Zerker on 11/1/2010 at 02:11
Hey Everyone. I've started working on a desktop map-making application to easily map out Dungeons in a dungeon-crawl type game. Currently, I haven't found anything online that works out better (i.e. faster) than classic Grid Paper, so I though I'd try to remedy the situation for retrogamers everywhere (yay?). My plan is to have something that is primarily keyboard-driven and fast to lay out walls/floors without constantly switching modes.
So I've uploaded a (
http://www.zerker.ca/zzone/2010/01/10/dungeon-mapper-0-1-alpha/) preview/alpha version to my web site to get opinions on how I've set it up. It's Java-based, so make sure you have Java first; other instructions and controls are on my site. As I mention there, I'm looking for feedback on the following:
* Is this actually useful? Have you already found something better?
* Do you have any issues or suggestions with the control scheme?
* What Floors/Glyphs/Walls are you looking for? I’m planning to provide similar capabilities to Etrian Odyssey and some of the stuff from (
http://bradons.001webs.com/dungeon-crawl-map-maker/index.html) Dungeon Crawl Map Maker without the Bullshit.
So if you're interested in this sort of thing, give it a shot and let me know what you think.
Ostriig on 16/1/2010 at 21:59
If you're still looking for feedback on this, I could offer some on the control scheme. I just tried it and it works great, I have to say that for some reason I'd imagined it would be clunkier, but turns out to be very smooth and to the point.
Personally, I'd suggest considering mouse input as a simultaneous alternative to the arrow keys. They work very well, but I imagine the mouse could be better in some situations - obviously, you could click on a single square and work with it, but I think the benefit would be in selecting multiple squares (click and drag selection rectangle). For instance, you could select five or six squares very quickly, and then just press A and D on the selection to make a vertical corridor. For such situations, I think it might be faster than doing square by square with the arrows.
Aside from that I'd also suggest placing the controls info on window, though I realise this is just an alpha, so I apologise if I'm talking about stuff you were gonna do anyway. Mostly thinking about having the WASD explanation visible somewhere, and then the switch wall/glyph/etc. keys in row with their controlled selections, and finally an indication of which dungeon level you're on.
I'm afraid I can't say anything to your other questions, though, as I don't have the knowhow of pen&paper D&D.
Zerker on 17/1/2010 at 22:43
Feedback is always good. The status indicator was already planned (and is now in there). Control info would probably clutter the interface, but I can probably add a help dialog with that information later. I've been considering mouse input, but I haven't really given it much though, especially considering my custom scrolling scheme (which is how I avoid doing way too much drawing at once). I'm also considering a possible box-selection mode using shift + arrows to let you do large rooms in a similar manner.
So in any case, I've updated the version on my web site with new developments (see previous post for link). I've actually added the save & load features now, so the tool is actually usable for once. I also included variable dungeon size, with scrolling and zoom in/out, and more glyphs & floor types.
One thing to note about the new version is that saving and loading hotkeys are on the F-keys since I already use "S" for wall-drawing. They should show up in the menus to let you know what's what. I chose the keys to be somewhat similar to saving in old Dos games :D.
I've also included a partial map of the Ice Mines from Arcana as a demo map. This was from my "play-testing" yesterday ;)
