The Road to the Trilogy - Hearthfire

 Hello. C J here. This post is part of my ongoing series about designing the ultimate fantasy open world RPG trilogy of video games. Use the labels on the post here to read more in this series. I’m aiming to document every step of the way to making the video game trilogy here on the blog. My next step is to make the physical assets that represent items for food and crafting materials. All of these will be for sale through the online asset store Fab. I was going to sell them on another online store but it moved to Fab so that’s the current destination for these assets.

The assets will be sold as part of my all in one player character and crafting system Hearthfire. Hearthfire comes with a small level map as well of the player characters’ campsite. This campsite contains their tents and all of the crafting tools and locations. Crafting here is done in locations that are physical objects like a stewpot, sewing table, anvil, smelter, or oven. The ingredients are gathered from the wilderness or a city and are also physically represented as objects in the camp.

These objects will have physics which is something the Unreal Engine can do without effort. The Unreal Engine is what I’m using to build these and they’ll mostly be file types that are designed for use with it. Click on one of the items to pick it up. The item disappears but a small image of it is displayed in the top right corner of the screen. This is the same interface that houses conversation topics and information when talking to an NPC. Really the item just counts as an NPC. Click on one of the crafting locations while holding the item to use it with that location.

Use a sack of potatoes on the cutting board to receive cut potatoes. Use the cut potatoes on the frying pan to get fried potatoes. Use them on the stwepot and then cut beef and salt to get beef stew. Put the food on the mess tent table to eat them and gain a stat bonus until you leave and return to the campsite. The same logic holds true for making clothing, armour, weapons, gadgets and spells except that their bonuses are permanent. All of this will be for sale alongside a sample player character who can use the combat options and stats the items give them.

C J Mcpherson