Maps!

[PTGames]

So some feedback I've had about my game is that the map is frankly boring. I agree, while I like the style personally, it's not very interesting to look at and navigate. So I'm turning to the players, what do you think? What could be improved? Would an entirely new map be better? If so, what kind of map style do people prefer? For reference, this is for a sandbox game in Ren'py.



Any suggestions would be appreciated. If anyone has any maps from other games they particularly like, please share them in this thread. Or if anyone knows any good resources for creating maps, share those too!

 

[polywog]

some people have difficulty with flat maps. giving some familiar markers helps them figure it out.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Personally, I dislike it because it's impossible to effectively understand it. The only visual helper is the shape of the place, but like most of them share the same shape, you must rely on the shape of the place around them (that also look the same).
The important part is that the place can be quickly identified, without the need to think. After, how to do this depend of you. One of the way to improve it can be to add a symbol describing each place. It's a small change, but it will already improve the readability. Whatever if the symbol is effectively explicit for everyone, we'll quickly learn that "X" mean home, "Y" mean the shop, and so on.

You can also take a look a these threads, they have some solutions that can help you :
https://f95zone.to/threads/map-source.21204/
https://f95zone.to/threads/creating-a-map.17788/
https://f95zone.to/threads/good-tool-for-map-creating.21633/

 

[riktor]

can't say that 'interesting' is a descriptor I'd ever apply to an in-game map, but for a suggestion along the lines of 'ease of use' perhaps label the locations or provide a key for your color coding.

 

[Adabelitoo]

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing in the first 4 post. If the problem here is that map being bored (I found that site and I almost used one of those in my game) I saw some tutorials on Youtube about how to color them and make them look nice. If the problem is how to make places in a map easy to recognize then the pic in the OP seems fine to me, a generic map with the real places coloured or anything to make them notice compared to the generic map

 

[PTGames]

I removed the colours and created some pins instead. While it does help with quickly identifying what each place is, now the background just seems way too boring. Or is that just me being picky?

 

[Adabelitoo]

Personally, I prefer the first map by a lot

 

[anonnom]

some kind of paper texture on the background would go a long way in my opinion.

 

[PTGames]

some kind of paper texture on the background would go a long way in my opinion.

I tried that, unfortunately with the pins, a paper texture just makes the background image look too low quality.

Personally, I prefer the first map by a lot

I think it's the colour, the second map looks rather bland without any colour on the actual image imo.

 

[shark_inna_hat]

The map looks as if it was in a perspective view so the compass should also be tilted.
Keep (or add) colors. Green for parks, blue for water, white and orange for roads etc. Just look at how google colors its maps.
Use icons/infographics for points of interest, add labels if you can keep the text crisp.
Don't use negative space to mark roads, the building outlines are discarded on some maps but roads are almost always shown.

 

[anne O'nymous]

While it does help with quickly identifying what each place is, now the background just seems way too boring.

It looks a little flat, but shark_inna_hat advice are a good way to solve part of the problem. Adding colors It will not make the map looks less flat, but it will make it more living, which should compensate enough.

 

[Adabelitoo]

This is the video I was talking

You must be registered to see the links

 

[PTGames]

Thanks for the advice and feedback, taking on board what people have said, I added pins to make it clearer where things were at a glance, as well as some colour to make it less bland. I'm currently looking into commissioning someone to make me a whole new map but this is what I've come up with in the mean time.

 

[CRISDARK31]

a question do you know if you can use maps created in Cities Skyline in another game and generate income?