Dungeonographer Map Software Open Beta Begins

I’m pleased to announce the beginning of an open beta of Dungeonographer, a map-making program.  The free version is on the Dungeonographer website which is linked below. I’ve posted about the project a couple of times over the past few months, but there are a couple of cool features I’d like to point out (again):

• You draw your map once, but you can view it as a classic line art map with simple symbols or as a battlemat with semi-realistic icons.
• The semi-realistic icons look nice when the map squares are scaled to 1″ battlemat size and printed (see the example to the right.)
• You can print the whole map or any portion of the map.  If your map is larger than one page, it automatically spans pages as needed based on your paper size.
• Use the notes tool to describe areas.  The first word of the note title is added to the map. (For example “1a” will be added to the map if the title is “1a Entrance.”)
• Circles/Ovals and Irregular shaped rooms are easy to draw with the “Shapes” tools.
• You can export your map and notes as a “1 Page Dungeon” webpage.
• The product has over 50 built-in graphic files in both semi-realistic/battlemat and classic/line art styles.

People who have used Hexographer before will find the interface very familiar.  But one of Hexographer’s major advantages is ease-of-use, so in a similar way Dungeonographer should be just as easy.  However, instructions and a tutorial video are on the Dungeonographer site.  (Bear in mind since the product is still beta things may be a bit incomplete.)

Here’s the link to the main page: http://www.dungeonographer.com/

Most of the  excellent artwork is by artist Keith Curtis, who has done many projects for several publishers and far exceeded my expectations.  I can’t recommend him enough.  Most of the rest of the exceptional artwork was done by members of RPG Map Share where I carefully checked to make sure each piece could be used for personal and commercial purposes.  I noted the specifics in Dungeonographer’s about dialog.  Any artwork that is “meh” was probably done by a programmer. (me.)  🙂

What is still coming for Dungeonographer?

• A way to shift the line art color to the classic blue color used on the inside covers of game modules.
• Hex overlay so you may use the maps with games that have hex-based movement.
• Revised set of text styles (the current Dungeonographer beta uses Hexographer’s text styles).
• A few more graphics. (But not so many that the program takes forever to download.)
• And of course fixes for any bugs that are found.

Please send feedback to joewetzel at gmail dot com, post a comment here or post on Hexographer’s forum.