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Identification is an Underrated Game Mechanic

Identification as a core game mechanic is criminally underrated. What if finding out what an item is - not just about how you use it, but the progression itself?

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Note: This is kinda inspired by this video by Mental Checkpoint, except about a different mechanic, go check it out after this.

If you think about it. Think about it really hard. Identification as a main game mechanic is kind of underrated.

In detective or some puzzle games you often collect clues that lead up to a thing, but that's not quite what I'm talking about.

Imagine you get an item. And it's a staff. But a staff of what kind? It's all ??? oh no what does that mean. It is kind of something that you see in games from time to time, some kind of unknown, but it's usually for some rare item, or you're underleveled for it, so this just adds suspense. It's mystery - not identification.

What I'm talking is, imagine a game where you get stuff, and you have no idea what that is. Instead of collecting some clues to use the items in progression, identifying them is the progression, you have to make some relevant assumptions from discovering other things or even completely separate concepts and then deduce what an item does.

A rock? A rock of what? Let's name it a rock of steel, no, The Rock of Steel.

Side mechanics?

Combat, fishing, building - these are all side mechanics in big games that got turned into separate games with them being the main focus, a fully fledged experience. But some of these game mechanics, for one reason or another, never took off separately, and in my opinion, the most interesting one of them is being absolutely clueless.

Identification of items is always either requiring some appraisal or straight-up a given: you got it, and your character all of a sudden knows what "Dinosaur Mayonnaise" is.

And I mean, in most games, idk Dark Souls, you probably want to know what your item is and what it does because how else are you going to make a build out of it, going and identifying it even if it were a fun minigame or something would be a big chore.

Why underrated?

Because I can't think of anyone making this into a game yet. The closest thing I know is Strange Horticulture, I haven't really played it much yet, but love the concept. This is a game about being a plant store owner in a strange world, you have plants and serve some customers with them using some of their magical properties. You got a book that gives some descriptions of plants, the issue is, it doesn't actually show you the full plant, it's more of a clue. Until you completely identify the plant, you can label it with anything you want, but you don't actually know.

In my head this is definitely great for these store owner games, the aforementioned Strange Horticulture, stuff like Potion Craft. And well, identifying mystical plants fits the setting. But I can imagine this expanded to identifying items of any kind.

Another interesting thing about those two is that when you give the customer an item, you don't actually know if that is what they wanted. Like in Potion Craft, if someone has their door jammed, you can give them an acid potion, sure... or you could give them an explosion potion. (Megumin approved)

Some ideas

Just throwing out some ideas:

  • The world from the future and the past collided, and now you have to tell medieval peasants what to do with a washing machine they scavenged.
  • Weapons, staffs, etc. have some idk gems embedded with them, by figuring out the combinations of them, with a complex magic system you try and find out what they do. And then sell them. Because stonks.
  • A difficult to pull off concept, but listen, what if the artstyle makes it difficult to figure out what an item is. You're a colorblind person, and the world is too stylized to make out details, you have no bloody idea. Throw it and see if it floats! Figure it out!
    A thing, idk what it is
    Is it a ship? A prism? A pyramid on a piece of butter? You will never know.

It was originally meant to be an ambiguous tetrahedron, but I had a drawing skill issue midway and it came out even more ambiguous!

These concepts definitely feel like they would require some creative solutions and the player paying attention to details. Both of which are really nice for a fun experience.

That's it

I'm definitely not a real game dev, just interested in it. Ideas like these are easy to just throw out into the world, and I'm not going to make a game about identification right now. But these are just some of my thoughts, maybe they'll come off as useful or at least entertaining for you.