I've recently put some time into the quest map as this was a part of the game that had yet to be realised in anything other than its block-out form. The format John has down is pretty sweet - an area map scrolling over two spans worth of the mobile device, markers to denote the 'event' locations and little dots joining the markers to show the route our heroes take at each stage of their journey.
We both really liked the idea of an illustrated map, having the appearance of a piece of parchment that had been sketched/inked and then simply water coloured, one that condensed the adventure and locations described in the quest onto each area map. Much like a medieval/fantastical maps the parchment is filled with an approximation of the most dominant landscape and landmarks, so in the first area it is a road from a habitation through a hillside woodland and across a river.
Playing through the game I took note of the notable events, game-play features and particularly any location descriptions in the narrative that could be used to give each event location a sense of place, for example the first event takes place at 'The Heroes Academy' the second is mentioned in passing as being 'near the tower'. Each of these events are marked by oversize landmark which follow the same visual design for the characters - exaggerated key features; the style and palette used on the landmarks and surround also matches that seen in the game.
The far right of the map shows a small section of the next area which helps to demonstrate how the areas would transition in the game world and gives the player gets a taster of where they will be journeying to next, the next area map then being a continuation of this location...
Some area maps provided an additional challenge in having additional off the beaten track 'optional' quests, trying to squeeze these in made for some creative landscaping :)
Theres a fair bit of information needed on the border of the map screen so it was important that I kept the event locations primarily to the horizontal spine of the map. Giving the border a clean and consistent colour backdrop - feathering the line work and bleeding the colour fill off to parchment at the edge worked really well and made good sense in the context of the illustrated map.
Creating these has been really enjoyable :D
