"I'm sorry, but that object is visual only." How The Forged Kingdoms reinvents item interaction

[Legend]

Skyrim has a crazy object system. You can pick up cheese, plates, wine, etc.

Most objects however in this example room cannot be altered. They exist on screen only and cannot affect gameplay. The rug is static, the chairs are static, and even some of the smaller objects are static. Players quickly learn what they can and cannot click on.



The Witcher 3 works the same way. This scene is amazing looking but almost nothing in it can be picked up. Player need to rely on the minimap, button prompts, and intuition to know what is and isn't interactable.

In most games this isn't really a problem, but in The Forged Kingdoms it would stop players from utilizing environments in their own way. Say a player is stranded in a forest. Every single object matters and could be the difference between life and death. Craft simple stone tools by smashing rocks together, use dry grass to start a fire, etc. It's a powerful system that doesn't railroad players into predetermined gameplay.

This power however comes at a cost. A standard "press e to interact" doesn't work when there is always a few dozen things around the player that could be interacted with. That will be the subject of part 2!

[the-pi-guy]

This is a big thing that VR games are changing.

[Legend]

This is a big thing that VR games are changing.

Yup VR games have been great at pushing for more physics based objects to interact with.

Minecraft and voxel games have also been awesome at pushing volumetric worlds where everything exists both visually and physically.


I'm trying to slot The Forged Kingdoms somewhere on a third branch perpendicular to those two. Less physics than VR games and less granular than voxel games. Bigger emphasis on resource collection.