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How to Find the Real Places That Inspired a Video Game Map

Start with official developer material, then test candidates against multiple geographic and built features. Learn how to distinguish a confirmed inspiration from a regional reference, composite, or resemblance.
Length4 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team

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To find real places behind a video game map, start with the exact game and map name, then look for a developer or publisher statement naming an inspiration. Treat that as your strongest lead—not automatic proof the map is a one-to-one replica. Test candidates against several geographic and built features, and label your conclusion as a confirmed inspiration, a regional or composite reference, or a plausible resemblance.

Start with the exact map, not just the game

Record the game title and the specific map, mission, or level. Add the platform or edition if it matters, plus any place names shown on signs, menus, or map screens. Then search those details with terms such as “inspired by,” “based on,” “real location,” “developer interview,” and “behind the scenes.” A large game may use different sources for different maps, and a fictional place name may not identify a real-world location.

Look for developer attribution first

Give the most weight to a named developer, studio, publisher, official manual, conference session, or archived production material. Note who made the claim, when it was made, and exactly what it says: a specific site, a broader region, or a visual influence. Keep that attribution separate from your own map comparison; an official statement of inspiration does not necessarily mean the game reproduces the place exactly.

For example, EA says many Battlefield 2042 maps draw on real locations or themes. Its development notes identify a Swedish facility called Bahnhof as a key inspiration for Redacted, after the team encountered it in mood-board references and visited to take photographs and record audio. The fictional facility in the game is set in the Hebrides, so Bahnhof inspired the design but is not the in-game location. EA’s Redacted development notes

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Compare candidates using distinctive features

Once you have a candidate, compare the game map with digital maps and Street View where available. Use several features that are separated from one another, not just an overall resemblance or a single silhouette.

  • Natural geography: coastlines, river bends, valleys, ridgelines, and transitions between terrain types.
  • Built layout: road junctions, bridges, rail lines, ports, plazas, and large structures.
  • Relative placement: whether the same landmarks appear in the same order and at plausible distances from one another.
  • Scale and orientation: whether one consistent rotation and approximate scale explain the match, or whether the comparison depends on many unrelated distortions.

Rotating or aligning images can help you inspect a candidate, but alignment is an analytical aid, not independent proof. Record the game version or map revision you are examining and the date of map imagery when available; imagery may change over time, and coverage varies by place.

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Allow for composites and gameplay changes

A game map can draw on real geography without copying every road, building, or landmark. In a GDC session description, Untitled Goose Game designer Jake Strasser describes using Street View to scout places that met design needs and calls the level a collage of real-world spaces. That is evidence that a recognizable level can combine multiple sources rather than correspond to one real location. GDC Vault session on digital location scouting

Bohemia Interactive’s 2011 account of Take On Helicopters offers another distinction: its maps used real terrain and imagery data, while vegetation, structures, and city patterns in the South Asia map were changed to create an Afghan-looking environment. World Design Lead Miroslav Horvath described “geo-specific” as being closely related to a specific location on Earth. The studio also described planned environments measuring 61 × 61 km; that is a historical production detail for this project, not a standard for game maps. Bohemia Interactive’s 2011 interview with Miroslav Horvath

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Gameplay can reshape a landscape, too. Ubisoft describes designing Far Cry 5’s Hope County so that the environment encourages curiosity, navigation, and progression. A valley, river, or road that resembles a real place therefore does not establish that every feature came from it. Ubisoft’s account of designing Far Cry 5’s landscape

Weigh competing locations without inventing a score

If more than one place seems plausible, compare them on the same criteria. There is no universal matching score or official accuracy threshold established by these examples, so treat the comparison as reasoned evidence rather than a formal test.

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Criterion What to check
Attribution Did a developer name the place, or is the connection inferred by players?
Geography Do distinctive coastlines, ridges, rivers, or terrain transitions align?
Built layout Do roads, bridges, railways, plazas, or major structures share relative positions?
Scale and orientation Can a consistent rotation and approximate scale explain the comparison?
Adaptation Does the developer describe a collage, fictional setting, or gameplay-driven changes?
Source and version Is the source first-party, and does it address the same game version or map revision?
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State what the evidence supports

Make the strength of the claim clear in your wording. Use “the developer identifies X as a key inspiration” when a source says that; use “the map draws on the wider region around X” when the evidence is regional; and use “X is a plausible visual match, but I found no developer confirmation” when the connection is your own comparison. Link the attribution and the map-comparison evidence separately when both are available.

These documented examples show possible methods, not how every studio works. The sources do not establish a general statistic for how often game maps use real places. Visual resemblance alone can support a plausible comparison, but it cannot establish developer intent; do not call a composite or gameplay-altered map an exact replica without evidence.

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