Geoguessr-inspired detective game Locator is about puzzles, perspective, and empathy on an alien planet

One for Obra Dinn and Golden Idol fans, this, although also for anyone who just loves a gorgeous map of an alien environment. Locator is a detective puzzler where you play an interstellar cartographer tasked with tracking down a missing archeologist named Abigail Lidari on an alien world. It takes inspiration from browser geography game Geoguessr. You’ll be studying sets of photos and comparing them with notes from Abigail’s journal, then pinpointing her location on a series of lovely maps.

After you’ve placed three pins, you’ll find out whether you’re correct or not, then move on to the next set as you follow Abigail’s trail. It starts out as a simple game of identifying landmarks, but soon evolves into a case of cross-referencing cryptic notes in her journal. But it really feels like a game about considering perspectives; trying to place yourself in Abigail’s shoes, and seeing the world the way she did. An early puzzle has you locate specific cyclopean statues in a cavernous alien tomb. Abigail has given her favourites names like Milton and Orville and drawn moustaches and glasses on diary sketches, which feels like exactly the sort of thing you’d do when completely isolated on a strange planet.

"Locator combines the spatial reasoning of Geoguessr with the logical deduction of detective games," reads the Steam page, which also houses a demo. "Use constellations, alien architecture, wildlife, cryptic symbols, and even temperature to pinpoint the location of photos."

I love a good map, though as much for their place in language and metaphor as their presence as physical objects. One of my favourite neologisms is the concept of the ‘cartographer’s folly’ - also called paper towns, or fictitious entries. Copyright traps, effectively - bits of geographical fakery that cartographers can use to mark their work. Then there’s the Alfred Korzybski quote “the map is not the territory” - an always cogent reminder to not confuse semantics with reality. I’d like to see how Locator explores our empathy for Abigail when we only really know her through a model of a journey we’ve put together ourselves. No release date as yet.