Modelling Game Economy with Neo4j

In this talk I discussed our use of Neo4j to automate the balancing of the in-game economy for our MMORPG title "Here Be Monsters".

Transcript

1. Catching BIGFOOT Yan Cui @theburningmonk
2. WHO AM I?
4. 1M ILLION USERS ACTIVE DAILY
5. 250 MILLION DAY PER REQUEST
7. location
10. Starium
12. location episodic
15. ? 2014
16. location episodic multi-player
17. herebemonstersgame.com iPad buddies
18. herebemonstersgame.com iPad buddies
19. location episodic multi-player RPG
28. game balancing
29. item Pricing
30. item Pricing
31. item Pricing
32. item Pricing
34. Manual game balancing is SLOW
35. It is REPETITIVE
36. and worst of all...
37. It is ERROR-PRONE and SUBJECTIVE
38. there must be a better way...
39. Hello, Neo4j The rabbit hole sounds pretty good right about now!
40. BIGFOO catchin
41. location bait attraction rate catch rate
42. as a graph in Neo4j
43. Bigfoot Alice Lake Alluring Goat Bigfoot Toenail Clippings Musket-teer Trap Omar Lake
44. Bigfoot Alice Lake exists_in Alluring Goat Bigfoot Toenail Clippings Musket-teer Trap can_catch Omar Lake Yowie Yeti Apprentice’s Workshop Goat Honey Yeti Fur Alluring Goat Recipe Beeswax Bee Hive McDonald’s Farm loots Goat’s Milk London Peryton Fawn Decoy Recipe Peryton Fawn Decoy makes
45. Bigfoot Alice Lake exists_in Alluring Goat Bigfoot Toenail Clippings Musket-teer Trap can_catch Omar Lake Yowie Yeti Apprentice’s Workshop Goat Honey Yeti Fur Alluring Goat Recipe Beeswax Bee Hive McDonald’s Farm loots Goat’s Milk London Peryton Fawn Decoy Recipe Peryton Fawn Decoy makes
46. Bigfoot Alice Lake exists_in Alluring Goat Bigfoot Toenail Clippings Musket-teer Trap can_catch Omar Lake Yowie Yeti Apprentice’s Workshop Goat Honey Yeti Fur Alluring Goat Recipe Beeswax Bee Hive McDonald’s Farm loots Goat’s Milk London Peryton Fawn Decoy Recipe Peryton Fawn Decoy makes
47. Bigfoot Alice Lake exists_in Alluring Goat Bigfoot Toenail Clippings Musket-teer Trap can_catch Omar Lake Yowie Yeti Apprentice’s Workshop Goat Honey Yeti Fur Alluring Goat Recipe Beeswax Bee Hive McDonald’s Farm loots Goat’s Milk London Peryton Fawn Decoy Recipe Peryton Fawn Decoy makes
48. ~ 7000 nodes ~ 35000 edges avg 5 degrees of connectedness
51. game balancing (revisited)
52. IMPACT ANALYSIS
53. What’s the impact of upping the price of “White Bread”?
54. CRAFTS RECIPE ITEM ITEM IS_USED_IN
55. MATCH (wb:BaseMarketplaceItem { Name:"White Bread"}) -[rel:CRAFTS|IS_USED_IN*1..] ->(i:BaseMarketplaceItem) RETURN i, rel, wb
57. SCARCITY ANALYSIS
58. How scarce is “Durian” compared to “Dragonfruit”?
59. EXISTS_IN FRUIT TREE SPOT FRUIT FORAGES
60. MATCH (fruit)<-[:FORAGES]-(tree)-[:EXISTS_IN]->(spot) WHERE fruit.Name=„Durian‟ OR fruit.Name=„Dragonfruit‟ RETURN fruit, tree, spot
64. QUEST LINES
65. AWARDS QUEST ITEM ITEM REQUIRES QUEST UNLOCKS
66. What quests come after “Year of the Horse”?
67. MATCH (q1:Quest { Name: “Year of the Horse” }) -[:UNLOCKS]->(q2:Quest) RETURN q1, q2
70. How would you model quest progression?
71. 1. Price Items 2. Enrich Model 3. “Price” Quests
72. MONSTER HIERARCHY
73. Catch me first. No, catch ME first.
74. ITEM MONSTER CAN_ATTRACT ITEM MONSTER LOOTS RECIPE
75. MATCH (monster1:MonsterMarketplaceItem) -[:LOOTS]->(loot) -[r:IS_USED_IN|CRAFTS*0..]->(bait) -[:CAN_ATTRACT]->(monster2) RETURN monster1, monster2
78. LONDON 2.0 WE REWROTE THE ENTIRE SEASON 1 QUESTS TO MAKE THEM BETTER.
79. TWICE THE FUN
80. SEASON 1 SEASON 1 (POST-REWRITE) SEASON 2
81. STREAMLINED MORE
82. QUALITY > QUANTITY
83. TWICE THE AMOUNT SUPPORT TO
84. Neo4j to the rescue!
85. Thank you!
86. Here Be Monsters http://www.herebemonstersgame.com http://apps.facebook.com/herebemonsters Building a MMORPG http://bit.ly/1hjqoL8 http://slidesha.re/18MD4XY Google I/O 2013 – Here Be BigQuery http://bit.ly/1fHjbce
87. WE‟RE HIRING www.gamesyscorporate.com/careers