Under normal circumstances, a backpack that is necessary to go out can contain very limited items. However, in many games, the contents of the backpack can be loaded to the "maximum number limit", and the Pokémon trainer in Pokémon is not a storage or logistics expert, but it is a piece of cake for him to carry 99 various baby balls and a whole bunch of other props around the world. In contrast, Sam, who is a transporter in Death Stranding, is unable to carry just seven large pieces of cargo, and one can't help but wonder: Who is more good at carrying things?
In various games, the "backpack" is used to allow the player to use various props directly. If the number of items that can be carried is limited, the hamster player must choose, if the props help to complete the level, the number limit can also be used to control the difficulty, and to avoid the player from choosing a non-fun way to play, such as spending hundreds of blood bottles to fight the boss for an extended war. The game is built on rules, and the player executes the solution under the given limits to get the achievement. Here, you can see how capacity constraints make the game fun.
In the Resident Evil and Last of Us series, the feeling of "struggling to survive" caused by limited resources is an important experience for the game, so they provide not only limited resources in the game flow, but also only limited carrying capacity. When the number of things that can be obtained is scarce, and the backpack cannot hold the important blood tonic in front of them, then, whether the player finally chooses to give up the medicine, give up other things, or use other items first, this has already brought the player a doomsday survival decision experience. In contrast, games like Pokémon and Paladin don't create a sense of survival through a shortage of items, and generally don't emphasize difficulty, and you won't be surprised that they give the player a very spacious pocket that can be arbitrarily packed into the various herbs and tree fruits collected on the journey.
/ The backpack has a limited capacity, and another effect is to prompt the player to move to trade or replenish. The backpack is full, and the things on the ground can't be picked up, so run a merchant NPC to sell things, or break the props into materials! The backpack capacity is limited, the necessary medicine for the battle is almost exhausted, the player will have to go back to the town to replenish, if the game requires the player to return to the town from time to time to increase the narrative effect or trigger events, the player may not have a four-dimensional pocket.
Here, you can see how capacity constraints allow game designers to control the pace of play. Conversely, if the game is designed so that the player needs to swipe the equipment to sell money to form a resource cycle, but does not use capacity limitations to prompt the player to return to the town regularly to deal with these "trifles". If a hard-working player hits a treasure for more than ten hours in one go, the number of items waiting to be screened for sale may accumulate to a very painful degree, which is why some treasure hunting games have developed various pagination and tab functions to facilitate players to sort out the items obtained.
The backpack capacity can also be part of the game's progression system, Collection! The initial chapter of Animal Friends gives the player only a small pocket so that the player will not be overwhelmed by too many things; in Fallout 4, when the player expands the backpack as he progresses, he can hold more things and feel more about growth. Of course, the backpack capacity of this game is not represented by the concept of space in the narrative, but a "weight bearing" that is closer to reality: the stronger the weight bearing ability, the more things can be carried on the body.
The action game Dark Souls series also has a weight-bearing design, but it is slightly different from the Wasteland Survival game Fallout series. In Dark Souls, only the weapons and armor equipped on the body consume the weight value. Players can put heavy armor in their backpacks, as long as they don't take it out and use it, there will be no negative impact. Dark Souls' capacity only limits the items in the equipment, because this game limits the gameplay with capacity: if the player wants to raise a warrior who can wear heavy armor, they will have to invest more in the weight-related value when upgrading.
In addition to the most primitive "maximum number" and slightly more realistic "weight", another way of calculating capacity appears in Diablo 1, a game whose backpack is a veritable 104 board, each with its own number of square shapes and stackable maximum number of times. This makes players have to pay different prices to carry different things, want to keep a shield of 24 sizes? Then you may have to throw two 1*4 one-handed swords back to the ground. Diablo 1 lets players move the props in their backpacks to make room, a Tetris-like design that gives players a better sense of the size of things.
To calculate carry capacity, Fallout 4 uses weights and Diablo 1 uses shapes. Death Stranding, which designed carrying and carrying things as the main gameplay, took both. In this game, the protagonist Sam, as a delivery man, can tie goods of various sizes on his back and limbs, and the larger the goods, the heavier the goods; the heavier, higher, and more uneven stacking methods will affect the balance of movement. This design allows players to carefully consider the outfits and trade-offs of this mission from the stage of starting from the whole outfit, so that the errands work is more meaningful.
Of course, the limitation of the capacity of the game is not necessarily good for the player alone, and many mobile game manufacturers use the capacity limit to make money. Do you want a big backpack? Don't you want to have to go back to town every half hour to sell things? Then kryptonite gold!