Inventories
The space containing game elements carried by diegetic characters.
There is often a need to support functionality for managing items in games where players control characters that can carry several of these. Inventories prove a solution to this by letting players examine, discard, upgrade, repair, and in other ways through a separate representation that the main game world.
Contents
Examples
Roleplaying Games grew out of Miniature Games by focusing on individual characters, including their equipment. This lead many such games, e.g. Dungeons and Dragons, GURPS, and Mutant, to have Inventories and rules for how much the players' characters could carry (although these were often ignored).
This was carried on both in text-based computer versions (e.g. Kingdoms and the Zork series), "character"-based ones (e.g. Nethack and Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress), and graphical ones (e.g. Maniac Mansion, Minecraft, the Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Dragon Age series). [[Dragon Age II] make use of a common Inventory between the player's character and his or her companions.
The storage areas available to players in FarmVille and Zombie Lane can be seen as Inventories also.
Using the pattern
Characters
Torchlight
Game Worlds
Free Gift Inventories
Resource Caps
Props
Transferable Items
Sockets have similarities with Inventories, and may in some cases be a feasible alternative to Inventories. Dragon Age II does a combination of Inventories and Sockets by having a common Inventory for the Player Character and the Companions but Sockets for the Game Items actually equipped by them.
Diegetic Aspects
Interface Aspects
Inventories are often instantiated as Secondary Interface Screens, e.g. in NetHack, the Fallout or Dragon Age series. Dragon Age II combines this with functionality for exchanging Transferable Items while Minecraft provides support for Crafting in its Inventory.
However, Character Sheets
Narrative Aspects
Consequences
Relations
Can Instantiate
with ...
Can Modulate
Can Be Instantiated By
Character Sheets, Secondary Interface Screens
Can Be Modulated By
Possible Closure Effects
Potentially Conflicting With
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
-