RZ2 Inventory Update 02
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’d like to update you on the progress that’s been made on Robozarro 2’s RPG inventory system.
In the last blog I stated that the “research phase” of the inventory system had been completed. Through that phase, I’d learned to harness Scriptable Objects in Unity, and I’d decided to build my own inventory system from the ground-up, as opposed to using a system I’d begun building while following along with a tutorial series on YouTube.
Well the time has come to show off this past week’s work! To see the current inventory system in action, check out the video below, and if you feel inclined, keep reading for an in-depth explanation about my design process, and how I plan to evolve/update the current state of the inventory system throughout the game’s development.
Well there you have it. ^^ The new inventory system in all it’s functioning glory.
For whatever reason, I really gravitate towards this idea of sectioned-off, screen-like, menu interfaces. I just really love the idea of creating screens/interfaces for the player to interact with through the game itself. Clicking around, moving items, getting descriptions and lore details, seeing stats increase and decrease— I love doing that kind of stuff in RPG’s. My sources of inspiration include the inventories and menus found in games like Diablo, Resident Evil 4 (and 8), and Dark Souls. With this inventory setup, I want players to quickly and easily be able to understand what they’re looking at, once they learn a few key concepts.
Key Concepts
An item’s functionality in the game is defined by its Item Type.
Each item has an Item Element.
Each item has an Item Rarity.
Let’s get the simplest concept out of the way— Item Rarity. As of right now, items can be Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. Really original, right? I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not reinventing the wheel on this one. How does the player determine Item Rarity? Simple: items are color-coded. The color-coding of an item can be seen in the item image’s background color, and also a separate color-coded icon found on the right side of the Item Info panel, in the center of the screen.
Moving on, we have Item Types. Here we have five categories:
Attack Chips
Consumable Items (aka Battle Items)
Equipment Items
Quest/Key Items
Sellable Items
Each item has a corresponding Yellow Item Type symbol attached to it, which can be found on the upper-left side of the item slot, and/or on the top-right portion of the Item Info panel. Each Item Type has a different symbol, so it’s easy to know what type of item you’re looking at (once you learn what the symbols mean), without having to read the Item Description in the Item Info area. NOTE: All items except Quest/Key items are sellable, but not all Sellable Items can be equipped. More on this below…
When it comes to the Equipment Screen (which is on the left side of the game screen) each Equipment Category (Attack Chips, Battle Items, Equipment) is punctuated with an Item Type Icon. Therefore, if you want to add an Inventory Item to your Equipment Slots, all you have to do is match the Item Type Icon. The system is full-proof, in that Attack Chip items can only be slotted into the Attack Chip Equipment Slots, Consumables (aka Battle Items) can only be slotted into the Battle Item Equipment Slots, and Equipment Inventory Items can only be slotted into the Equipment Section of the Equipment Screen. I suppose that sounds like a lot to remember, but I think that in practice it’s really straight forward.
Rubber Boots
In the Item Info panel, players can see the stat changes each item is providing to 0-R4, as well as item description, type, element, rarity, and value.
Ok, last but not least— Item Elements. Neutral, Fire, Ice, Electricity, and Alien properties govern the player, items, enemies and environment in Robozarro 2. As seen in the video above, when the player equips the Rubber Boots, their Electric Resistance goes up by 20. This means that if the player were to get attacked by an Electric Attack in combat, they’d take less damage from it. Likewise, if the player runs into an electric environmental hazard on the exploration screen, they’d take less damage from that hazard as well. But equipping elemental gear doesn’t just provide resistances, it can provide attack bonuses as well. For example, in the video above the player equips a Blaze Chip, which, when used in combat, will do 10 Fire Damage to an enemy (not counting enemy resistances). However, if the player had a piece of Fire Elemental Equipment slotted (let’s call it Fire Gloves) and the Fire Gloves provided a Fire Attack Bonus (let’s say +5 Fire Attack), then the Blaze Chip’s Fire Attack would actually do 15 Base Damage to an opponent. Makes sense, right? NOTE: the Element symbol can be found on the bottom-left of each Inventory Slot, and also on the right side of the Item Info screen.
Like I mentioned above, I’m not exactly reinventing the wheel with some of this stuff, but I am excited about it nonetheless. I’m excited to provide players with an Inventory/Equipment system that allows them to customize their playstyle, hunt for loot, be rewarded for combat and exploration, and through Item Descriptions, provide a deeper dive into the game’s lore and humor.
Next Steps
Now that items can be looted and the inventory system is fully functional, future work on the inventory system will include QOL (quality of life) and UX (user experience) improvements. Here’s a list of improvements that I aim to implement over the course of RZ2’s development:
On-Screen Button Prompts (communicating to the player what buttons do, while they’re interacting with the inventory system).
Inventory Filtering (allowing the player to highlight different items by Type, Element, Rarity, etc.).
Inventory Auto-Sorting (giving the player the ability to have the game automatically sort/organize their inventory items based on item Type, Element, Rarity, Value, etc.)
Menu Selector Auto Navigation. What I mean by this is— right now when the player selects a Battle Item in the Inventory, and they hop over the Equipment Screen to equip it, the cursor defaults to the Attack Chip slots, which the Battle Items can’t even be slotted into. Therefore, I still need to make it so that when hopping back and forth between the Inventory and Equipment screens, the menu selector ends up in the correct section.
Pizzazz (evolving the general look of the Inventory design over time.) I like where the inventory is at, but this is a first pass at it (second if you count the GMS2 version), and the design is likely to shift and change a bit over the course of the game’s development).
Transmission Complete
That’s gonna do it for this Robozarro 2 update. From here I’ll be re-tackling certain aspects of the game’s Combat System (to utilize Scriptable Objects), and then evolving the Inventory System so that player’s can buy and sell items from shops. As always, I hope to have another progress update for you in a week or two.
Thanks for stopping by!
Transmission Complete.
-Matt
