Week 8 Session: The death-currency workshop

Designing a corpse-run-style currency mechanic and calculating how much risk it actually asks a player to carry

19 April 2027

Before the session#

If you’ve played a game with a death-currency mechanic (Elden Ring’s runes, Hollow Knight’s geo, roguelike gold-drop-on-death systems), bring one specific moment where the loss actually landed versus one where it didn’t.

In the session#

Design your own death-currency mechanic: what currency, what’s lost on death, what has to happen for the loss to become permanent, and exactly how a player recovers it. Then calculate the risk leverage in concrete terms — what percentage of a player’s current wealth is on the line at a typical death, and how that scales as the number grows across a playthrough. A mechanic where the leverage never meaningfully changes isn’t tuned, it’s decorative.

Afterwards#

Compare your leverage calculation with a partner’s. If neither of you can point to the moment the risk actually changes a decision mid-level, the mechanic hasn’t earned the “economy” name yet.