Devlog #4 | Mapping the Plaguelands

Dev Overview

Crow’s Requiem is a narrative survival game set in a world where the pandemic won. You play as a government-licensed body collector, balancing morality, survival, and logistics—one corpse at a time. 

 👉 See the game on Itch.io

The city is traversed via a node-based UI map. Each intersection is a decision point. Your truck—a rumbling, refrigerated beast—is your lifeline. The route is yours to choose… but the price is always fuel, time, and sometimes, blood.

Initial Goals

Adapt to Survive

To bring the project to life, we needed:

• A scalable system for new city zones.
• A resource-aware map, where every route costs fuel, time, and risks.
• A way to show a city that’s not just dead… but devoured.

Inspiration came from Kentucky Route Zero, Static Dread, early GTA, and classic point & click maps—mechanical bones dressed in melancholic skin:

Domains & Factions

Each Point of Interest (POI) is controlled by a faction:

• The Cults pray in ruins overtaken by vines, rust, and dust.
• The Anarchists guard their scrapyard strongholds, repurposing, recycling.
• The Military… well, they still believe in borders and hard-kept order.

Implementation

Movement is mostly free, but:

• Fuel and time are limited.
• Some zones are blocked.
• Others might just block you… violently.

There’s no fast travel, but you can skip the travel animation—if you’re in a hurry to die faster. 
Under the hood, it's a beast of parts:

• MapPOI: Handles POI behavior and animations.
• MapNode: Controls intersections.
• RoutingManager: Does the math so you don’t have to.

Routing uses A* for shortest paths. Each POI has its own node that can trigger events or scenes.

The system uses Unity UI with stacked canvases:

• Base: map, truck, icons.
• Overlay: UI feedback, mission info, lore.

Transitions between map and POI scenes use additive loading for seamless flow.

Challenges

The hardest parts?

• Routing logic: from brittle prototypes to something that lets you burn fuel for no reason—just like real life.
• Zoom scaling: animations broke things, icons dragged their nodes, paths rendered off-screen. Lots of trials. Lots of errors.

We kept testing until it felt just right: fluid, intuitive, slightly uncomfortable.

What’s Next

We’re not done mapping misery. Coming soon:

• Automated node placement.
• Sub-zones with overpasses, tunnels, and... secrets.
• Clearer fuel feedback (know when you’re about to stall).
• Maybe even weather effects that change your route... or your fate.

Thanks for reading, collector. May your fuel last longer than your regrets.

👉 See the game on Itch.io
👉 Wishlist it on Steam

– The Ex Crows