The Easiest Map I've Ever Made | Dungeon Alchemist Review

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Жыл бұрын

I've had my eye on Dungeon Alchemist for a while and this week I sat down to finally check it out!
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#DungeonAlchemist #mapmaking #ttrpg

Пікірлер: 126

@DungeonAlchemist Жыл бұрын

Thank you for this fantastic review. Glad you enjoyed Dungeon Alchemist!

@ShellySummers Жыл бұрын

I just picked up before this. I'm living it

@3nertia 10 ай бұрын

Is there a way to have the interior only lit with interior light, even when changing the outdoor lighting?

@DungeonAlchemist 10 ай бұрын

@@3nertia not at this time unless the building is in a cave. Removing outdoor lighting from indoors is on our to do list

@3nertia 10 ай бұрын

@@DungeonAlchemist I'm glad that it's on the list at least; thank you for replying! I'd like to add that what you've done here is brilliant, using a game engine to do this seems obvious but no one else seems to be doing it!

@JoeCold 7 ай бұрын

Does Dungeon Alchemist have only midieval fantasy themes or are other genres supported as well?

@alexrobbins5000 Жыл бұрын

I am 100% convinced that this and software like it is the future of map-making for virtual tabletop campaigns, what an absolutely phenomenal product!

@hectorcornejo1468 Жыл бұрын

I like it, though the drawback to it is that everything is so box-like and gets homogenized after a while. its possible to fake an organic look but its hard to accomplish. still, they are still developing it so who knows- some day they may give us a point to point tool to be able to make more organic looking rooms. EDIT: You can also jump into a Heroforge miniature and walk through your dungeon or map as if you were a player so you can see/set up photoshots of what a character would see. Its a pretty cool option.

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

I agree! The lack of polygon/free form room generation does make it way more limited in use. I'm hoping that gets added in the future.

@tearstoneactual9773 Жыл бұрын

My significant other and I were kickstarters for this. Love DA, though I haven't run any games in a while so I haven't had much use out of it. I'm so happy to see it continue to grow and advance. I was also a patron for Foundry, so the integration between the two has been great to have.

@Great.AnotherChristian Жыл бұрын

DA veterans are glad you caught up! Hands down the best map making software out. Period.

@BTimelessC 4 ай бұрын

After spending so much time in tools like photoshop, before all these apps were a thing, I can't believe how far we 've gotten. A lot of credit should be given to all these developers who have worked their asses off to produce such amazing results. This is technology done right. When I get a job I'm definitely supporting this.

@zibbitybibbitybop Жыл бұрын

I just saw this tool in a facebook ad recently, and holy hell, it looks amazing. You know what would be unfathomably cool, though? Being able to run this on a huge horizontal screen in person and update the map in real time as players move around on the playing surface. There's just no substitute for live TTRPG sessions to me, and this would elevate it to supreme status.

@Ryotbh Жыл бұрын

I've been making the lion's share of my campaigns maps in Dungeon Alchemist; anything from Ravenloft's Old Svalich Road, to an overgrown/reclaimed mansion, to a furturistic looking workshop. With the Dungeon23 challenge, I've been designing rooms of a dungeon daily and then putting my plans into DA at the end of the week. Its one of the things I love about it - using other people's footprints/designs and attempting to create my version in DA. The discord has lots of amazing work that creators have made through the program. It always strikes me as crazy how they're able to combine objects to make something unique; I saw someone made an entire underground railtrack for example. The program itself can be quite memory intensive and I have had a few crashes. But otherwise, I've loved using Dungeon Alchemist.

@platinumshadow5626 Жыл бұрын

Alright this looks pretty great. I love how easy it looks to import a map to Foundry and have it automatically preserve the wall and lighting information so you don't have to manually go over everything anyways. Exploring a map in VTT with token vision lighting and fog of war feels immersive in a way that is hard to capture at the tabletop.

@wulfgold Жыл бұрын

One of the nicer feature of DA is doing a walkthrough -doing an brief intro video of "area highlights" is particularly cool. + They've recently added "green screen" custom templates that are VERY nice.

@jamesaskins9547 Жыл бұрын

I've tried alot of map making software, nothing is perfect, but DA comes damn close. The ability to both quickly throw out a map AND take as mich time as you like to make it suit exactly what you want is awesome. The new "Blank Slate" tools (ie where you can put your own textures on green screen objects) really excites me because now nothing is off the table, total customisation! I have made so many maps that don't even have buildings on them, the terrain system is just so good, its worth it for that alone! And now animated maps for upload! I've not actually tried this yet, but as I run a digital battlemap at my table this is mind blowing!

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

The blank slate tools will be really cool if that can be supported by steam workshop so folks can share asset packs!

@jamesaskins9547 Жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames that would take things to a different level.... but.... something tells me that also adds a massive level of complication. However, I suppose technically you could just make art packs without any automation that you can just apply as skins manually. Its just a format and a shape afterall. No difference from creating your own skins from scratch. Copy write or IP issues maybe? Not sure! (Not an expert!)

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

@@jamesaskins9547 I think they do plan on letting you import your own 3d assets, which would open up the market for 3rd party assets for the tool. I'm excited to see how it develops!

@lynnskelton7971 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing. It will be great to create nice maps and print them off in full for table play or cut them out and make tiles from them to lay out as they move through the areas. Can't wait until I can rig up a 43" TV in a carry case to take places (i.e. comic/game shop, one of the player's homes we play at at times), lay it down as our play area and pull up the awesome maps as needed. Looking forward to exploring the program and hoping it will truly save me a lot of time!

@knavesquill9198 Жыл бұрын

I had no clue about this program. I will be acquiring it ASAP; thanks for featuring it!

