Menus, Inventories and Items

Phew! Been working on a few things. Having chosen a general scene structure and a graphical style, I started laying the foundations for Kadath. At the present time, I’m working a bit on menus and I started looking at other games.

Menus

I will mainly talk (write?) about the menus used during world exploration (i.e. local and/or world scenes). Apart from these, we can find other menus such as the main menu and the battle menu. The former is usually quite simple, and the latter is better analyzed when talking about battle systems.

In-game menus usually have a few submenus/categories. I will use similar words whenever possible instead of in-game terms, to simplify a bit:

• Final Fantasy VI has Equip, Item, Skills, Relic, Status, Config, Save.

• Chrono Trigger has Equip, Item, Skills, Party, Config, Save.

• Golden Sun has two menus. The first has Save, Pause, Config; the second has Psynergy, Djinn, Item, Status.

• Pokémon games have some variation, but they usually have Pokédex, Party, Item, Status, Save, Config.

• Radiant Historia has Item, Skill, Stats, Equip, Party.

We can see some of these menu options are present throughout most of all of these games, so it’s relevant to talk a bit about them.

Equip

Many RPG games offer a degree of customization by letting the player choose their characters’ weapons, armor and other equippable items. This system is usually also used in connection with economy systems (letting the player sell and/or buy better equipment as they progress through the game) and quest rewards (e.g. optional side stories that reward the player with unique or special equipment).

This submenu lets the player choose the equipment that is actually assigned to each party member. It should clearly display the differences between each piece of equipment: for example, showing what stats are increased or decreased if a different armor piece is equipped. Additional effects beyond the strictly numerical should be mentioned in this screen, too.

Some games have specific equipment split into a different submenu, especially if it’s related to a distinctive game mechanic. Final Fantasy VI has the Relic submenu, which is essentially special equipment that can drastically alter a character’s behavior in battle; Golden Sun has the Djinn submenu, where magical creatures can be assigned to party members in order to drastically change their abilities and stats. Similar to these is Final Fantasy VII’s Materia submenu, where special items callled Materia can be assigned to characters to customize their skillset.

The Pokémon games are a special case: the equipment system is greatly simplified. Each Pokémon can only equip one item, so the Equip submenu is absent, and equipping items is done through either the Party or Item submenu

Item

Similar to the equipment system, most games allow the player to keep an inventory with them at all times. This submenu usually allows the player to check the items they currently have, dispose of those they don’t want, reorder them and check their in-game description. Some of these items can be used on the spot, and this submenu should offer that option.

Party and Status

These submenus are mostly about displaying information. Some games put the stuff in this section in the “Party” submenu, while others put it in the “Status” one. Some dispose of one of these, showing some data in the main menu screen.

Nevertheless, this includes:

• Checking the party’s status such as health, status afflictions, remaining energy and statistics such as attack, defense, etc.

• Changing the party’s order, if it’s relevant.

• Minor statistics such as total play time, in-game money and story progression.

As said before, some games put some of these stuff elsewhere. Final Fantasy VI has the main menu screen handle general stats and party reordering, while the Status screen shows detailed stats. Chrono Trigger shows party stats in the Equip submenu, and the Party submenu only handles party reordering. Pokémon games have the first two items in the Party submenu, and the last in the Status submenu. All in all, it depends on the amount of information that has to be shown to the player.

Skill

Some games allow party members to use skills outside of battle. Some games allow healing techniques to be used in this fashion, offering an alternative to consumable items for restoring the party’s health (Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun, Radiant Historia…). Other skills might affect the environment, such as removing obstacles, solving puzzles and help with movement (Golden Sun, Pokémon). This submenu allows the player to use these skills.

If the game has progression or learning system for skills (Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger…), this submenu also lets the player check their progress, what skills can be learned and such. Information about these skills is also displayed.

Save

Simple enough, this allows the player to save their progress. Some games allow the player to save at any time outside of battle (Pokémon). Others allow saving only at specific save points (Radiant Historia): this submenu would be disabled at other times. Some take a mixed approach, letting the player save anytime while in the World Scene, but only at specific points while in the Local Scene (Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger).

Config

User preferences. Settings such as text speed, font size, UI styling and input mapping should be available to edit here. Additional settings usually include some related to game mechanics, such as limiting battle animations or altering some of the battle system’s aspect.

Inventories and Items

Some of the previous submenus are related to items the player can obtain throughout the game. Some games don’t really limit the player’s inventory. Others limit the player’s inventory by establishing a maximum amount of different items that can be carried at a time and/or limiting the maximum “stacking” of identical items in the player inventory. Some games have more elaborate limitations, such as assigning a weight value to each existing item, and limiting the maximum weight that can be carried; other games might use grids to simulate something closer to a backpack’s limitations. At the moment, I’m not really considering limiting the player’s inventory, though.

Instead of trying to organize items in separate classes, I think it’s better to think of them as having mixins, i.e. having a combination of capabilities. These are some interesting ones:

Equipable

Items that are equipable can be assigned to characters to activate their effect. This usually brings limitations into play: a character, for example, can only equip one armor set at a time, even if the player has dozens of them in their inventory; additionally, equipment cannot usually be swapped once in battle. However, their effect is usually automatic once equipped. Some equipables have out-of-battle effects, such as faster movement or reduced random ecounters.

Usable in-battle

Items that can be directly activated while in battle. For example, items that temporarily raise the party’s defenses, or items that heal status ailments.

Usable out-of-battle

Items that can be directly activated outside of battle. For example, items that fully restore the party but can only be used at save points, and items that let the player escape a dungeon without having to manually backtrack.

Consumable

Items that disappear from the inventory after directly activating its effects: for example, healing potions.

Stackable

The player can have multiple copies of the item. Usually plot-important items, whose only relevance is where they’re on the player’s inventory or not, can’t be stacked.

Sellable

The item can be exchanged for in-game currency. Plot-important items usually can’t be sold. Sometimes one-of-a-kind equipment can’t be sold either, to prevent player frustration. Some items have this characteristic as their only selling (hehe) point.

The idea that these are characteristics that can be combined is applied in many games:

• Some items that can be used outside of battle might not necessarily be consumed, such as maps, tools involved in solving puzzles and items used for fast travel.

• Some items can be used both in and outside of battle (e.g. healing potions).

• Most consumables are also stackable, in order to allow using multiple copies of the item in a short period of time. Most are also sellable.

• Final Fantasy VI has items that can be both equipped and used in-battle: there are Rods that, when used during battle, unleash a strong spell. They are also consumable, as this usage consumes the item. They can also be equipped as weapons, in which case they have the usual weapon behavior and are not consumed. However, Rods that are currently equipped cannot be directly used.

In my implementation, this will probably involve duck typing, as Godot seems to encourage it.