RZ2 Inventory Update 01

Incoming Transmission…

Welcome to the official Robozarro 2 dev blog— an inside look at the development of Robozarro 2, a PC and console game being developed in the Unity Game Engine!

Today I’m going to highlight progress being made on Robozarro 2’s inventory system, which the player is eventually going to use to store/equip items in the game.

The first phase of development on the inventory is complete! This was the “research” phase, which consisted of countless Google searches, YouTube videos, and some prototyping.

When I built RZ2’s inventory system in the Game Maker Studio 2 version of the game, I opted for a Fallout 3-inspired inventory system. This meant that visually, the player’s inventory was list-based, complete with item graphics and text descriptions. However, for the Unity build of RZ2, I wanted to change things up; I wanted to revamp the system to make it easier to manage on the development end, and easier to understand on the player’s end.

Early RZ2 Inventory Prototype

This is the old, Fallout 3-inspired PROTOTYPE inventory that was being developed in the GMS2 build of Robozarro 2. (Also note the game’s old 16-bit art style in the background.)

During this research phase I came across a YouTube video series by a content creator called Coding With Unity, and spent about a week following along with 8 parts of their series titled: Unity 3D - Scriptable Object Inventory System. This series walks viewers through the creation and management of an RPG inventory system in Unity, using Scriptable Objects. Through this series, I learned a completely new skillset and determined how RZ2’s inventory system is going to function.

All of that said, this this past Friday I decided to scrap 99% of the code from the tutorial, in favor of building my own system from the ground up, using what I’ve learned about Scriptable Objects as the foundation for my new system. Why throw away a week’s worth of functional code? The reason is simple: I need to understand every line of code going into the inventory system, in order to make sure that I can maintain and evolve it throughout the course of the game’s development, and unfortunately there are too many parts of the tutorial series that are above my current skill-level.

Now that the research phase of the inventory system is complete, I’ve begun building my vision for how the RZ2 inventory is going to function. I’m currently in the process of fusing the world of Scriptable Objects with everything I’m currently capable of pulling of in C#/Unity. Time to level up!

While I’m hoping to have some new RZ2 screenshots/videos to show off soon, this week I’m leaving you with Part 1 of the video tutorial series I used to learn about Scriptable Objects in Unity.

Thanks for stopping by!

Transmission Complete.

-Matt