Inventory and Weapons – How do you think I should proceed?

I’m sorry for not updating during the last few days. I was improving the controls and the camera, and that’s worth posting about, because it doesn’t look exciting or interesting in a screenshot. I also got the cover system working.

Today, I added the ability to find weapons, equip them, and store up to 3 of them in an inventory.

Here’s what the inventory looks like:

I’m not sure if it should go in the center of the screen…

…or on the side.

When you are using a Keyboard to play the game, the Inventory interface will look different.

This inventory is not necessarily the final design; I just threw it together because I needed a graphical interface to use while getting the weapons to function. Perhaps it would be a better idea to use an entirely different kind of inventory; perhaps a “Tetris Style” inventory like in Resident Evil 4, so the player can have fun organizing their weapons?

When you are nearby a weapon, a faint button prompt will appear over it, along with its name. When you are close enough to pick it up, the prompt and name become clear to let you know that you are currently highlighting that weapon.

If you are already carrying a weapon of that “Type”, the game will tell you that you’re going to be swapping one weapon for another.

This brings us to a quandary that I’ve run into…

I need your help!

I’m having trouble deciding how to categorize the weapons. I originally planned to categorize them based on how they are used (stabbing, slashing, or bludgeoning) but then I started wondering if it would make more sense if the weapons were categorized according to how suspicious they are. Some weapons look harmless and can be carried openly without arousing suspicion (scissors, screwdriver, hammer), but other weapons look threatening and will instantly alarm people (knife, syringe, hand-axe). Another option is to categorize the weapons by size (small, medium, or large).

The reason I need to know how to categorize the weapons is because it will determine how I should handle the game’s inventory. If the player finds two weapons of the same type (scissors and screwdriver, both are small and inconspicuous stabbing weapons), for what purpose would the player want to pick up both of them? Should I allow the player to carry around multiple weapons of a single type, or disallow it?

I’m also not sure how many weapons the main character should be able to hold. How many weapons is too many for a schoolgirl to carry, before you can’t suspend your disbelief anymore? Or is a Yandere game already so silly that I shouldn’t bother keeping the inventory realistic?

If you’re interested in helping out, please give me your opinion on these topics:

• How do you think the inventory should work?
• Where should the inventory appear on the screen?
• How do you think I should categorize the different weapons of the game? By how conspicuous they are? By their size? By how they are used in combat?
• How many weapons should the player be able to carry?
• Should I allow the player to carry around multiple weapons that all have identical functionality? (Or multiple weapons of the same “type”?)