Economy · all games
Soft currency
The common currency players earn by playing, spent on everyday upgrades, retries and boosters.
Also called: coins, gold, free currency, cash
Soft currency is the money a game hands out freely: coins for finishing a level, gold for completing a task. It is earned at a steady rate and spent often, so it is the main way a game paces how fast players get stronger.
Designers balance it with sources (where it comes from) and sinks (where it goes). If sources outgrow sinks, players pile up coins with nothing worth buying and rewards stop feeling like rewards. If sinks outgrow sources, progress stalls.
Most games with a soft currency also have a hard currency that is scarcer and often bought with real money. Many games let players convert hard currency into soft, which ties the free economy to the paid one.
In mobile games
In mobile games soft currency is usually shown at the top of the main screens, next to the hard currency, and appears in level rewards, upgrade costs and shop packs. Many shops sell soft currency in bundles for hard currency or real money.
What to watch for
- Inflation: rewards that grow faster than costs make every later reward feel smaller.
- Too many soft currencies. Each new one has to be learned, displayed and balanced.
