“It’ll be less confusing if you just use paper money as a game’s currency,” the people may claim. But, while paper money may be efficient in today’s societies, that doesn’t mean it isn’t boring as sin. You hear that, world governments? The people clamor for cooler currency!

Unfortunately, between that last paragraph and this one, I got detained by the world government. But, fortunately for you, I now have the next 83 years to write blog posts! And our next topic on the docket, in a cruel twist of fate, is money; specifically, Zedi.

But first, a quick disclaimer: if there’s one part of a game that’s incredibly volatile to change, it’s story. Big sweeping changes to words is a whole lot more time efficient than changing art or programming. As such, when you’re an eventual superfan and start a sentence with, “But you said in that bad blog post that…” I apologize in advance for wasting your time. And now, Zedi:

Zedi are shells that are the currency in the world of Zakumba: Astraia. They’re naturally occurring, washing up on Zakumbaland shores in relatively similar quantities every morning. These shells are then gathered and traded across the other regions.

Some concepts for the OFFICIAL ZEDI SYMBOL! Which one did we pick? Who knows?

The inspiration for Zedi came from multiple real-world currencies, but the primary one was Cowrie (or Cowry) Shells, which were used to trade in West African tribes and by many nearby countries. It seems like these shells were used because they were small, light-weight, and incredibly difficult to forge. And, in order to justify the player finding currency just about anywhere in the world by breaking objects and defeating enemies, this more natural inspiration was one we thought fit best.

There is also symbolic purposes to these shells, though, which we tried to incorporate into their uses in each of the regions around Zakumbaland. Each region uses Zedi for their own unique purposes.

Pygunjú, where Astraia resides, uses their shells primarily as crafting materials. They often serve a symbolic purpose, but can also be used in armor, weapons, and tools. One region grounds them up to eat, and another carves their histories into them. Each purpose fits each of the regions and their culture.

Unfortunately, shells don’t have monetary values grafted onto them, so Zedi’s value is based on their total weight, with that number being the cost listed on items. How much does Zedi weigh? An excellent question, but we’ll have to request that you refrain from asking it further.

Zedi is just one of many concepts we drafted, though: our original idea was to not have a currency at all. Instead, the player would use the materials they find to trade for other materials they needed. While that’s an interesting concept that would fit within the world and culture we created, I’m sure you really wouldn’t want to have to trade a creature hide, to get a power core, to get a vine, to get a house, to get a paper clip, all because you had to gall to want a single healing item.

So, basically, if this wasn’t a video game a player had to interact with, this monetary system would have been sweet. But I’m not bitter or anything.

Between the last paragraph and this one, months have passed. I have been freed by the world government, so long as I never speak about alternative currency ever again. Unfortunately, they only told me this after this blog got posted, so if you don’t hear from me again, you know who to blame.

Zedi, the Currency: A Shell of a Time