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#Post#: 7--------------------------------------------------
Maps in adventure games
DIR By: Pam
Date: May 20, 2021, 4:29 am
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Travel is a very common element in adventure games - in fact,
the name of the genre itself implies that some travel will take
place. \'Adventure' brings to mind visions of heading to distant
lands, seeking fortune, fame, or the resolution to some mystery.
Unfurling a torn, tattered old map - such as the one shown above
from King's Quest 6 - makes us interested in the distant new
places we can see, and want to explore them.
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This isn't necessarily a limitation, of course - adventure games
can successfully take place in a very small area. In times when
they don't, though, we rely on maps to travel around. The map
pictured above from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis shows
the classic cinematic approach to showing a large amount of
distance covered in a very short span of time - a line that
tracks progress between destinations over a map. This is very
useful when we're simply interested in our destinations, with
little care for the voyages in between.
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Of course, sometimes the journey is part of our adventure, as is
the case in Gold Rush! Here the map is overlayed with closer
depictions of smaller maps, showing more specific part of the
historical journey, as well as small thumbnails depicting
certain landmarks along the voyage. This attention to detail
really helps Gold Rush's story feel grounded - we're passing
known landmarks while plotting our course along this map, and
this makes it feel more like a historical account. The fidelity
here is pretty low, of course, but it's a decent way to convey
the idea.
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A similar idea is shown in this map from Conquests of Camelot.
We plot our hero's journey across the sea, with little moments
of narrative telling us what's happening without much visual
information to convey it. This is a more zoomed out, abstract
map, which has much less detail than the Gold Rush approach, but
here the focus is placed on visibility - it's much easier to
follow the course of the trail here, even without needing to see
it in motion. We don't necessarily need to see each section of
the journey closer along the way if that's a minor part of the
story, as it is here, which is just a simple cut scene between
sections of the game.
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When Conquests of Camelot requires us to choose a destination
ourselves, the view is zoomed in, but the level of detail hasn't
been increased to show much landscape beyond the coastline and
the river Thames in further detail and our various potential
destinations. The focus here is on visual clarity rather than
any sense of detail, a simple, practical approach. The inclusion
of the label marking the area and date is a nice touch that
reminds us more clearly of our setting, and also fills up a
large area of otherwise unused space.
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When our destinations are more limited, as in this map from The
Case of the Serrated Scalpel, the artists are now much more free
to put in more detail. Here we see the river Thames again, but
now we can see the greenery on the banks of the river, the
various bridges, streets, buildings, parks, and even detail to
the level of the individual trees. We're also looking at enough
of an angle to see a little bit of perspective, making the
features feel more deep and solid. This approach requires the
map to scroll, due to the much closer level of zoom, but makes
the individual map markers stand out by making them colourful
icons, a nice visual symbol that explains and reminds very
quickly what each place holds for us.
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Gabriel Knight's map further abstracts the map markers from the
map itself by merely showing the presence of city streets and
blocks on the map itself. Here the markers themselves represent
the only real details, but the nature of the map, as well as the
slight variations in colour in blocks, suggests to us a real
city with buildings and streets. This cements the idea that
we're not necessarily looking to the map for a view of the city
- it's merely a convenient way to travel large distances between
two locations that interest us in a short span of time.
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Sam & Max Hit the Road shows an even greater level of
abstraction - here we get a zoomed out view of the United States
of America with very few details - it's recognisable, but barely
more detailed than the maps in Conquests of Camelot. Here our
colourful icons stand out well, once again, showing us specific
highlights of each area. At this level of abstraction, we're
basically looking at an inventory of locations, merely given
character by the colourful art. A particularly nice touch here
is the suggestion of being on the surface of a globe because of
the curving lines of longitude and latitude shown. The header at
the top of the map also helps to establish the feel of a
colourful, friendly tourist map, which really helps reinforce
the road trip feeling of the game.
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Simon the Sorcerer is an interesting example - we're still
seeing icons here, but the art itself feels less like that of an
actual map, compass directions notwithstanding. This almost
feels more like an artist's sketch from a panorama of the entire
area, which isn't how we're used to seeing maps presented, but
still conveys the information well. It also gives an interesting
sense of how the land changes, because here details like
mountains and a forest seem more like drawn elements than zones
or regions. I particularly like the way it's been drawn to look
and feel like a crumpled old map that we've had folded up in our
pockets - a very suitable look, considering the adventures Simon
goes through.
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It's interesting to see this sort of change when comparing the
city of Ankh Morpork between the first and second Discworld
games. We see here the first game's approach, a view from
directly above, that shows the layout of the city very clearly,
but only hints at the nature of the buildings we need to visit
very vaguely. It's a great way to show geography, but doesn't
really sell the feeling of the city very strongly.
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In Discworld 2 we're much closer to the action, and here we can
see the buildings, the streets, and even fairly small details.
This feels much less like a map than the way it's shown in the
first game, but plays a very similar role, while giving a much
more interesting, dynamic view of the city. It also gives the
artists a change to play with colour - this feels like an
interesting, moody panorama more than it feels like a simple,
practical map, and is no less functional.
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Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity has a similar approach
- the shot here feels like we're looking over the town from a
hilltop, more than staring at the town's layout on a piece of
paper. This feels more like a transitional shot between areas
than it does a map, almost - a quick look at the entire town
from afar, so we can easily pick our destination, then zooming
straight in on that place once we select it.
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Full Throttle's long shot of Melonweed is a wonderful example of
this - a moody, atmospheric landscape that shows the town, and
shares the same wonderful night palette. This means we're barely
taken out of the atmosphere of the game - the mood is consistent
between each location and the map screen. Full Throttle's map
works particularly well due to the interesting, unique shape of
each of the buildings we need to visit in the town - they stand
out as being iconic without the need for special icons or
brighter colours - here it's mostly just variations in value,
and then the interesting and iconic silhouettes of each
structure do the rest of the work.
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Flight of the Amazon Queen takes this a step further by not only
presenting us with a panorama that we can pan to the left and
right, but also shows the character himself atop a stone peak,
looking out with us. A really unique and interesting example,
here we don't even lose our connection with the character when
choosing our next location. This is taking the idea of a "map"
to its most personal form - it feels like the character is
picking his destination.
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The Secret of Monkey Island puts the characters into the map too
- in a very different way. The map of Melee Island is initially
just that - an overhead map showing the geography, with the
locations cleverly lit up to show us clearly where we need to
go. At the end of the game, however, the map becomes the
backdrop to animated shots, where LeChuck punches Guybrush
across the island, and then flies after him. A fun way to re-use
a map for comedic effect, and a rather unique use for this kind
of shot.
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One last fun, interesting and unique approach is this cutaway
diagram of the ship from Leisure Suit Larry 7. Because of the
complex, layered nature of the ship, trying to show a map of it
could pose quite a challenge. The artists here solved that
challenge very neatly by producing the sort of cutaway diagram
common in depictions of ships. A very sensible and functional
way of representing a very complex set of overlapping locations.
Maps, then, can come in many shapes and forms. While the term
itself brings to mind a very specific kind of image, artists
have played around with them to make them more interesting, more
atmospheric, and even more practical, without changing their
original purpose. There's no real limit on how you can present a
series of locations to the player, as long as the functionality
is kept intact, and seeing how different people have approached
the challenge of doing shows a great range of successful ideas
that achieve a range of useful effects which suit a wide variety
of purposes.
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