Game systems recipes

Every recipe follows the same contract:

1. State lives on the server in a service module; persistent parts go through the data layer (roblox-data-stores).
2. Clients send intents through validated, rate-limited remotes (roblox-security, roblox-networking) and render state they receive (attributes, snapshots/deltas).
3. Config is data: tunables in a shared/server config module (or live ConfigService configs).
4. Lifecycle-safe: handles late joiners, respawns, leaving mid-action, and server shutdown.

Currency service (the pattern every economy uses)

--!strict
-- ServerScriptService/Server/Services/CurrencyService.luau
local Players = game:GetService("Players")

type Balances = { [Player]: number }

local MAX_BALANCE = 1e12

local CurrencyService = {}
local balances: Balances = {}

local function publish(player: Player)
	player:SetAttribute("Coins", balances[player]) -- replicated to every client; UI listens
end

function CurrencyService.load(player: Player, saved: number?)
	balances[player] = math.clamp(saved or 0, 0, MAX_BALANCE)
	publish(player)
end

function CurrencyService.get(player: Player): number
	return balances[player] or 0
end

-- Positive amount only; returns the new balance.
function CurrencyService.add(player: Player, amount: number, _source: string): number?
	local balance = balances[player]
	if balance == nil or not math.isfinite(amount) or amount <= 0 then
		return nil
	end
	balances[player] = math.min(balance + math.floor(amount), MAX_BALANCE)
	publish(player)
	return balances[player]
end

-- Atomic check-and-spend; false if insufficient.
function CurrencyService.spend(player: Player, amount: number, _sink: string): boolean
	local balance = balances[player]
	if balance == nil or not math.isfinite(amount) or amount <= 0 or balance < amount then
		return false
	end
	balances[player] = balance - math.floor(amount)
	publish(player)
	return true
end

Players.PlayerRemoving:Connect(function(player)
	balances[player] = nil -- after the data layer has saved it
end)

return CurrencyService

• One module owns each resource; nothing else writes it. Log sources/sinks to analytics (roblox-analytics-liveops).
• The in-memory balance is saved by the data layer (ProfileStore profile.Data.coins) — or make the profile table the balance store directly.
• For display, clients read player:GetAttribute("Coins") and GetAttributeChangedSignal("Coins"). leaderstats (a Folder with IntValues under the player) shows values in the player list.

Design checklist for any new system

• Where does authoritative state live, and how is it persisted?
• What can the client request, and how is each request validated and rate-limited?
• What happens on join mid-session, respawn, leave, teleport, and server shutdown?
• How is it tuned (config) and measured (analytics)?
• How does it behave with 1 player, full servers, and high latency?
• Is it streaming-safe on the client?

Related skills

roblox-architecture, roblox-security, roblox-data-stores, roblox-networking, roblox-characters-animation, roblox-monetization, roblox-ui.