Crafting Systems

I love crafting. Tell me a game has crafting, and already the first notes of the sweet sirens call begin to tickle my ears — yearning, as a designer and a player, to unlock its secrets. The barest whiff gives an alluring quality to any game; and yet, as I find far too often, this yearning turns to a loathsome disdain for the eventual reality. It seems I’m always left holding a bag of crushed dreams and unfulfilled fantasies. Indeed I do dream of being a rich merchant someday...

The problem is that people create crafting systems because, like me, they love the IDEA of a crafting system: The idyllic version, the fantasy. They rarely ask if what they are fantasizing about fits the goals for their game; what’s more, they horribly underestimate the implications of a crafting system.

Know the goals you are trying to serve!

I did a lot of research for this article, and a common theme made itself clear: the particulars of the crafting systems mattered far less than you would think. Before writing this, if you asked me, “Mike, what makes a crafting system cool?” My response would have been immediate: lots of items to make! And yet, that’s false. Games like Diablo 2, Dead Rising 2, Monster Hunter, and Vagrant Story — all wildly different, all fun in their own way — feel good because, at their core, they are there to serve the goals of their game.

To build a good crafting system, you must create a system that aligns with the game are you making; this should be painfully obvious. But how do we ensure this alignment? Our path to this understanding is best gleamed through a lens of economics, for this lens provides us with a very meaningful lexicon.

Lexicon

Term	Description
Crafting System	A large game system that converts one or more in-game items into some other item or items. It is comprised of three parts: One, an Input Stream of Resources; Two, a system of Manufacturing; and Three, an Output Stream of Goods.
Player Resource	Things that the player can collect in the game. These are what make up the player's Input Stream, usually within the context of a crafting system (wood, stone, iron, etc.).
Player Good	Things that the player can create in the game. These are what make up the player's Output Stream, usually within the context of a crafting system (axes, swords, shields, etc.).
Low Stream	When the number of potential Player Resources (or Player Goods) is considered small.
High Stream	When the number of potential Player Resources (or Player Goods) is considered large.
Simple Manufacturing	A system of converting Player Resources into Player Goods that requires little work.
Complex Manufacturing	A system of converting Player Resources into Player Goods that requires a greater amount of work.
Open Crafting System	When Player Goods can also be Player Resources.
Closed Crafting System	When Player Goods are not allowed to be Player Resources.

That is a lot of jargon, I know, and we shall discuss it all in due course, but primarily you will notice a theme: crafting, at the most basic level, is all about manufacturing. That’s all it is. Turning one thing into something else; and doing it through some form of work. There is more to it, of course, but before we get there it is important to take a step back and understand the system from the high level.