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Jerry's Map
https://www.openculture.com/2026/06/this-man-has-been-drawing-a-map-of-an-imaginary-land-since-1963.html https://www.openculture.com/2026/06/this-man-has-been-drawin...
- wanderer2323 4mo agoThe most Borgesian thing to ever be posted on HN.
- RobKohr 4mo agoIt would make an interesting map generation algorithm that could feed the card data and specified map tiles into an image gen AI system that would have to take the map tiles and try to follow the rules.
- brm 4mo agoCan't feed Jerry to the ai though
- dmd 4mo agoDoes every single thing need to be about AI? Really?
- NBJack 4mo agoI mean, to be fair, some "super resolution" solutions for image generation do subdivide things into tiles to be re-done at a higher fidelity.
- latexr 4mo agoAs I was coming back to the thread, I was dreading someone might be making this submission about AI. I miss HN from before it became AIN and other types of intellectual curiosity were drained out. What’s marvellous about this work is the antithesis of AI and computers, the artist and the process are what’s fascinating about it. Generative map and art programs are a dime a dozen. Those have value in their own way, but it’s different from this. There’s no need to conflate the two, most things do not need or benefit from AI.
- dabinat 4mo agoAs I get older I’ve come to realize more and more how bad instant gratification is. There’s value and mental health benefits in doing things that are slow and take time and effort.
- oliyoung 4mo agoI'm finding that too, investing in the process and the work is more satisfying than the outcomes
- pocksuppet 4mo agookay, but GP is also true. You could try teaching a computer to draw maps with this algorithm for procedurally-generated video games.
- otto-riz 4mo agoDespite the negative reactions, I think this demonstrates how "make up some rules and follow them" is no longer intrinsically valuable. Likewise with coffee table books with a strong visual theme like, I dunno, cats wearing different hats. I can do that myself now. For the individual, though, you do you. You can't automate self-expression.
- throawayonthe 4mo agohow do you mean "intrinsically?"
- spencerflem 4mo agoPeople Make Games just did a terrific documentary on this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8N7B9b0GQ&pp=0gcJCUECo7VqN5tD https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8N7B9b0GQ&pp=0gcJCUECo7VqN5t...
- lanerobertlane 4mo agoIt's literally at the top of the post.
- randallsquared 4mo agoWell, in the secondary link, at least.
- spencerflem 4mo agoI didn’t notice there was a secondary link, sorry. For everyone else, consider this comment a recommendation to click through and watch it then :)
- archermarks 4mo agoThere's a good People Make Games video about this from a few days ago https://youtu.be/Is8N7B9b0GQ https://youtu.be/Is8N7B9b0GQ
- dylan604 4mo agoYou know, it'd have been amazing if TFA has not opened with that video. So instead of clicking the link to view TFA, you went off and dug up the exact same link in TFA???
- tarvaina 4mo agoThe main linked article actually does not have that video; the article linked from in the description does have it. Not surprising that someone missed it.
- falcor84 4mo agoOh, I see that there's two TFAs. The one in the description has the video, but this main one doesn't - http://www.jerrysmap.com/the-map http://www.jerrysmap.com/the-map
- Tepix 4mo agoFor me it doesn't. Perhaps it's a cookie setting? Anyway, lovely video.
- lynguist 4mo agoIt's funny that I watched this less than an hour ago, and I click on hackernews and bam it's #1 on the front page. Probably someone else must've also watched this in the past few hours or days.
- runj__ 4mo agoThe world is increeeeeeedibly small with likeminded people (sometimes at least, which is most of the times).
- 4mo ago
- jihadjihad 4mo agoFrom the first sentence and image on jerrysmap.com I seriously thought it was Jerry Garcia's doing for a second.
- vannfreed 4mo agoLooks like the OG fortnite map to me
- mdtrooper 4mo agoI know Jerry Map (I hope that someday will be a exposition in Spain) because I love it, I love the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art. The people who maybe mad and they built a world with own rules. I remember the book of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress or Cataclysm DDA . And weird games as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic .
- drivers99 4mo agoIt's a weird coincidence to me I just remembered Henry Darger again today, within the last hour actually. I had watched "In the Realms of the Unreal" (2004 documentary) in the theater when it came out. (I know it's only a coincidence because it's something I'm interested in thinking about, but it feels meaningful anyway.)
- dhosek 4mo agoI used to do things like this when I was a kid (less extreme, never more than a single sheet of paper), where I would create some natural features: a lake shore or river, maybe a freeway or two or a railroad and then start platting out a subdivision in the open spaces. It was a delightfully meditative practice and maybe I should start doing it again.
- fredsters_s 4mo agoyou might enjoy cities: skylines
- asalahli 4mo agoNot the person you replied to, but like them, I too liked to draw imaginary maps when I was a kid, mainly of medieval towns. I also tend to like the world-building aspects of strategy games, arguably more than the actual strategy parts. Cities: Skylines have been in my wishlist since shortly after it came out but I never got around to playing it until about a month ago, and... didn't like it at all. It felt too "micro-manage-y" (for the lack of a better word) while also having the pressure of the ticking time. Needless to say, I was very disappointed after looking forward to it for ~10 years.
- botanrice 4mo agoI actually had the same experience as you (own it, played it only a bit for similar reasons), but FWIW I believe there is a sandbox mode to just play around in. Another chill medieval town building game is Manor Lords. It has some management but overal is laid back.
- asalahli 4mo agoI should check that out. Thank you
- dhosek 4mo agoOh you just reminded me of the joy of making maps for D&D. I only ever played two or three times, but I had notebooks full of detailed maps of dungeons, cities, whole continents.
