Following the progression map, the unlock matrix was created; this table was also printed and handed out around the office. It may look a bit confusing and hard to read, but that's because it wasn't just a reference point. It also served a much bigger purpose…
We've integrated the unlock matrix into our economy spreadsheets. Through multiple lookup and match formulas, we have ended up with a single sheet that directly amended and influenced game data for our entire economy. Making changes in the unlock matrix would result in corrected resource costs, building times, and unlock requirements being filled in automatically for all the other sheets such an approach makes it much easier to balance and refactor player progression (more ...
