- 01Produce intermediates
- 02Convert under rules
- 03Replenish inputs
- 04Reinvest the surplus
Conversion and reinvestment
Output becomes growth only through sale, crafting or exchange back into production inputs; intermediate stocks and exchange conditions constrain the loop.
The player's decision
Convert all output toward upgrades or reserve enough inputs for the next cycle?
Original scenario
Original: paper flowers sell for coins used on paper or upgrades; overspending on upgrades stalls output, recoverable through a basic scrap action.
Start with this prototype
Build paper, products and coins with one fixed exchange chain; upgrades also cost coins. Include a zero-resource recovery action and a transaction ledger, without offline earnings or random prices.
Change one variable
Vary replenishment versus upgrade costs and observe accidental production stalls.
What to observe in a playtest
Enumerate small exchanges for ledger consistency, negative stock and zero-resource recovery.
Take the full design card
Includes rules, scope, tuning questions and sources for further planning. It does not create a project automatically.
Original analysis · version 1
Common pitfall
Rounding across exchanges can create free arbitrage or unexplained resource loss.
Observations and sources
Cases refer to public documentation. Developers and community wikis are credited separately; document review is not a claim of hands-on testing.
- Universal Paperclips
Original code separates wire purchases, clip production and sales; cash funds both inputs and producers.
- Kittens Game
Workshop documentation includes refining catnip into wood, a non-sale conversion feeding construction.
Brief for the studio
Opens the AI studio with the brief below in the input. You can edit it. Nothing starts automatically.
Build paper, products and coins with one fixed exchange chain; upgrades also cost coins. Include a zero-resource recovery action and a transaction ledger, without offline earnings or random prices.
Covers are original AI-generated style illustrations. Game names reference publicly visible design choices and remain the property of their owners. This atlas does not supply screenshots or assets from those games. Prompts and combinations are original drafts for new games.