How coins work in games and gamified events
When you open the Game Economy Designer, you define a few key parameters.
Based on them, the system suggests a functional coin set for your event.
Everything starts with the type of event:
- Market
- Festival
- Game
🏰 Market
A market is typically a one-day event with vendors and visitors.
Historical coins are not essential — but they significantly enhance the experience.
And experience is what your visitors are really paying for.
How it works:
- Visitors exchange real money for coins at the entrance
- All payments inside the market are made using historical coins
- Vendors accept coins instead of modern currency
- At the end of the day, vendors exchange coins back
Organizers can set slightly different exchange rates and generate margin
Recommended coin structure:
- copper (~0.5 €)
- small silver (~1 €)
- large silver (~2 €)
- small gold (~5 €)
- large gold (~10 €)
Practical principle:
Estimate how much an average visitor spends.
The Designer calculates coin ratios and adds a reserve.
🍺 Festival
Festivals are program-driven events.
Economy is secondary — mainly food, drinks, merchandise.
But there is a key group: crew
How it works:
- Crew receives coins as allowance
- Coins are used for food and drinks
- Visitors can optionally use coins as well
- Coins return to the organizer
Benefits:
- faster transactions
- no need for change
- better spending control
🎲 Game
From small LARPs to large multi-day events.
Coins mostly are not real money — they are: a gameplay tool
Two approaches:
Immersive
- coins are mostly atmospheric
System-based
- coins drive gameplay
- trade and economy matter
The Designer adapts to both
🌍 Setting (theme)
Choose the world of your event.
The system converts generic values into specific coins:
- “small silver” → denarius
- “large gold” → ducat
📄 Output
- downloadable PDF
- shareable with your team
- includes QR code to return to the Designer
🛒 Ordering
Click “Order this set”
→ the full set is added to your cart
🏛 Custom coins
You can create coins unique to your event.
Many people think that they would like a coin for their event that would be unique and directly associated with them. For example, a ducat that would contain the name and date of your event in the ring, while still looking like a medieval currency.
We can make such coins for you if there are a large number of them – on the order of several thousand. Otherwise, they would cost you unnecessarily much money, because the molds for their production are expensive.
Minimum order: 3 thousand pieces
(reason: production molds)
Smart alternative:
One design, multiple finishes:
- patina copper
- silver
- gold
The good news may be that you can have one such coin (one shape design) in several color versions – from brownish copper to silver to gold, and you can build your gamified economy on a single coin in several color versions – and even a medium-sized event will get to the number of, say, 4 thousand pieces. However, this custom production takes a little longer and it is best to contact us in advance.