Philip Cronje
Mr Rho
A basic mockup of what I think the world map should look like.
Each time a new game is started, a new world map is generated, using a technique first implemented many moons ago by my brother which yields a fairly realistic heightmap. To convert this grid of altitude data to something which will look pretty on a display, I want to apply a colour map to each altitude point; essentially, a function f(h) → (r,g,b).
A one-dimensional colour map is just the first step, however. In addition to the heightmap, I also want to generate a climate map, which will affect the terrain type at any given coordinate on the map. Assuming for the sake of simplicity that the generated climate data consists of a single variable, this will allow the mapping to become a colour square: f(h,c) → (r,g,b). All this effort results in a world map which accurately reflects the reality of the game world, and ends up looking nice to boot.
As an extra detail, a high-resolution monochromatic texture is overlaid on top of the resulting image, to remove some of the colour "flatness" without having to mess with the colour map logic, and to give the map the semblance of actually being drawn on a piece of... well, whatever it is the map is drawn on in the game world.
Another thought which occurs to me is to add small decal textures that are placed according to the underlying terrain. By way of a terribly clichéd example, desert terrain would have a small cactus or something drawn on top of it.
The blue markers on the world map represent interesting locations where the player may travel and enter to explore further. A location might be a town, a dungeon, a ruined shrine, or any other number of havens of experience-bearing beasties for the player to slay.
As an aside, I think it would be nice to feature a piece of concept art, mockup image, or (me oh my!) actual screenshots each Friday. Might be slow going at first, but I'm sure as I pick up the pace I'll have more material to work with.
Additionally, as another point of interest, the mockup featured here was drawn on my laptop using the GIMP, my Wacom Bamboo tablet, and an hour-long train ride home after work.
