The Cave’s Ron Gilbert Talks Absence of Inventory and Game Design

In an interview with Eurogamer, Double Fine's Ron Gilbert gives the lowdown on The Cave's lack of an inventory and other design choices.

Gilbert talked to Eurogamer about some of the "core tenets" that the developers adhered to when designing the new adventure-platformer, why playing through each of the seven characters' stories wasn't a ploy for superficial replayability, and some plans for the release of the game.

The three core tenets, according to Gilbert, are the lack of inventory, a light platforming element, and the ability to choose three out of the seven characters to play. The first tenet is the lack of an inventory, which is important to the adventure aspect of the game. Gilbert said, "You don't have the ability to just load people up with crap and call it a puzzle - when you just had to scroll through your inventory to find something. That's not a puzzle, that's just boring. But we did that a lot back then."

The second tenet is to feature some light platforming for players who preferred jumping around obstacles to solving puzzles. And the third tenet was to have a cast of characters with unique abilities. One important detail about the characters is that each one will have access to different parts of the cave, so replaying as all of them will ensure you get to explore all that the game has to offer.

The game is set for release early in 2013 on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the Wii U. Gilbert said they're looking into getting the game on mobile platforms like iOS or Android, but are currently working out the technical kinks. Check out the full interview on Eurogamer and watch the video below for a look at The Cave in action