This weeks chapter in How to Play Video Games on World Building mentions Bioshock’s map layout and how it helps build the world. Wolf mentions that the map is fairly linear in the sense that the player will have an entrance to a part of the map and then an exit when they have progressed though that section. The player is never given a full idea of what the map looks like. Wolf claims this helps build out the world. Two other games that also use map layout to help build out their worlds is Pokemon Platinum and Gris.

Pokemon Platinum (and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl if we are going to get specific) is set in the Sinnoh region of the Pokemon world. A large part of this region is the giant mountain, Mt. Coronet. This mountain cuts through the middle of the map with many entrances and obstacles. Throughout the story the player will enter the mountain from different angles and see different parts. There are also obstacles such as walls that can only be climbed with the HM Rock Climb and people blocking paths and refusing to move. These help with the world building and progression of the game. The player gets a sense of the mountain’s importance to the Sinnoh region through talking to NPC’s who live near the mountain and how a lot of Sinnoh Mythology is linked to the mysterious mountain (Dialga and Palkia). When the player enters the mountain for each part of the story they uncover new parts and go into places they have not seem yet. This gives the mountain a large feel to it and makes the navigation of the game more interesting through reusing the same location but with a different layout. This makes the mountain feel very large and like a huge division in the region, giving the region a distinct feeling.

Gris is a platforming game where the player is a girl who is working through some hardship. The player navigates a broken building that can be some what reminiscent of some sort of palace that has broken states of the same girl (assumed to be you) scattered throughout. As the game progresses the player moves from area to areas, though there is no map ever given so it is unclear of whether or not the player is actually entering a new place each time. Especially since part of the progression in the game involves more colors being added and the environment changing. Certain maps seem to almost mirror a more complete version of previous maps. In the end the player gets a view of an entire palace like structure and it is assumed that is the area that you visited, but it is not clear if this is so because some parts seem to be missing. This use of a confusing layout is interesting because it forces the player to reflect on the progress they made and how it led to their final destination.