So, I was posting on the Runic Games forum about Torchlight II. I very much like the artwork and description of the Outlander as well as the artwork.
I suggested giving items a size, since I’m not a huge fan of the current way most games do inventory where a ring takes the same amount of inventory as a full plate chest piece. Some games implement weight systems as a means of making it more realistic. But I guess the screenshots I posted did not bring justice to the system and it immediately got swore off as “inventory tetris”.
I don’t blame them that is exactly what those two screenshots show off the most. Anyway more to the point I was bored and actually coded up this “Inventory Tetris” it isn’t an actual game it’s just an inventory system but I thought I’d post about it anyway. Note that later in that article there was a very good screenshot posted with D3′s inventory which I very much like although I would probably try to tweak it a bit to add more different sized items while still attempting to ensure that you will never have to move items around to make another fit.
So here’s the screenshot of the one I coded it only allows for a 2×2 and 2×3 item. You simply click the picture to create a new item and drop it in the inventory dropping an item outside the inventory will delete it.
You can download it here: Inventory Tetris.zip
In the end I think the problem with those two games were users were given small inventories with really big items, some of which didn’t make much sense (for example the money bag and the cube seem like they are much bigger than they needed to be). It’s a trade off though it’s less realistic to have a single person carrying 10 suits of armor around with him. I think the best compromise for this would be to have both a weight and size system but giving players adequate space. Items should also be sized in such a way that you never have to organize your inventory to make an item fit. This removes the inventory tetris mechanic. So a heavy suit of armor will still remain a heavy suit of armor but the weight system will make it’s size realistic. I know many people swear off realism in games but I actually like realism. A good example of something that recently bugged me was a game that had falling damage but it would never kill you. It’s like the devs couldn’t decided weather falling damage was a good or bad idea and they compromised with a not-so-great solution of having falling damage that is pointless. The big thing will falling damage in games is a lot of times people will walk up to a cliff and go eh… I’m not so sure if I can jump down this and walk away or find another way down. Of course this also requires that there is acceptable death penalties which is an entirely different problem which many games neglect note I’m not suggesting harshly punishing someone by tanking their experience so they have to grind for 10 hours to get it back. There are better ways to do things. I think I’ve actually got quite a bit off-topic with this article now so I’ll end it with that.