Third-Party is a series of guest blogs where developers talk about specific games, mechanics, levels, and more. This week we have Didi Satzinger, art director at Frictional Games, chatting about the joy of maps.
Hi, I am David “Didi” Satzinger and work as an art director and visdev at Frictional Games. You might have seen some of my work in Soma, Amnesia: Rebirth and A Machine for Pigs. Working for a medium-sized independent studio means I got many hats to wear across a lot of visual development tasks, from GUI design to concept art. Originally I come from visdev for TV and advertising with my main craft being that of a communication- and graphic designer.
I love maps. They help you find your way. Obvious, right? They can show you places from a distance and how they are nested within their surroundings. They give you an impression of scale, of the vastness or tightness of an area. They are little helpers to remind you what to do and where to go. But also important to me is how they can enrich your impression of the world through many subtle (and not so subtle) means. My favorite maps keep your brain working, enriching the overall experience.
I am especially fond of maps in games because here, the act of cartography and the act of building the environment itself are tightly knit together and reinforce one another. During development, a map often exists prior to a space, becoming part of the creation itself.