Cartography and Gaming

Alt title: Make your own dang map if you think you're so clever.

When I make my game (If I ever get around to it), I'm not including a minimap. I'm not including a map, period. Not even a quest tracker.

My solution? Take notes with a pen and paper. Draw a map. Why? It's fun. You get a little piece of the journey you can keep, it's a bit of an artistic exercise, and because you made this thing, you've got a fun story to pass on to loved ones if you decide to have kids or whatever (and the earth still exists to recieve your progeny. that's kinda critical, your kids won't be able to enjoy a map if the planet you're on is uninhabitable).

You may be thinking something. "But Viktor, I can't do this! I can't make a map!" My response: Yes you can, believe in yourself, if you suck at it, you'll get better by doing it. "But Viktor! This isn't accessible for me!" What, you can't afford a notebook and a pen? You're looking at this website and playing this hypothetical game with super expensive hardware. If you can afford to run the game, you can afford to play it. "No, Viktor, I mean accessible as in fine motor control problems." Oh shoot, really? That sucks and I hope there's some sort of physical therapy to help you. You should be able to get a friend to serve as your cartographer and it might serve as a neat little cooperative experience.

in short, you have no excuse not to be able to put in a bit of effort to make a map. I had a blast making maps for Metroid and Zelda last time I played those games, and next time I play Metal Gear, I'm fixin' to make a map for that game. Heck, I still have a map my dad made for Metroid II! It's only the first area, but it's super cool and just plain screams effort.

Also, if you're interacting with the material hands on like this, you're more likely to remember the info in the map, so you can still navigate decently without it. And also I just wanna bring gaming back to that "School recess yapping, if you want all the best tips, talk to Kevin" sorta vibe.