Announcement : RPG Map Maker - Coming Soon! (Patreon)

Hello, one and all!

After a year of playtesting ideas, and trying to optimize the tools I use to make mapmaking as easy as possible, I am happy to announce that we will be releasing phase 1 of our own mapmaking tool real soon (later this month, possibly at the start of next month).

WHAT'S THE GOAL?

When it comes to mapmaking, I've been working on top of several existing tools for quite some time to try and help you achieve the best results possible. Working this way, meant that I was limited by what these tools had to offer, and combining several tools was necessary to achieve a result similar to one of my own polished maps. (Including things like going back to Photoshop to get most of the polishing done)

With our own RPG Map Maker this will be a thing of the past.

First of all, it'll allow me to import complex shadow mapping for each object (from the shadow that is cast on the object to the shadow it casts on the environment).

Second - terrain will use height mapping, making it possible to stack objects and see the effect in the shadow design.

Third - All maps will be fully animated, and you will be able to export animated maps, to import them into your VTT of preference. You can obviously also export these maps as PNGs for those of you who just want to use the tool to export polished battlemaps to print or use as static images.

Fourth - Flip between object colours with a click of a button. This means less cluttered object libraries with everything in an easy-to-navigate menu.

That's just what'll be included in Phase 1 of the project, as well plan on pushing this level editor to the point where it has a brush to create animated water (see some of the shader tests in action in the video up above), create animated rivers, add animation effects to the world (flying birds, falling leaves, rain etc.), build towns and cities with simplified tools based on the BUILDING pack I use for Dungeondraft, but with all the options to edit the interior of these buildings on the fly.

The goal isn't to remake dungeondraft, but to create this as an extension or as a simplified mapmaker that is focused on building beautiful polished maps, quickly.

GOLDEN DRAGON

With this tool I will take everything I've been working on, from animation, to object shadow mapping, to linking biomes and bring it all together. This means sharing maps with other users and being able to change the setting with a click of a button (instead of having to swap out packs etc.)

This means that currently, the development will all take place in the Golden Dragon Tier (where you'll find additional content like animated assets) as this tool will take the work of a small team of creators to bring it to life.

We've got a series of Phases we want to go through, ending with the most difficult one of all and that is building a fully animated water system that you'd be able to use to create rivers, oceans, waterfalls, etc.

SOMETHING PERSONAL

When we got started on this new year, I was really excited to get into the actual development of this tool. The team was all geared up and ready to get started, and then I had some health issues going on at home. I don't want to get into too much detail about it, but we spent some time going in and out of the hospital. In order to keep my focus, I decided to go all in on making sure all projects were kept on track, but I did have a lot more difficulty finding the energy to post on a regular basis. So I'm sorry for that. I am however happy to announce that all ended well, everyone is back in good health and our scare is over. That means that starting this month, I plan on posting a lot more updates as we go along. Not just for this project but for the character creations as well and the general Dungeondraft asset creation (which will still be part of the Patreon). It'll basically be a simplified version of all the assets I am producing (without all the shadows - animations - etc.)

CONTACT

I plan on using the DISCORD CHANNEL for any questions, as usual, I am still having lots of issues with the Patreon chat or you can hit me up at crossheadstudios@gmail.com

UPDATED LINKS

You'll find all the updated content on the WEBSITE

or you can check it out:

THE BACK CATALOGUE HERE

&

THE SUPREME CATALOGUE HERE

Kind Regards,

Bert - Crosshead