As someone who was an art and UX person in games for 20 years; I am allowed to be fucking pissed that a console game with a heavy need for map usage, doesn't have the map on a dedicated button on the controller for me to flick on and off, and instead puts it in the inventory menu, where I have to press a button to open the menu, then use a shoulder button to skip along to where the map is, while the game is unpaused and I am running from a giant fuck-off spider.

That's your fucking Game Dev UX lesson of the day - PUT THE MAP ON A DEDICATED BUTTON YOU CAN FLICK ON AND OFF WHILE SPRINTING FROM DANGER AND PANICKING AND SWEARING PROFUSELY.

Family gaming night did not go well for me...

@Teaceratops Yikes!

I like just opening the map for the player when I think they should see it.

In Void Bastards it's super important to open the map at the start of each level and make a plan. But nobody did. So we made each level start at the map screen.

In Monster Bop (think first person early Zelda) folks got lost even though every quest location has a giant skybox weenie! So now every time you leave a room the map opens and the character marker hops to a new spot.

@Farbs I honestly think that's a great idea.

We were playing Grounded with hubs and tiny person on the PCs and me on the PS5, and I was walking back to the house, was spotted by a wolf spider, panicked, got turned around, fell into the pond, got stuck under a lily, and was eaten by something :(

I feel like just popping the map open could have helped avoid the pond at least. It was night time :(

@Teaceratops (blathering, sorry)

Some day I'd like to make a game about 90s pizza delivery where map access friction is actually the point. Sure, you can stop your car and leaf through a road atlas every time you get lost or forget how to reach your destination, but it costs you time and the customer is waiting and the za is getting cold...

@Farbs oh now THAT would be frustrating in a good way - forces you to learn the town layout, and becomes the gameplay.

@Farbs @Teaceratops I feel like I just finally met the person who put the ZA into the 2-word Scrabble list.