- 01Observe landmarks
- 02Form a location hypothesis
- 03Test it along a route
- 04Reorient from a new view
Navigating by landmarks
Infer location from silhouettes, directions and relationships. Landmarks must be visible from useful nodes and recognizable while moving.
The player's decision
Take the nearby fork or climb higher to reorient against the tower and coastline?
Original scenario
Original setup: a lighthouse marks the north coast, a windmill the inland slope and the goal the valley between. Relative position distinguishes two forks.
Start with this prototype
Build a small top-down map, three distinct landmarks and two forks. Give relational clues and an optional sketch map. Reach the goal, with return-to-start recovery; omit random terrain.
Change one variable
Tune occlusion and viewing distance; record where orientation is lost and strengthen reliable cues.
What to observe in a playtest
Can players explain the route without a quest arrow? Are landmarks recognizable across sizes and zoom levels?
Take the full design card
Includes rules, scope, tuning questions and sources for further planning. It does not create a project automatically.
Original analysis · version 1
Common pitfall
Identical silhouettes or camera-relative directions presented as world directions undermine observation.
Observations and sources
Cases refer to public documentation. Developers and community wikis are credited separately; document review is not a claim of hands-on testing.
- Sea of Thieves
The guide combines compass directions, landmark spotting and elevated viewpoints.
- A Short Hike
Marked trails coexist with backcountry exploration, letting players leave obvious routes.
Brief for the studio
Opens the AI studio with the brief below in the input. You can edit it. Nothing starts automatically.
Build a small top-down map, three distinct landmarks and two forks. Give relational clues and an optional sketch map. Reach the goal, with return-to-start recovery; omit random terrain.
Covers are original AI-generated style illustrations. Game names reference publicly visible design choices and remain the property of their owners. This atlas does not supply screenshots or assets from those games. Prompts and combinations are original drafts for new games.