How to create a game map?

Question

I am trying to develop a strategy game and i am thinking of creating the following game maps similar to below.

How do i go about doing it and what kind of software to use of books/ tutorials to follow?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you're looking to program games, I would recommend the XNA framework. There is alot of good resources for new programmers, head over to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb203893%28v=XNAGameStudio.40%29.aspx to get started on your first game!

Answer 2

In the general case, ignoring language and framework, you want to have two things:

• a model, which in both those examples would store all the domains, armies, etc.
• a map view, which in the simple case is an image file of some kind with some kind of tagging to indicate which bits of the model go where.

Answer 3

Assuming that you can draw the graphics that you need, the rest is accomplished by defining the "territories".

A territory will have

• a name
• a location (just a simple position would probably suffice, one for each place where you want to draw the key bits of information)
• a list of neighboring territories
• any other game-relevant information, such as what units are there, what resources it provides, etc.

The "hard" bit may be generating the connectivity graph. It's probably easiest to refer to each of your territories by number, as in your second image. Then, the "list of neighboring territories" for territory 14 would be 13, 15, and 23. So don't try to do this automatically, it'll be much easier (as long as the scope doesn't grow too large) to just define this manually.