Terrae Game Journal |04| You Won’t Get Anywhere Without a Map

What we are going through while designing Terrae’s Map

In this opportunity, we wanted to share with you what improvements we have had in the definition of our first version of the map for the MVP so far. For those who never dived into game development, let me introduce you to what a “simple” map involves.

Concept art by Molero Miguel

If you ever used a map, you will know that maps contain lots of useful information. Map reading and map drawing are important skills to learn in many aspects.

Maps also help us calculate distances so that we know how far away one thing is from another. We also need to be able to estimate how threatening an enemy is by distance.

It might or might not be an obvious reason why creating a map is such a difficult task. There are so many variables to come into consideration and I’m pretty sure that some of them you never even wondered about.

As always, let’s start with resources

I’ll try to be objective, but you know I won’t. This is the most difficult thing, and I will repeat if necessary. The problem with defining the balance of resources in the map is that you begin at the very end of the game design, and start thinking backwards. That being said, this topic has been subject of many arguments in our team, and the main question we disagree with was:

How would be the game experience for the most experienced players in Terrae world, while the game is still playable for the new ones?

It is hard to create an environment where all chances are possible, say, one where a newbie has the chance to to defeat the top players, (if clever enough). Still, this is highly likely to be a one in a million case so, thinking about the most common scenarios: what would prevent the big boys to exterminate the small kingdoms? The main reason will be that they won’t be able to stand upright without importing resources from them. (Just like in real life industrialized countries where they need to buy raw material from other ones that produce them).

Another thing that would help newbies to survive, is that they might exploit and thus, sell, epic resources, needed by high class players.

Provide a safe place to newcomers

Game balancing also means to separate physically (well, virtually) in some way the new players from the pro ones, at least until they barely meet their expertise.

Sounds pretty easy, you just place a levelling freshmen-friendly curve and give them a 48-hour shield… right? Well, I’m not saying that wouldn’t work properly in some games, but we are pretty sure it won’t in Terrae, mechanics are not that simple. Circumstances may run towards tons of possibilities. You may find yourself round by some heavy duty players, or maybe you haven’t developed your economy enough to solve fighting.

All of this led to us getting into players mind. Creating war zones for those who want to dive into fights as the economic pillar. On the other hand, it is important to have zones suitable for players who joined later in the game so they can still develop strong kingdoms.

Another thing we can do for freshmens, is to provide a friendly interface that will recommend them what would be the best land to be their first, due to their selected civilization and gaming style. This would give them relevant information about the current panorama in the game.

We also have the mountains and the non-walkable areas

This feature is related to the previous one. We all know that map called Pangea at any game that is plain white bread cardboard. Yeah, it may be great for playing 2v2 with friends, but it certainly doesn’t fit for one where you play your own way. You may protect your empire in a mountain zone, far away from the war, and just export assets like gold, wood, etc. At Terrae Game, we think that attitude is also plausible, and should also be considered.

Many “special areas” lead to terrible bugs

Special areas such as non-walkable or places with some sort of distinguishing properties than others may lead to unforgettable bugs that players would abuse.

It is hard to know by statistics whether player are crushing others by gaming, or by exploiting one of these vulnerabilities, and since our assets have real value that supports the game economy, we cannot allow this to happen, it would simply ruin the economy.