Design and Realisation - Early Inspiration Part 2, Crafting
A few years back I was completely awe struck by a mechanic involved in Square Enix's latest MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Normally, there isn't much to management in MMO games, and this isn't really an exception, but previously in games such as Minecraft where crafting was a case of "Put X with Y in a certain pattern," Or as simple as World of Warcraft's crafting system of "Press a button done," the player was introduced to an actual puzzle. A strategy. A challenge to crafting. And I LOVE it. This is what crafting is to a lot of games. Minecraft, 2011 Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?! (Daylight Studios, PC, 2015) Before I talk about FFXIV:ARR, I must quickly tie in why this is relevant to a management sim: A beautiful quirky game called Holy Potatoes, A Weapon Shop. It's pretty cheap, the story doesn't last long, but the mechanics are fun enough to sink an easy 30 hours into if not more. I really enjoyed this game, and wou...