Your game map shows local shops.

We split the game map into two views: a city overview and a detailed neighborhood view. When you zoom in, the map shows real local shops as hand-drawn pictures. Each business has its own look, and they're placed where they actually are on the street.

This took real work. We had to figure out what each business type looks like (a coffee shop, a repair shop, a salon), draw them as game art, scale them so they look right at different zoom levels, and make sure the art doesn't overlap when shops are close together. We also had to refresh all the Corpus art and push it live without breaking the map for people already playing.

It's a small thing, but it makes the game feel like it's actually set in the places where our neighbors live.