I’ve uploaded my first video to YouTube. It’s a screen recording of me going through the tutorial level in North Is Not Up, the orienteering game I’m building with AI.
I’ve written quite a bit about the game here, from its first woodland prototype to the larger courses. This is a chance to see it moving: the landscape from the player’s viewpoint, the map and compass, and the process of working out where to go.
The tutorial is a useful place to begin because it introduces the idea behind the whole game. You have a map, but the map never tells you where you are. There’s no blue dot or waypoint arrow to follow. You have to connect what’s on the paper with what you can see around you.
Starting in the woods
The Woodland Training Area is a compact course designed to introduce those navigation tools before the larger landscapes ask more of you.
The map and compass work together. You orient the map, set a bearing for the leg you want to travel, then return to the world and use the compass to follow that direction. Paths, trees and other features give you information to compare with the map as you move.
Distance matters too. Pointing in the right direction only answers part of the problem; you also need some idea of how far you’ve travelled. The tutorial introduces pace counting using a measured stretch of ground, giving you a practical way to estimate distance on the next leg.
I wrote more about that lesson in the post about polishing the first five levels. The video puts the tutorial into context as part of a playthrough.
Seeing the game in motion
A screenshot can show the woodland or the map, but a recording gives a better sense of the rhythm: stopping to look, choosing a direction and moving through the landscape to see whether your reading of it holds up.
That’s what I wanted to introduce with this first video. The game is still in development, and this is a look at its tutorial as it stands.
If you’re new to the project, the North Is Not Up project page has an overview of the other courses and links to the development posts. You can also subscribe to DreamCoded on YouTube for future videos.
I’d be interested to hear how clear the tutorial feels when you watch it. Does it make the map-and-compass idea easy to follow? You can leave a comment on the video.
