modelling game economy with neo4j oscon

Modelling Game Economy with Neo4j

Yan Cui (@theburningmonk)

1MILLION USERS

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noSQL = MongoDB

stolefromloves loves

enemy

enemyA Good

Man Goes to War

appeared in

appeared in

appeared in

appeared in

Victory of the Daleks

appeared inappeared in

companion

companion

enemyappeared in

appeared in

planet prop

species

species

species

character

character

character

episode

episode

source : http://db-engines.com/en/ranking_categories

http://db-engines.com/en/ranking_categories

Graph DBs are great for modelling complex domains

Leonhard Eulerinvented Graph Theory in 1736

Leonhard Eulerinvented Graph Theory in 1736

(that’s 275 years before Edgar Codd formulated the relational model)

Find a walk through the city that would cross each bridge once and only once.

Eliminate features to leave just the land masses and the bridges.

Land masses became vertices, and bridges became edges.

location

500+ Spots

locationepisodic

Season 1 London

Season 2 Nan Jing

locationepisodicmulti-player

herebemonstersgame.com

iPad

buddies

locationepisodicmulti-playerRPG

4000 Items

800 Recipes

1500+ Quests

100+ Monsters

gamebalancing

itemPricing

I’ll just change this one thing…

manual game balancing is SLOW

it is REPETITIVE

ERROR-PRONE!SUBJECTIVE

there must be a better way...

Hello, Neo4j

BIG

FOO

Tca

tchi

ng

location baitattraction rate

catch rate

as a graph in Neo4j

Bigfoot

Alice Lake

exists_in

Alluring Goat

can_attract

Bigfoot Toenail Clippings

Musket-teer Trap

lootscan_catch

Omar Lake

exists_in

nodes & edges can have!arbitrary properties

Bigfoot

Alice Lake

exists_in

Alluring Goat

can_attract


Musket-teer Trap

lootscan_catch

Omar Lake

exists_in

Strength = 502!Speed = 201!Intelligence = 184

Strength = 420!Speed = 210!Technology = 240

Bigfoot

Alice Lake

exists_in

Alluring Goat

can_attract


Musket-teer Trap

lootscan_catch

Omar Lake

exists_in CatchRate = 0.774

Bigfoot

Alice Lake

exists_in

Alluring Goat

can_attract


Musket-teer Trap

lootscan_catch

Omar Lake

exists_in

Buy Price = 20BN!Sell Price = 482 Gold!Sellable = true!…

Bigfoot

Alice Lake

exists_in

Alluring Goat

can_attract


Musket-teer Trap

lootscan_catch

Omar Lake

exists_inDropRate = 0.1

BigfootAlice Lake

exists_in

Alluring Goat

can_attract


Musket-teer Trap

loots

can_catch

Omar Lakeexists_

in

Yowie

Yetican_catch

can_catch

Apprentice’s Workshop

can_

mak

e

GoatHoney

Yeti Fur

requires

loots

mak

es

Alluring Goat Recipe

requires requires

Beeswax

loots

Bee Hiveharvests

McDonald’s Farm

sells

loots

Goat’s Milk

harvests

London

exists_in

Peryton Fawn Decoy

requires

Peryton Fawn Decoy

makes

gamebalancing(revisited)

impact analysis

What if I increase the price of

“White Bread”?

CRAFTS

RECIPE ITEMITEM

IS_USED_IN

MATCH!

(wb:BaseItem { Name:"White Bread"})!

-[rel:CRAFTS | IS_USED_IN*1..]!

->(i:BaseItem)!

RETURN i, rel, wb

MATCH!



->(i:BaseItem)!

RETURN i, rel, wb

Node-[rel]->Node

CRAFTS

RECIPE ITEMITEM

IS_USED_IN

Node-[rel]->Node

MATCH!



->(i:BaseItem)!

RETURN i, rel, wb

RECIPE

White Bread

IS_USED_IN

ITEM

CRAFTS

MONSTERATTRACTS

RECIPE

IS_USED_IN

ITEM

CRAFTS

ITEMLOOTS

RECIPEIS_USED_IN

ITEMCRAFTS

IS_USED_IN

RECIPEIS_USED_IN

CRAFTS

MATCH!



->(i:BaseItem)!

RETURN i, rel, wb

RECIPE

White Bread

IS_USED_IN

ITEM

CRAFTS

MONSTERATTRACTS

RECIPE

IS_USED_IN

ITEM

CRAFTS

ITEMLOOTS

RECIPEIS_USED_IN

ITEMCRAFTS

IS_USED_IN

RECIPEIS_USED_IN

CRAFTS

scarcity analysis

How scarce is “Durian”

compared to “Dragonfruit”?

EXISTS_IN

FRUIT TREE SPOTFRUIT

FORAGES

MATCH! !

(fruit)<-[:FORAGES]-(tree)-[:EXISTS_IN]->(spot)!

WHERE! !

fruit.Name=‘Durian’ OR!

fruit.Name=‘Dragonfruit’!

RETURN fruit, tree, spot

MATCH! !


WHERE! !




Node<-[r1]-Node-[r2]->Node

EXISTS_IN

FRUIT TREE SPOTFRUIT

FORAGES

Node<-[r1]-Node-[r2]->Node

MATCH! !


WHERE! !




Durian

Dragonfruit

quest lines

AWARDS

QUEST ITEMITEM

REQUIRES

UNLOCKS

What quests come after “Year of the

Horse”?

MATCH!

(q1:Quest { Name: “Year of the Horse” })!

-[:UNLOCKS]!

->(q2:Quest) !

RETURN q1, q2

How do you model quest progression?

1. Price Items

2. Enrich Model

3. “Price” Quests

monster hierarchy

Catch me

No, catch ME

IS_USED_IN

CAN_ATTRACT

ITEMMONSTER

LOOTS

RECIPE

CRAFTSITEMMONSTER

MATCH! (monster1:Monster)-[:LOOTS]->(loot)! -[r:IS_USED_IN | CRAFTS*0..]->(bait)! -[:CAN_ATTRACT]->(monster2)!RETURN monster1, monster2

Monster 1Monster 2

Quest 1 Quest 2

Unlocks

Unlocks

Requires

Monster 1Monster 2

Quest 1 Quest 2

Unlocks

Unlocks

Requires

successful catch = loot + gold

∑(Bait Price * Attraction Rate)

Input = Output( ∑(Loot Price * Drop Rate) + Gold ) * Success Rate

IS_USED_IN

CAN_ATTRACT

ITEMMONSTER

LOOTS

RECIPE

CRAFTSITEMMONSTER

NEW monster !

= More competitor for bait!

= Lower attraction rate for all monsters

Graph DBs are great for modelling complex domains

impact analysis

fraud detection

social networks

recommendation engine

graphdatabases.com

http://graphdatabases.com

Thank you!

@theburningmonktheburningmonk.comgithub.com/theburningmonk

modelling game economy with neo4j oscon

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