Putting Items in Characters' Butts: Why?

[mikemariano]

Grim Fandango went to fairly amusing lengths to keep the inventory within the realms of believability, for example making you drag around a gigantic axe during a later puzzle, and of course the whole protracting scythe thing.

Yeah, I really do think that paid off.

Also, I recall seeing some playthrough videos on YouTube with all text removed, so going to the inventory screen or looking at an object didn't give you any description. Was that possible in the game itself or was this a hack? I don't know if I'd want to play the game that way but it made for a great video.

[toblix]

Didn't Simon the Sorcerer pretty consistently shove stuff into his magic, glowing hat? Magic, man.

[elmuerte]

In the discworld games most of your just was stored in Luggage, so that was also realistic.

[Orv]

In the discworld games most of your just was stored in Luggage, so that was also realistic.

...Animate, partially sentient luggage.

[Sno]

...Animate, partially sentient luggage.

Realistic!

[Orv]

I suppose if we're calling Sara Jessica Parker luggage now.

[Udvarnoky]

Yeah, I really do think that paid off.

Also, I recall seeing some playthrough videos on YouTube with all text removed, so going to the inventory screen or looking at an object didn't give you any description. Was that possible in the game itself or was this a hack? I don't know if I'd want to play the game that way but it made for a great video.

An absent UI is in fact the default presentation for Grim Fandango. You have to hold down the tab (I think?) key to overlay object names. The designers' interface-free ambitions no doubt played into the decision to just cut to Manny's coat for inventory cycling (and by extension limiting the items to a reasonable amount) as opposed to using some sort of pop-up as Escape from Monkey Island had to do when it recycled the engine to accomodate its franchise's traditional inventory overload and combination possibilities.

[Thrik]

I think the way inventory was handled in general in Grim Fandango did wonders for its gameplay. I loved how even when you did have to combine items, it was done in-world rather than in an abstracted interface like in EMI. It all felt so right.

[Kolzig]

Didn't Simon the Sorcerer pretty consistently shove stuff into his magic, glowing hat? Magic, man.

Oh yes, that was cool move from Mike &Simon Woodroffe and the gang to do the inventory joke like that.

Also the way Tim's team handled Grim Fandango inventory was really excellent.

for these.