Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 15.4
Arcanum: Of
Steamworks and
Magick Obscura
conversation
TRADE
Any buying or selling of items in the game takes place in a specialized trading
mode. Most games in this genre have towns or settlements with friendly NPCs—
blacksmiths, healers, and so on—who run businesses that offer to buy or sell goods
and services. The interface is similar to the conversation mode interface, with a
view of the shop, sometimes an image of the person the avatar bargains with, and
often a list or a set of images of all the available items. The player can choose to buy
an item or sell an item he already owns to get more money and can often bargain
with the shopkeeper. Items purchased go directly into the avatar's inventory.
INVENTORY
The inventory mode lets the player manage the objects that a given character is car-
rying around. Because CRPGs tend to include large numbers of objects, players
need a system for keeping track of them and trading them among characters.
It's not realistic to simulate the actual packing of items into a backpack, and in any
case, most games allow characters to carry more than would be credible if they
were real people. Instead, a typical solution is to divide the character's carrying
capacity into an array of boxes. Each box can carry one type of item. Large items
take up several adjacent boxes. If an item is small enough, a single box can store
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