Jigsaw Minimaps

Castle Kelpsprot: 52 rooms keyed as of January 9.

This has probably been done before. I had a thought about jigsaw puzzles and dungeon maps. Most jigsaw puzzles contain two clues to their placement: shape and color. What if large dungeon maps did the same to aid reference? Here’s how this might work:

First, divide the map into clusters of 8-16 rooms with color-coded walls and/or floors. Here’s an abstraction:

Try to use a unique shape for each room in a cluster, and separate similarly-shaped rooms:

Then include a minimap near each room entry that shows the shape and color of that room. They can be very small, like this:

A small room near the middle of the map might ordinarily be difficult to pick out, but this room lies at the edge of the pink cluster and thus is easily located. Use the outline to communicate additional information. For example, a white outline might indicate the presence of light:

Although the pink cluster contains two square rooms of identical size, they are at opposite ends of the cluster and thus easily located. Finally, use a colorblindness-friendly palette. This colorblindness simulation tool seems helpful. (And I should have used it before making the graphics for this post…)