the cosmetics shop, but if players spent robux to get their cosmetics, there's no reason to earn and use coins, making the game pointless. Also, eventually, (after a minimum of around 11 hours of gameplay or somewhere around 1000 robux) a player will have earned enough coins to purchase all of the most expensive cosmetics, which again makes the game pointless, driving players away.

A Potential Solution(?)

Early on in development, I came up with the idea of some kind of power-ups which could be purchased with coins. Eventually I decided against this idea, mainly because I did not want to script it, but also because there's not much I can do for powerups. If I had 4 or 5 I could add then I'd consider it again, but currently there's 2 that would work: extra movement speed and a faster point decay rate. I would still have to put an upper limit on these, though, so I would still eventually run out of gameplay, it would just take longer.

Conclusion:

I need help thinking of ideas for a product for my earnable in-game currency (preferably able to be purchased infinitely) that benefits the player enough that they will want to keep playing to earn more coins. Any idea helps, thank you for reading!

[Kiesere]

Just going to throw some ideas out there.

Have you considered cosmetic loot boxes? The idea been that players will have to keep purchasing loot boxes until they eventually get that one cosmetic they really want. I think Jailbreak is an excellent example with the purchasable vaults and vehicle skins.

It really depends on what abilities and game-play mechanics you want because adding power-ups would be nice as they help the player feel as if they are making long term progress and also add more value to your currency. However could negatively affect the competitive aspect and make it unfair for other players. Not to mention speeding up level completion time. You’d probably have to adjust your levels and make them take longer to complete factoring in the power-up advantages.

Additionally on the cosmetic side of things, you could add stuff like particle effects and cool trail effects.

What about a system were players can spend their currency to select the next map to play on.

[WayCoolPlayer (Way)]

Thanks for your reply! Here are my thoughts on it:

@Kiesere

Have you considered cosmetic loot boxes? The idea been that players will have to keep purchasing loot boxes until they eventually get that one cosmetic they really want. I think Jailbreak is an excellent example with the purchasable vaults and vehicle skins.

I did not think of that. It is a good idea, but I think it’s too late for me to add something like that into the game, and it may be a bit problematic considering my target audience with this game is pretty young, and coins can be purchased with robux.

@Kiesere

You’d probably have to adjust your levels and make them take longer to complete factoring in the power-up advantages.

I mentioned in the original post that this is an infinite dropper, so this would not be a problem. The only real problem with the power-ups is that I have 2 ideas for them, which is 2-3 too few.

@Kiesere

Additionally on the cosmetic side of things, you could add stuff like particle effects and cool trail effects.

I have not added particle effects, though that is a good idea. I might add them in a post-release update or something as I’m pretty happy with the shop as-is. I have, however, made trails already. I have edited the original post to include what cosmetics I have made.

@Kiesere

What about a system were players can spend their currency to select the next map to play on.

This could be a good idea, I could make it so that you can purchase extra votes with coins (the first one being free of course.) This would even make one of the gamepasses I am adding even more valuable. I think I’ll try to add it!

Overall, these are some good ideas, and I’ll try to add the vote purchasing thing. I’ll mark your post as the solution if there are no better ideas. Thanks for sharing them!

[Kiesere]

@WayCoolPlayer

I mentioned in the original post that this is an infinite dropper, so this would not be a problem. The only real problem with the power-ups is that I have 2 ideas for them, which is 2-3 too few.

My bad I overlooked that detail.
Here are a few more power-up ideas:

• I assume you have some obstacles that when collided slow the player down? If for example you had a slime obstacle or temporary speed debuf that slowed the players fall rate, you could have a power-up of immunity.
• You could have an obstacle teleporter that essentially lets them skip various obstacles and teleports them below it.
• Maybe there could be some obstacles that allow only some marbles of specific size. Then you could add temporary marble shrink.
• Invisibility could be interesting to surprise other players as you overtake them.
• You could add something similar to Mario Kart which lets the player drop things that if the player above them hits, get slowed down. Maybe even ability to drop something to slow the player below them.

Another idea could be some sort of experience booster that can be bought with coins for a round.

All the best with your game!