Inventory and journal in Among the Trolls
The backpack opens in the world with the same lighting and weather around it, a 2D overlay carries the information you need, and crafting happens by dragging items into the crafting space.
Anna's backpack and her journal are the two interfaces that carry almost everything you do in Among the Trolls: they hold the resources, the recipes, the crafting space and the story notes. The backpack in particular is not a menu screen — it opens in the world itself, with the same lighting and weather that surrounds Anna at that moment.
The backpack, in the world
The developers made a deliberate choice against the flat 2D inventory grid. Instead of an abstract page, the backpack opens physically inside the game world, and a simple 2D overlay floats over it to give you the contextual information you need. The reasoning they gave is immersion: the pack feels like an object Anna carries, not a spreadsheet.
What that changes in practice:
- Opening the pack is a commitment. You are still standing in the world, and the world does not pause politely.
- Crafting happens inside it. You manage resources and drag the necessary items into a crafting space to make tools, weapons and materials.
- Weather and light still apply. The same dynamic lighting that changes the forest changes what your pack looks like.
The journal is the recipe book and the quest log
The journal — opened with J — is where recipes live, where quest steps are tracked, and where the pages you collect end up. The demo-era patch notes show the team treating it as a living document: newly collected and special pages were changed to open automatically so players would notice them, a placeholder image on the first page was removed, and dungeon quest steps were fixed so the journal text matched what the dungeon was actually telling you.
The backpack that is also a story object
Grandfather's backpack is more than equipment. In his own account of it, it is the pack he would take on two-day trips, holding everything needed to make a fire, build a shelter and cook — plus the special ingredients for the rituals only he knew. His father and his ancestors added to it, and each generation left something useful inside. As a child, Anna was allowed to watch him lay the objects out with care, and was always warned not to touch the Väki box — "not yet, Anna."
He never parted from it. And he left without it.
Managing weight and items
The game ties carrying capacity to risk. Falling into water with a heavy load forces Anna to let it go in order to survive, which makes inventory discipline a survival mechanic rather than an optimisation hobby.
- Keep the essentials on you: arrows, food, canteen, healing.
- Leave bulk materials near where you are building.
- Offload before crossing water or entering a dungeon.
- Use the journal to check what a recipe needs before hauling materials across the island.
Sources
- Devlog #7 "The Backpack" (the 3D inventory, the Väki box, grandfather's own words): Steam news archive
- Devlog #12 (crafting inside the inventory): Steam news archive
- Demo hotfix #2 and #3 (journal behaviour and UI fixes): Steam news archive
Game imagery on this page is official promotional material, used for reference.
