Term for maps you have to explore to reveal

terminology

I remember an old Sega or Nintendo castle game where the whole board was black and in order to see the overview of the level you had to move your guy around and "discover" it square by square.

Could anyone either a) cite games that use this technique or b) give an indication as to what this technique might be called?

Best Answer

This is going to vary wildly game by game, but the general concept you seem to be referring to is known as "Fog of War".

Wikipedia defines it as:

The term "fog of war" has become jargon in military and adventure video and computer games, in the more limited sense of enemy units or characters being hidden from the player. Often this is done by obscuring sections of the map already explored by the player with a grey fog whenever they do not have a unit in that area to report on what is there. The player can still view the terrain but not any enemy units on it.

When it applies to minimaps in particular (the entire Metroidvania genre springs to mind), I'm not sure if it has a precise analog, but Fog of War definitely describes the nature of the phenomenon, at least.

Related Topic