Sphere map/grid

Hey all…

Going to throw this one out there and hope someone with the knowledge can help me out. I’m in the early stages of designing a 3D game (potentially mobile based) and the entire concept hinges on one particular element. In short, the game would consist of levels played on fairly small, stylized, planets or moons (think something like Mario Galaxy/Planetary annihilation) where the ‘level’ is an entire planet, the camera tracking the character as they move around it etc.

My question is a broad one… How exactly would I get started with making something like this? A big part of the game would be base building and a lot of AI path-finding for units to move around the planets so I’m guessing I’d need to use some kind of grid system… but given that the planets are spheres that’s already giving me headaches! Has anyone else attempted anything similar to this and could point me in the right direction? I’ve done a fair bit of googling with mixed results.

Cheers for the links, I’ll get looking and see how I get on!