RPGDX > Forums > Design and programming > Keys and locks

Hajo · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject: Keys and locks

I've decided to add locks and keys to my latest project. It's easy, it's old and not particularly thrilling, but it's another game mechanic to keep the player busy.

Now I'm facing an almost trivial question - how to name the keys?

Some games have keys like "iron", "silver", "gold", other games have "winged key", "skull key" and then there are more ways ...

I feel uncertain what to do. So I want to ask, what kind of key names do you like best?

Ninkazu · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:49 pm Post subject:

[Guard of the door]'s key.

cowgod · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject:

Winged key, skull key, etc.

It would be best if the names of the key had some relation to the door they opened. For instance, the Doom Key would open Doom Tower's gate.

DeveloperX · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:49 pm Post subject:

I'm partial to having color coded keys/locks

its easier to remember that the red key goes to the red door than say the winged key unlocks the door to the forbidden gate of the winged-monkey fortress or something like that :p

But some things work better than others for different games.

Try one approach have some people test it and get feedback on it.
Then try something else, have the same people test it again, and get feedback on that.

Then see what was more intuitive to the testers.
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Rainer Deyke · Demon Hunter Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 672

How would you normally name keys in real life? Probably by their function. Car key, house key, desk key, crypt key, secret passage key. If you have too many keys for that to work, give them more specific names. Brian's car key, Bridget's living room cabinet key, seventh cosmic key to the equipment locker next to the women's bathroom on the third layer of hell.

Nodtveidt · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject:

BadMrBox · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:55 pm Post subject:

Or give each key some info text describing what they are meant to unlock.

Hajo · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:15 am Post subject:

DeveloperX · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:52 am Post subject:

Hajo · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:09 am Post subject:

For the new Sonnheim module you'd rather need hacker skillz since most of the guards will be electronic, maybe cybernetic ... and a door won't open automatically if you just destroy the electronic control.

I wish I had time and motivation to design a proper game module for Sonnheim ...

Flawe · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:06 pm Post subject:

What about making the chests more interactive in the game world and not simply having keys.

For instance, the chest could perhaps be opened by a password that the player needs to guess, based in the position in the storyline or the place of the chest, or hints from npcs, etc.

OR...what about making the player think a bit. Say wooden chest on the ground can't be opened. The player might try to use a fire spell on it, since it's made out of wood, right? That could destroy the chest and give the player a mighty sword.

I'm bored so just rambling :)

Hajo · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:56 am Post subject:

Chest aren't important enough, at least currently, to give them so much functionality. I think that creative energy is better spent on traps - but traps can be connected to chests, so maybe in the end the chests will appear quite complex.

"You see a wooden chests. There is a fine line just below the lock."

I once collected some ideas about traps:
http://www.simugraph.com/h-world/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Library.Traps

With such traps, chests will be way more entertaining ;)