Cognitive Mapping

RD

Article

Cognitive mapping refers to the creation of a mental map of an area within a person’s mind. In video games, this would be one’s sense of orientation and direction within a level. In my FPS Level Design article, I broke the design of a level into 3 easy-to-remember sections for a designer. In this article, I will break down the 5 ways in which players will remember – and build a mental image of – your level in their own heads. More broadly, this approach to understanding level designs is useful to MMORPG and other open-world games, not only those of the FPS genre.

Five ways in which players create cognitive maps:

Paths
Landmarks
Zones
Borders
Nodes

Paths

The use of paths is the primary way in which we create cognitive paths. If you were to take a pen and paper and draw a map of your hometown, you would almost definitely start by drawing the “path” (or more likely, road) on which your house is located, and then draw further paths/roads branching out from that one, and so forth.

In the real world, people are able to walk along a single path from one distinguishable spot on the map to another and instantly extrapolate that journey to understand their distance from, and time required to get to, other locations on the map. This is because we have our entire lives’ experience travelling in our bodies. We know exactly how tall we are and how fast we walk. In a video game however, we are unfamiliar with the precise proportions and relative speeds of our character, and so maps are more difficult to contextualise.

Because of this, it is important that paths have particularly distinct qualities. It could be that a few paths are used far more often than others, allowing the player time to familiarise with its exact size. Or perhaps the path contains ample distinct junctions and corners to help players dissect it into fathomable sections.

Another important consideration when creating paths is two-way recognisability. If there is a path in a residential area with many similar paths nearby, a designer may assume that placing a clocktower at the end of the path will make it distinguishable. But what if the player is facing the other direction? Even if the player saw the clocktower, the moment they face away from it, they might find it difficult to keep a mental note of where they are.

This can be seen in a game of poker. Many players, despite knowing exactly which cards are in their hand, cannot help but repeatedly lift the corner of their cards whilst scanning the community cards in the centre of the table.

Uses:

Connect and guide players to key locations
“Catch” lost players
Establish player flow and dispersal
Enables dead reckoning

Landmarks

Landmarks are often thought of as tall structures and buildings. However, they can be memorable not only because of how they look, but also the way we experience them. There is little difference in terms of how we use them to map notable points in an environment, between a giant tree and a creaky shop sign.

Another consideration that is not often given to landmarks, or at least to the tall ones, is their rotational symmetry. If a landmark is tall and symmetrical from multiple angles, it can cause more disorientation to the player than it helps them. The importance of this would depend on a combination of where said landmark is situated within the map, and what information you want the player to gather from spotting it.

An Egyptian pyramid is symmetrical on two axis, giving the player no help in determining north from south, east nor west. The London Eye is symmetrical only on one axis, helping the player recognise north and south from east and west, but not north from south nor east from west. The Statue of Liberty has a front and a back, and is holding a torch high up in her right hand, helping players to distinguish all 4 directions.

Uses:

Orient players from a distance
Make specific areas memorable
Help players distinguish from north, east, south, and west

Zones

By zones I am referring to districts, regions, or areas identifiable by particular characteristics or qualities. Thinking about various types of characteristics and avoiding overlap between zones can make them far more memorable. Characteristics can include, but are not limited to: theme, layout pattern, repeat structures/objects, colour, sounds, height, weather, and condition (damage of lack thereof).

Considering the above image, it is far easier to memorise the clusters on the left side than the right, because characteristics (or in this example, shapes) are not shared across clusters.

Uses:

Helps player to categorise areas within areas
Allows player to quickly learn the general layer of the map
Allows player to skip details when visualising the map to plan their route

Borders

Having distinct borders between zones is a great way to help players gather their whereabouts. All too often zones will gradually fade into each other, making it near-impossible for players to know where they are. Bold borders can, like paths, also work to catch lost players and lead them in the right direction. Bold borders are also more memorable than gradual ones. A player will remember descending a slope from a grassy field into a meadow of flowers, but they may not even realise that they have entered a meadow if there was no slope and the flowers slowly increased in number.

Uses:

Indicate clearly to a player that they have gone beyond a particular zone
“Catch” lost players
Establish player flow and dispersal

Nodes

People remember nodes to help them grasp the length and relative direction of surrounding paths.

Assume paths A and B are of equal length and run roughly in the same direction: If path A connects node A to B, path B connects node B to C, and path C connects node A to C directly, then path C is likely to be approximately double the length of paths A and B.

Players also think of nodes as a way to regather their whereabouts: “I don’t know the shortest route to the red house, but if I go to the roundabout and take the third exit, that road gets me there eventually”.

Uses:

Give players point-references
Areas that players can find even when lost “all roads streets to roundabout, all rivers lead to waterfall” … or rather, all roads lead to node 😉