This week I’ve worked on the inventory window, a very important thing in RPG type games.  It needs to be simple and easy to use, as well as clear to what does what.  Honestly this kind of stuff is pretty dull work, but it should be given a lot of attention.

I’m keeping the Enchanted Cave drag and drop onto equipment slots, but you will also be able to double-click an item in inventory or an equipped item to quickly equip or unequip.  In addition slots for hotkeys are planned that will run across the bottom of the screen, where a key press or a click will equip/swap out that item with the currently equipped, or use the item if it’s consumable.

Finding items in treasure chests also show the stat change for equipping and include an “equip now” button, so you don’t even have to open the inventory window to compare stats and equip your new item.

Ironically, a lot of work goes into an inventory screen to make it clear and easy to use, but the overall goal is for the player to be able to play the game itself as quickly and easily as possible with hotkeys and “equip now” buttons, spending very little time browsing his or her inventory – because fighting monsters and finding treasure is more fun than scrolling through inventory.