Inventory
Learning paths through this topic
Let players combine two items in either order and keep the tools
Players drag the rope onto the hook, or the hook onto the rope, and expect the same thing to happen. Here is how to make both directions work, which parts should be used up and which should stay, and what to do when someone combines an item with itself.
Make a cursed ring that sticks until the player earns its release
A cursed item is a promise to the player that they will regret trusting it. It has to stay on through every normal way of taking it off, yet still be removable by the story, and it must not trap a save. This entry shows each way out and how to close the others.
Refund part of a building's cost without gaining or losing resources over time
Tearing down a hut that cost one plank and returning half of it gives either nothing every time or a whole plank every time, and a player who builds and demolishes in a loop either bleeds wood or prints it. This entry keeps the leftover so the totals stay honest.
Put goods into the nearest warehouse with room and spill into the next
With several warehouses, a cart of grain should go to the closest one that still has space, and what does not fit should carry on to the next, never be lost and never be split into pieces too small to matter. Taking goods out follows the same order of nearness.
Check that the player cannot lock themselves out by using up the only key
If one key opens two doors but vanishes in the first, a player who picks the wrong door is stuck without ever being told. This entry looks ahead through the remaining steps of your game and says whether the ending can still be reached from what the player holds now.
Drop an item on the nearest free floor tile, not into a wall or onto another item
A player who drops something in a corridor, a doorway or a crowded spot expects to find it again. If the game puts it inside a wall, behind a door or on top of another item, it is lost. This entry searches outwards over walkable floor and says when there is no room.
Drop items on the ground and spill the extra onto the tiles around
When a destroyed warehouse or a fallen unit drops goods onto a field that already holds a pile, the extra has to go somewhere, and always the same somewhere. This entry tops up piles of the same kind, avoids walls and other goods, and works outward ring by ring in a fixed order.
Make weapons wear down, break gently and cost something to repair
Durability that deletes a favorite sword is cruel, and durability that never matters is pointless. The numbers must be whole, the broken state must be recoverable, and repair needs a price that grows without punishing normal play. Here is a setup that works.
Play a flashback with its own inventory and come back to the real one
In a flashback the hero is younger and owns different things. The real bag must wait untouched, nothing from the memory should leak into the present by accident, and the few things that should carry over must do so on purpose. A save in the middle must not lose either bag.
Drain flashlight batteries so leftover charge is never wasted when one dies
In the dark, the moment the light dies is the moment that counts. If the game throws away the last seconds of a battery when it switches, or swaps to a fresh one while a half-used one sits unused, the player loses light for no reason. This entry gets the order and the carry-over right.
Let food go stale and rot by the calendar, even across a long sleep
Bread bought on Monday should not be as good on Saturday, whether the player slept once or the story skipped three days. Fresh and old bread must not melt into one pile, and eating should use the oldest first. This entry works from the day an item was gained.
Make food spoil by age and use the oldest first
If all the grain in the barn is one pile, either it all rots on the same day or none ever does. Real stores hold batches of different age. This entry keeps the age of each delivery, lets old batches go bad, and feeds the town from the oldest ones first so less is wasted.