MINIMAP
A small, always-visible overhead map in a corner of the screen showing the player's immediate surroundings, nearby points of interest, and often other players or objectives.
- SOLO-DEV COST LOW
- TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
- COMMON IN OPEN-WORLD · MOBA
Grand Theft Auto V's minimap tracks waypoints and nearby activity in an open world, while League of Legends' minimap is a critical strategic tool showing ally and enemy positions, objectives, and pings across the whole map. Designers use minimaps to give constant spatial awareness without requiring a full pause-menu map check, to surface critical information (enemy positions, objectives, threats) at a glance, and — in competitive games — to create a skill differentiator (players who track the minimap consistently outperform those who don't). Key decisions: what's shown (fog of war interacts directly with minimap visibility), zoom level and rotation (map-north versus player-facing), icon clarity at small scale, and how much information is 'free' versus requiring active scouting to reveal. Pitfall: a minimap cluttered with too many icons becomes unreadable at a glance, defeating its purpose — the whole value proposition is instant comprehension, so icon design and information hierarchy matter enormously.