Cartography

Many games use the same map mechanic: the map is presented as a small UI element hovering in the corner of the screen, or as a page of a pause menu; the player's location and orientation are automatically marked, along with any interesting landmarks, quests, shops, etc. This works well for many games, but it can remove interesting gameplay from the act of traveling, exploring, and following clues.

This is a project to experiment with a more in-depth map mechanic.

The player uses their surroundings, a compass, a pair of binoculars, and a map of known points to determine their location.

Pressing E takes out the binoculars, scrolling up and down zooms the binoculars in and out. Pressing R opens the map. Right-clicking on a marked point on the map draws a line centered on that point oriented with your current heading. Left-clicking near your location marks it on the map and places a post in the world that you can use as a landmark.

By marking lines to two known points, the intersection will reveal your current location. You can then use the new post as a new known point.

I hope to extend this by
1) only revealing areas on the map near marked points, simulating the act of mapping out an unknown area - hence the name "Cartography"
2) adding more landmarks and buildings
3) placing a series of clues throughout the map leading the player to locations not marked on the map
4) experimenting with adding walls that block both sight and movement. Currently, there are lakes that block movement and forests that block sight, but nothing that blocks both sight and movement
5) experimenting with limiting the player's abilities. For example by only letting them place two posts at once, forcing them to use at least one static landmark to place a post