MAP NODES/REGIONS
The strategic layer abstracted into a graph — discrete locations connected by routes, regions that own resources and states, missions launched from nodes — rather than continuous territory.
- SOLO-DEV COST MEDIUM
- TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
- COMMON IN ROGUELIKE · DECKBUILDER · STRATEGY · TACTICS
Slay the Spire's branching node map made run-routing a core deckbuilder decision, FTL's beacon jumps race the player against an advancing fleet, XCOM's geoscape regions structure campaign attention, Total War splits play between region map and battlefield, and Mario's world maps are the ancestral form. Designers abstract to nodes because discreteness makes strategy legible and content packageable: each node is a clean container (a fight, an event, a choice) with visible connections, so players reason about routes and futures — 'this path has two elites but ends at a shop' — in a way continuous maps can't support, and designers control pacing exactly, since the graph is the difficulty curve drawn literally. Node maps are also radically cheaper than simulated worlds, buying strategic depth for interface money. Key decisions: how much of the graph is visible ahead (full visibility makes routing a puzzle; fog makes it a gamble), node type variety and their ratio (the Spire's balance of fights, events, shops, and rests is load-bearing), and whether the map itself has dynamics — advancing threats, changing nodes, unlockable shortcuts. Pitfall: false choices — if branches don't meaningfully differ, or one route is always correct, the routing layer is a menu wearing a map costume; the graph earns its screen space only when players sometimes regret their path.