Resource management

Resource management is a game mechanic in which players acquire, allocate, and spend limited resources. Its defining tension is choosing how present needs compete with future plans.

Opportunity cost: The value of the best alternative forgone when a choice is made. Spending a resource on one action rules out other uses for it.
Action point: A unit of turn capacity that a player spends to perform actions in a game. Action points limit how much a player can do before the turn ends.
Real-time strategy: A strategy-game genre in which players issue commands continuously rather than taking turns. Players gather and spend resources while reacting to opponents in real time.
Randomness in games: The use of unpredictable outcomes to affect events or results in a game. Randomness adds uncertainty, while resource management emphasizes choices under known constraints.
Action point allowance system: A game system that gives players a limited number of action points to spend on turns. Action points make the player's turn itself a resource to allocate.
Currency (game mechanics): A game resource used to pay costs, purchase items, or exchange for other benefits. Currency makes prices and trade-offs explicit in many resource systems.
City-building game: A game genre focused on designing and managing a growing settlement or city. Construction, services, and growth compete for budgets and supplies.
Reflex-based gameplay: Gameplay that primarily tests rapid perception and physical responses. Reflex challenges reward speed, whereas resource choices reward planning and prioritization.
Worker placement: A board-game mechanism in which players assign limited workers to spaces that grant actions or benefits. Workers are a constrained resource whose placement determines which actions remain available.
Health point: A numerical measure of a character's remaining ability to withstand damage. Health can be managed as a limited reserve that players protect or deliberately spend.

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