320 MERIDIANS

320 Meridians is continually under development, with research centered on understanding real-world climate and topology. Complementary attention is paid to anthropology and political economy in order to understand the reciprocal impact of human development on the environment. People, after all, help bring a place to life.

In terms of the user base, research is conducted in an ongoing fashion among peers through informal polling and periodic test sessions for avenues to operationalize the materials. Competitive audits are likewise periodically conducted in order to understand where the interests of the market lay.

320 Meridians emerged from a larger project aimed at developing a suite of products that could be quickly and easily used to procedurally generate fantasy tabletop gaming materials. The seed for the process that drives 320 Meridians specifically was developed in late 2022 as an exploration of the interactions between climate and culture.

The core design principles are threefold. First, to design a process with outputs that can automatically generate reasonably credible approximations of geographical and cultural phenomena. Second, the prioritize and explore the possible applications of those outputs. And third, to ensure that the process remains engaging and entertaining in itself.

Usability testing is grounded in exploration and play. Rules are set and adjusted as research expands and redefines the logic that drives the process. These adjustments are subjected to repeated execution in order to test the theoretical bounds of what a given die roll produces, ensuring the new rules are easy to understand and reproduce, and of course, to make sure they are fun.

As product-oriented applications arise, the process is used to generate prototypes are various kinds that can be shared among peers for feedback and subjected to play-driven stress testing. What was the experience of using the map like for the MC? How did the players interact with its direct and indirect elements? In what ways was the map an asset for or hinderance to creative play?

320 Meridians has led to the development of board game prototypes, written and visual storytelling aides, and a sort of sudoku-style thinking challenge. With each iteration, I find the central drama lies in how the process strikes a balance between over- and under-defining itself. Ideally the process is clear and complete in a way that each die roll has reproducible results, without overtaxing the user’s mental load or stifling their creativity.

One essential learning this project has given me is that symbology is essential to communicating with the user. Of course this is true for maps, but I would say doubly-so when the maps are intended for creative applications beyond their standard function as reference documents.