Maps are tricky. Immortum started without any maps. As an ever-changing maze of corridors, the player should be on the edge of his seat without knowing what lurks beyond the corner. But the reality was different than expected and players got lost. Then how do we keep the tension of not knowing the entire map without getting lost?
It took some time to find the answer. The first obvious answer is an interactive map. Players won't get lost but they will see the entire map, which defeats the purpose of mystery. And honestly, it's a big feature to build that would take focus from the rest of the game. If not an interactive map, then a static map would be better. And that's when the solution of a map per corridor came to mind. When you enter or exit a corridor you are presented with a map showing the rooms available to you. Each room type has a letter assigned to it. Can you guess what each letter means? There is a sense to it.
The icons are there to keep the mystery and reduce the amount of translations required in the future. And the design is as simple and straightforward as the Immortum design philosophy. Navigation wasn't the only thing players got lost in. It was text. When playtesters interacted with the NPCs it wasn't clear who was talking.
The solution was a tried and true NPC name that appeared above the text. But because Romi is the eyes through which you experience the story, if an NPC is a stranger then there will be "???". The rest of the changes are some bug fixes and optimizations to make the game run smoother. I plan to release the demo by June's next fest and it looks like we are on track with that. The second phase of closed beta tests will start soon. So what do you think the letters in the map mean?