I'm looking/brainstorming for interesting ideas of how to acquire items in a game. Some of the examples that come to mind are: Zelda - All the kewl items are hidden in the dungeons, or set in stone in a mythical forest. Maple Story - Collect xxx of an item, return it to NPC for reward Final Fantasy - Leet item drops. Legend of the Red Dragon - The game will give you a clue. If you remember the clue later down the road, you can gain a reward. Secret of Mana - Buy upgrades for weapons/armor. Zork - Solve a puzzle Any other ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

1) Item trading puzzle, like in the Kings Quest games and in Link's Awakening
e.g., the old guy at the inn gives you a spoon, which you take to an old lady in a hut who's been complaining about her rusty silverware and gives you an old lady hat, which you then give to a trendy teenager in the city who's been trying to bring back retro fashion and she gives you a hair pin which you use to plug a dike and save the city from a horrible flood or whatever.

2) Crafting items from raw materials, like in most RPGs
e.g., you gather some herbs and brew them in your cauldron to make a healing potion

3) Combining items to form new items, functionally similar to #2
e.g., you combine a sword and an elemental water and a gem of binding to produce an aqua sword

4) Growing things
e.g., you plant a 'mysterious seed' and when the plant blossoms, a random item comes out
e.g. #2, you plant a sword seed and a sword tree grows
e.g. #3, you plant a fire seed and a hamster seed and a plant grows which produces flamesters

5) TCG-style booster packs, like in 10six a.k.a. Project Visitor
e.g., you spend some money and get 1 rare item, 2 uncommon items, and 7 common items (works better with some player-based economy)

6) Transformative spells
e.g., you cast 'greater awakening' on your great axe and it becomes a sentient great axe of annoying wisecracks +5

7) Natural events
e.g., a volcanic eruption coughs up some magical pink jellybeans

8) Speaking/singing objects into existence, like in book of genesis (bible) and in machine elf hallucinations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_elf)
e.g., if you utter the sounds "khridukainola," a pair of boots that give you the ability to walk on water swirl into existence
e.g. #2, you take some trippy drugs and bouncy little elves teach you how to create physical representations of abstract objects by singing (may be hard to program)

9) Trade with other players
if you need an explanation for this one, turn your computer off and take up knitting


Hope this helps!

10) By stealing them from people or places.

Pet or Mount Capturing/taming/breeding - WoW, Dofus, Azure Dreams, any Monster Rancher or Pokemon

Collecting xxx of an item is far from the only quest-like action or mission objective which can be rewarded with an item. Reaching a particular level, killing yyy of a type of monster, catching one of every kind of fish, eating one of every kind of cookable food, owning A B and C all at the same time for the first time, getting a karma above or below a certain number for the first time, exploring every room in an area, collecting all of a set, completing a minigame in less than zzz type or with a score higher than www... there are lots of achievements that could be rewarded with an item.

Quote:

Original post by reykjavik e.g. #3, you plant a fire seed and a hamster seed and a plant grows which produces flamesters

that has got to be about the coolest idea that I have ever heard. I blew beer out of my nose.

"flamesters"
hahaha awesome!

It pretty much can't get any better than that
(runs off to add flamesters to current project)

Some games have mutateable/sub-component systems for weapons that add attributes and are upgradeable.

The subcomponents are collected all the other ways and the base item gets them added/removed when rebuilding the weapon.

The weapon also can have its own experience track to change (improve) its capabilities.


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You could have items that are 'borrowed'...

The world is gigantic so exploring it is unlikely to yield any result, but you get clues about where to dig/explore to find stuff (Sid Meier's pirates (the first versions), Star Control II /Ur Quan Masters)

Buy (or create through arduous research) a blueprint, take it with raw materials to a crafter. Works well with magic or high tech items.