Randomness - To give variety and diversity in
gameplay.
Input-Randomness / Pre-Luck Output-Randomness / Post
The Randomness that Happens before the The Randomness that happens after the
Player Action. Player Action.
Often Used To Create Variable Scenarios. To balance skill differences between
players, To give human error factor,
giving users some control over the odds.
E.g. Map generation in a few games etc. E.g. Dice roll etc.
Information Horizon - How much information is available to the player at a given point.
E.g. In chess, a player can predict his opponents all possible moves of 1 turn only after that
the horizon changes, as a new move is made.
Progression System
Vertical/Direct system : Where progression happens linearly towards a higher power level.
E.g. Player Upgrades attack skill from lvl.1 to lvl.2.
Horizontal/Independent System : Where the progression happens sideways or horizontally
but the level remains the same. The experience differs and gameplay options expands by
this.
E.g. Player Purchases Defensive skill of lvl.1, Now both the attack and defense skill are of
lvl.1 but gives different Experience.
Hybrid System : Use of both the Vertical and Horizontal System.
E.g. Any skill tree that offers both multiple options (Horizontal System) to choose from and
their individual progression (Vertical System).
Inventory System
Inventory, Where the in-game intractable items are stored and the system which is used to
store, manage, retrieve them is called Inventory System.
Why the need as the primal play (Dungeons and Dragons) didn’t have any rules or
restrictions. Players can carry an infinite amount of items or just create them whenever they
needed, anything in board game was possible and no restriction was there.
To avoid these a fixed amount of items should be carried by the player to make them
into making decisions.
Early inventory consisted of a Anti-Hammer Space (just because of the shape it resembled)
Three slots available to carry items and to add more previous ones have to be discarded.
Item 1 Item 2 Item 3
Pokemon Games were the first to feature A List based inventory, where every item was
saved in the format of a list in the order in which they were stored. Have issues as the player
has to remember the name of the item and search the whole list till the end to get the item
stored later.
Later Pokemon : Gold and Silver introduced Backpack based inventory where the
inventory system had sub-categories and the Alphabetical order was followed.
E.g. Item pouch, key pouch, Pokeballs pouch, TM/HM.
Resident Evil Games introduced a Grid Based Inventory System or Tetris grid where
every item fills up some grid and is stored according to that.
Tetris Grid refers to the inventory where the item shape fills up the slots while in a simpler
grid based inventory every item fills up one slot and gets stacked on it if multiple.
When the list based inventory also shows the visual image of the item it is called Image list.
An inventory mostly in FPS games where a list is displayed on the HUD system or UI in
realtime gameplay to avoid the time consumed in accessing the inventory in matches is
called Visual Horizontal List Inventory.
Elements of an inventory
Sub-Inventory - Where the inventory has sub-categories.
Free for all - Where the inventory doesn’t have sub-categories.
Constraints - How the Inventory is restricted
● Weight
● Bag Size
● Upgrades
● Purchases
Pool Capacity - How many items are available to the player to store.
1. Finite Pool - Fixed no. of items
2. Infinite Pool - Infinite no. of items.
Mutability - Can the Inventory be changed or modified by the player.
1. Immutable - The Inventory is Immutable No changes can be made.
2. Mutable - Changes can be made.
Documentation
Approval Production Marketing
GCD GDD Pitch-Deck
System Brief Gaming Bible, Consumer Flyers
Documentation Living Documentation
Language - Formal and Language - Technical And Language - Layman Terms.
Simple. Avoid Jargons. Detailed.
Ideal Length - 3 pages. Ideal Length - 12 - 25 Ideal Length - 5-10 Pages.
Pages.
