Inventory System
Overview
Part of the Sister’s Shadow testing phase or second iteration was the enhancement of the inventory system. This major improvement over its predecessor introduced the exciting ability for players to hold various items, carry them around, and securely store them in designated containers scattered throughout the game world. This advancement not only increases flexibility but also greatly enriches the overall gameplay experience which the original prototype lacked. However, it lacked the punch that we wanted to deliver. In it’s final form it now features items of variable size and a system in which individual inventories serve real purpose besides enlarging your inventory grid. This would finish off our Inventory system and become our universal tool for all items and inventory containers in world.
Contributed Breakdowns
Iteration 1
The initial version of the inventory system was based on scriptable objects, which managed item stats, quantities, icons, and more. This created a flexible foundation for the final version. However, a key limitation was the inability to store changing data, like the number of bullets left, in the scriptable objects as it varied throughout the scene.
Iteration 2
In this update, we separated the inventory from its original use. Instead of using scriptable objects for temporary data, we implemented an Inventory Token system to hold details like quantity, while the scriptable object keept the item settings. This method is cleaner, allows for multiple item instances in the scene, and is easy to expand for new item types. With this the foundation was built for our expandable inventory system.