Create great-looking battle maps in minutes with Dragon Map Maker.
(no artistic skills required)
Steam Early is here!
“Dragon Map Maker” is an new App in development for creating grid based battle maps for Tabletop Roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Path Finder, Call of Cthulhu etc.
It makes maps you can use in Virtual Tabletops like Roll20, FoundryVTT, FantasyGrounds and MapTools or you can print them yourself to use at your table. (Note: It’s not a Virtual Table Top and never will be, it’s focus is making great looking top down maps)
Early Access Q&A:
Perpetual License: No monthly subscriptions!
VTT support: VTT walls, doors and windows are supported through the .uvtt file format. (Roll20, FoundyVTT, FantasyGrounds and any other VTT that supports the .uvtt file format is supported).
What Assets are available?: There’s a reasonable set of Themes, Biomes and Objects. I'm constantly adding more as development progresses and I've been taking suggestions from the community.
User Created Assets: The ability to add your own custom assets will be a feature added after full launch.
Commercial use of Maps?: As of Early Access on Steam the app comes with an Indie License that allows limited commercial use. Please check the EULA on the Steam Page or in app section 3.3 for more details.
Using DMM maps in Streams/live play videos and paid DM games is totally fine (a shout out would be appreciated).
Buying DMM:
Where can you buy DMM?: Check out the Steam Page! We’re in early access.
Planned Future System Improvements:
Curved/Diagonal Room shapes: At the moment Room shapes are based on a 5ft square grid. Currently, Terrain facing Room edges can be set to have diagonal walls with a room toggle. However, Interior diagonal walls and circular walls are not currently available. I’m in the early stages of implementing full diagonal rooms, walls and themes.
Larger Map Sizes and None square maps: The current map sizes available are from 10x10 up to 100x100. At the moment DMM works with the concept of having a square canvas you paint your map onto. Currently this is also the map size and shape that gets rendered out. I’ll be adding a cropping to for final renders allowing more diverse shapes of maps.
Using Dragon Map Maker:
Free yourself from encounter constraints!
Don’t waste time searching for that perfect map.
Just make it in a few minutes!
Simple tools that anyone can use.
The perfect balance between automation and user control.
Get exactly what you want as fast as possible!
Room Themes
Apply a theme to a Room and DMM will add objects to the room using the themes rules. Current themes so far include: Various Room Edge themes, Sewer levels, Roofing etc
Using the Object Theme Tool
Easily place Object Theme Markers on squares with one click. Dragon Map Maker intelligently places objects that fit the chosen theme and its surroundings.
Organic natural Terrains
Easily paint exterior Terrain with different natural “Biomes”
Paint height easily and quickly using a simple grid system.
Terrain Maps are easy!
This map took just 3 minutes to make. Roughly paint Biome masks onto the Grid and layer them to get the exact environments you need!
Objects Tool
Use the Objects Tool to place objects exactly as you need. Move, Rotate, Scale, Randomise and cycle through similar objects.
The Objects tool can be used with the terrain as well.
Objects Tool
Use the objects tool to place objects then randomly replace them with similar objects. Great for placing rocky rubble quickly!
Lighting and Effects
Change the Time of Day
Add different types of light sources (fires, torches etc)
Day/Night Lighting
Change the Time of Day with a slider. Or change the Day/Night colors to get a unique look.
Add Snow Cover
Paint a snow mask onto the terrain to add snow cover
Snow Effect
Easily Paint a snow effect onto any part of the map and control how the snow looks with sliders (Cover, Angle etc).
Change the maps rendered Art Style.
Many more features to come!
Early Access on Steam is here!
How you make a map:
A quick note on expectations. Dragon Map Maker doesn’t have a “Make Map Button” you still have to draw out Rooms, choose Object Themes and paint Biomes and Heights. However these tools have been designed to be simple, quick and fun to use while automating as much of the tedious stuff as possible without compromising on user control.
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Map Build Example: The Manor House
Using organic “Terrain Biomes”, automatically placed trees (Oak Tree Biome), hand placed trees (Poplar), automated room object spawning, hand placed hero objects, time of day change and room lighting.
How do you work in DMM? Let’s go through the basics!
There are two View Modes you can switch between. Grid and Beauty.
Grid Mode:
Grid mode is designed to be fast and responsive, even on slower machines.
Draw out your map with the simple to use Room, Edge (Walls, Doors Windows), and Biome tools.
Then make broad strokes with the automated spawning tools choosing what theme of objects you’d like for each room and where to roughly place them.
Beauty Mode:
Beauty Mode gives the closest representation to the final rendered map. This is where you fine tune your map with the extra details to make it your own.
(Currently you need to hit the Update button in “Beauty Mode” to see changes made to the Terrain and Object Theme Tools, this may become more interactive as development continues)
Some tools work in both views while others only in the Grid Mode.
You’ll be using the “Objects Tool” in Beauty Mode to add special objects to your map. Place a treasure chest or ancient tree exactly where you need it to tell your story while the automated tools place everything else.
Final Render:
Hit render and Dragon Map Maker will render your map to an image.
The render is designed for optimal readability while still looking lush and beautiful!
Video Credits:
With Many thanks!
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OVoice Over by Jason McMullen
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Video Music by Vindsvept, Fantasy Music
Website: https://vindsvept.se/
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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