- Fraterkes 4mo agoYou guys are welcome: https://marcmajcher.github.io/jerrysmap/ https://marcmajcher.github.io/jerrysmap/
- deadbabe 4mo agoIn high school I remember entertaining myself in class by using grid paper to draw little tile based maps. It’s like playing Minecraft by hand. I imagine the concept is lost to a lot of Gen Z or Gen Alpha by now. Too much imagination required.
- oniony 4mo agoReminds me of _Journeys Into the Outside_ by Jarvis Cocker. And that reminds me of the time when I saw him in passing in a corridor at King's Cross Thameslink and my hand was halfway up into a wave before I realised that he wouldn't know who am.
- klondike_klive 4mo agoI had the same experience when I ran into him at a bar backstage at a Blur gig in the mid 90s. My dad was friends with his dad in 1960s Sheffield, but since the bloke walked out on his family when Jarvis was 7, it wouldn't have been much of a conversation starter.
- wxw 4mo ago> The entire process is driven by instructions on a card drawn from a special deck created by the artist. I like this. I like that his system pushes the creative process forward without relinquishing the actual creative part of it (making the map tile).
- strifey 4mo agoIt's very similar to styles of generating lairs/dungeons in many TTRPGs. A lot of them come with various tables/dice rolls to help build a layout and then subsequent tables to give a general prompt for what goes in said rooms. It's an extremely satisfying routine, as you're not 100% beholden to every dice roll, but the dice rolls help prime the creative juices and give constructive constraints to the process. I highly recommend trying it out for yourself!
- throw2ih020 4mo agoPlaying hexcrawl RPGs like Twilight 2000 with my groups has been great. The physical edition came with a custom deck of playing cards that had encounters and randomization tools printed on them - I can literally just draw a card and immediately create an encounter for the players.
- macintux 4mo agoReminds me a bit of the truck driver who's been building a scale model of NYC for 20 years. That crossed HN 3 months ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47657268 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47657268
- ralusek 4mo agoMy favorite part about this/what blows my mind is that his system has him editing singular tiles at any given time. He seemingly only gets to see what it actually looks like at intervals like 15 years apart. There are probably entire epochs of his system that he'll never actually see laid out because they've since been overridden.
- rode1974 4mo agoThe card deck procedure is the most interesting part to me. It makes the map feel less like a drawing and more like a system Jerry is observing over decades. Maybe i need to follow his rules for a map of my own.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- paperterminal 4mo agoThe rules make it feel oddly real
- drakythe 4mo agoIf you're interesting in something similar with a specifically made deck, check out The Story Engine's "Deck of Worlds", which is how I was introduced to map crafting via a rule system. Another alternative is a system called "The Quiet Year" which uses a standard deck of cards and written rules for generating a world and events with an eye toward using it for collaborative story telling.
- compel2160 4mo agoDude, I was trying to remember the name of "The Quiet Year" for a while now! Thank you!
- drakythe 4mo agoGlad I could help!
- FarmerPotato 4mo agoWhoa. In my grade school years, I made many maps of my imaginary world. By high school, I was putting them into my computer, one 16x16 grid at a time. Had to make sure the edges matched up. Then I wrote code to print them on the Epson MX-80 dot matrix. The poster-board I tiled them on was still in the basement, though many of the squares were falling off. It was easier after I coded a moving 64x64 buffer.
- meatCube 4mo agoOh that is a blast from the past - I had an Epson MX-80 printer as a kid connected to my first PC. Many fond memories of trying to make muti-page prints from it... And the dot-matrix sound is still embedded deep in my brain.
- solomonb 4mo agoThere was another project I saw years ago that this reminds me of. It was a guy who had been running a simulated city/community for like 20 years. The whole thing was done on pen and paper and used complex rule system he had devised. Similar pre-internet outsider art vibe.
- THansenite 4mo agoI'd love to see the system he used for creating his if you can remember.
- graphviz 4mo agoOnce upon a time, people worked on making imaginary maps https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/~kobourov/PROJECTS/maps.html https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/~kobourov/PROJECTS/maps.html to visualize datasets like TV and music recommendations. It was fun. In a 2026 context, one might use AI to post process the maps and make them even better.
- mankyd 4mo agohttps://mapofmetal.com/ https://mapofmetal.com/ was always one of my favorite (and I don't even listen to metal).
- DannyPage 4mo agoFirst found out about Jerry’s Map over 10 years ago thanks to this video on Vimeo and it really stuck with me. Glad to see the project continue. Also I miss finding these smaller documentaries on the site, so many neat subjects covered before Youtube became the home of all things video. https://vimeo.com/13596774 https://vimeo.com/13596774
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- fapjacks 4mo agoIn grade school I kept meticulous, tedious logbooks of ships entering and leaving an imaginary port for tax purposes.
- Guthwine 4mo agoWhat is your profession now? Accountant? Ship's Captain? Do your D&D campaigns track gold coin weight? Either way, this sounds like it would have been weirdly fun as a kid. Very imaginative even if it doesn't sound like it at first glance.
- fapjacks 4mo agoBoring old programmer. Honestly I gave up rules-lawyering in D&D some time ago, because it just makes things a slog. Which, while fun for me sometimes (I play Dwarf Fortress), isn't as fun for anyone else.
- Tade0 4mo agoThe revision process makes it look like a satellite image, painstakingly updated by a single satellite, which can only cover so much per pass. I have this recurring dream of a city - it's a mix of various places I've been to and it's surprisingly consistent. It bears the closest resemblance to Riga, Latvia - only thing is I've never been there. Funny how that works.
- zftnb666 4mo agoOne person, one map, five decades. That's not art. That's a lifelong conversation with yourself.
- MetroWind 4mo ago"Jerry began drawing a map of an imaginary city" "an elaborate set of rules and randomly generated instructions" ... so which one is it?