As we like to often point out on this website, video games aren’t just all about blowing stuff up with guns. There’s a lot of creative fun and games plus elements of intellectualism. Who’d have thunk it!?

There are also the chillout moments, such as with cartography wonder Canvas of Kings. It just launched on Steam as an early access title and it’s well worth your map making time.

Minimalist Cartography Shindig in Canvas of Kings

Relaxing architectural titles like Townscaper (2020) have popularised this indie game genre. There have many excellent little games since then, which usually place an emphasis on art, escapism, and relaxation.

This one is by Hannes Breuer, a solo indie developer. He explains on his press kit:

“I’m just a normal guy from Germany who programs and creates small drawings in his spare time besides his full-time job and family – I have a wonderful wife and two great little kids. I have no professional experience in game development or graphic design.”

Humility! We like that. He’s crafted a beautiful game here. Canvas of Kings may be minimalistic, but its stark colours and Medieval styled music make it another relaxing time of it. The goal? Design maps!

You have a great deal of creative freedom to do what you want.

There are many individually hand drawn assets Breuer has added into the inventory system. Plop these across your map to create little villages in forests or bigger sprawling towns and cities.

You can even add lighting and weather to the various maps you create! A great atmospheric touch. Such as here with this cloudy type of map.

Or here with this beautiful night-time map.

As you play along you use flexible paths and plots to determine your land.

There’s an element of auto-generated assets as you go along, otherwise you’re free to design the world around everything you build. And it’s all fabulously intuitive, a masterclass in pick-up-and-play excellence.

Our favourite bit remans the customisable lighting and weather, leaving you to cast long shadows on houses to make Tanizaki proud (see In Praise of Shadows).

Everything is hand-drawn, too! Breuer has posted his sketchings to his social media accounts.

A relaxing, artistic delight then. One that’s still in early access, of course, but in its current state it’s a time sapping little marvel to dip in and out of.

Oh yeah, and at the end of all this you can export the maps out of the game and use them as templates for whatever. If you’re writing a fantasy novel, for example, this game may set you up with some handy world building.

Cool bananas indeed.