Gamasutra tells us more about the excellent crafting system of Evil Islands:

Farlands - Systemic Crafting of Evil Islands

Systemic gameplay is a very big topic recently. Even though systemic games have existed for a long time, nowadays there’s a lot of conscious discussion about titles that provide emergent situations by allowing the players to experiment with the rules and mechanics in place. A lot of those games feature a crafting system, and it just feels that it would be natural for crafting to also be expanded in a systemic way, and yet for some reason that doesn’t happen.

Crafting mostly is this direct exchange of a particular set of resources into a particular object. The exact nature of this exchange can vary – in some games you require a recipe before crafting something, in some you might want to experiment and figure out what the recipe is. There are games where recipes require not a concrete resource but a certain type, or where you need a particular skill before the exchange happens. Some games feature mechanics like sockets which you can imbue with something, customizing the item more. Some allow you to do a lot of things with what you craft, but at the core most crafting systems are still about spending particular resources to get a particular item.

And there actually IS a game which has implemented a systemic crafting system 18 years ago. And in this month’s edition of Farlands, a series about video games and video game design, I will try to propagate its principles into the world, as I believe they’re worthy of further exploration. My name is Stanislav Costiuc, and welcome to the video about Systemic Crafting of Evil Islands.

Evil Islands is a Russian tactical RPG that was released in the year 2000. Actually I was 9 years old at the time when I played it, and it is precisely Evil Islands that made me want to become a Game Designer. I can gush about it all day long. It’s got an interesting blend of mechanics, a gripping storyline, great characters, wonderful music and some of the best voice acting I have heard in my life to this day. Well… if you’re playing the original Russian version and not the English translation, that is. [Play Evil Islands English clip] … Yeah. And that’s the main character’s voice in the translation. My sincerest apologies.

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