@PoorRoleModel Жыл бұрын

I got smacked with the ad about it, and thought it looked like a cheesy mobile game, but as I was getting up to hit skip, I decided I would check out a video on it. This is the one and only video I needed to see. I'm sold.

@SightUnseen555 10 ай бұрын

The software looks great, just hope they continue adding lots more setting types that can make it usable for different campaign types. Everything so far is pretty vanilla fantasy. I'm prepping to run a Spelljammer campaign and it looks like there's very little that I will be able to use this for that, unfortunately.

@helix3955 Жыл бұрын

Looks amazing, thanks for the thorough review!

@lolzorzegiknietWoWzz 3 ай бұрын

i don't play dungeons and dragons but i think it is cool you can create something in 3D

@droidgeist 4 ай бұрын

Someone please make a full set of Dungeon Alchemist maps for Lost Mine of Phandelver and other popular campaigns. I don't have a computer powerful enough to run DA, but love the look of their maps. Would love to see community assets like this emerge for people like me.

@Hendriksys 10 ай бұрын

They need to add a function to export the design to STL so we can 3d print it.

@diggeroldmate8122 Жыл бұрын

Foundry frikkin rules. Would love to see some other assets from DA rather than the typical Eurocentric/Medieval look. Need some desert and other types of tropes for buildings.

@sterlingsilver9464 Жыл бұрын

this was a great review thank you. helped me decide to get it.

@etiennecrowe6011 Жыл бұрын

I love this program!!! Looking forward to multiple level support and better "roof on, roof off" options... But it's AMAZING.

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

Same! Having ceiling options would be great for getting more immersive 1st person flythroughs.

@DM-CW Жыл бұрын

Great tool. Main complaint I have is switching floor and wall type between rooms. Minor complaint.

@IdgaradLyracant 9 ай бұрын

If there was an Export to 3D Printer and spit out a print queue of objects to slice and print and you'd like have a lot of non-vtt players also lining up to use it.

@andresyuhnke 7 ай бұрын

Great video! What mod are you using for your lighting controls in Foundry? Thanks!

@WalkOnNick Жыл бұрын

All these new tools make ne excited about the future. I think it will be easier than ever to create.

@kebman Жыл бұрын

Looks like Ultima-esque rooms xD Man, this takes me back!

@Aznpockeygirl Жыл бұрын

This looks amazing. I’m 100% gonna get it. Does it do maps too? Like over world or city maps? If not I’d love some recommendations!

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

Just dungeon maps I'm afraid. Two options for world and city maps are wonderdraft and Inkarnate. I've got videos on both on the channel ☺️

@frozi7711 9 ай бұрын

As a new DM I just had my first session Sunday and my players loved it were doing WD Dragon Heist 5e and map making / yanking maps off the steam page players have already made and uploaded makes me so relieved I don't have to make maps for hours on hours as I'm busy with other things in life like college, and work its just a S tier product well worth the money.

@user-vv3se7po3l 8 ай бұрын

How did you get the characters and mobs in? In this video I only saw some generic free options but those weren't really interesting. Or can you also download more free characters?

@frozi7711 8 ай бұрын

@@user-vv3se7po3l so I use Roll 20 for tokens and dynamic lighting

@crankysmurf Жыл бұрын

Thanks for showing this! I've been looking for a good map maker app and the ones I've seen so far I wasn't impressed with (either their art style (too cartoony) or a monthly sub).

@exodous02 Жыл бұрын

I wish they would team up with Demeo and allow people to create custom maps for the game. These would look really cool in VR.

@shawnpeterson2523 Жыл бұрын

Wow, this looks incredible. Reasonably fast and nice looking. Any catches before I buy?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

Biggest catch for me is that it only does rectangular rooms at the moment, and not polygon or organic shaped rooms.

@IanPanth Жыл бұрын

It is my go to map builder now.

@b0baf00t8 9 ай бұрын

People: AI is aware AI: I'm just going to put this lit candle in the middle of the floor where it belongs.

@IcarusGames 9 ай бұрын

I dunno what to tell ya, times are tough, we don't got the coin for fancy side tables, we have to put our candles on the floor!

@TheBeast12567 9 ай бұрын

Can you do multiple stories? Like stairs, ramps, ladders, and cliffsides?

@kevc5532 Ай бұрын

No, this was the thing that won me over to Chronos Builder. DA does much better rooms, and fills them much more sensibly. So for single level scenes using European medieval, it is the much better tool IMO. If you want multiple levels or more themes, then Chronos builder is the better one. The dream would be Chronos Builder with DA's AI for more sensible rooms IMO

@RayRayVs 8 ай бұрын

thank you for your time

@user-yb7lo8tj2p Ай бұрын

my guy responded to every comment what a nice guy🙃

@nicholasvanaria8043 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video, it was very helpful. One quick question (and forgive me if I missed it somewhere). Can the maps you generate be printed out with 1" grids so they can be laid on the table and played the old fashioned tabletop way, or is it strictly for VTT?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

Just double checked and you can set it to scale with printed maps.

@nicholasvanaria8043 Жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames Thank you!!!!

@theArtOFjon 4 ай бұрын

Im new to this. How do you use these map? Upload or import them into a larger gaming program?

@MalcIgg Жыл бұрын

Just over £30 on Steam Open access, so something of an investment, but if it works fro you, then easily worth it -- I would love it to be able to output in pencil sketch style from overhead map , but more old school I know, but these high colour glossy pictures aren't quite for me, maybe a black and white pass and filter in GIMP etc

@SightUnseen555 10 ай бұрын

You can export the images as greyscale if you want.

@Kaiju-Driver Жыл бұрын

I'll admit, this looks super cool.

@rickprocure6321 Жыл бұрын

Question, in your game would you use maps made in DA and dungeondraft? Being different look style. I like dungeondraft andxwouldnt stop using it but i dont always have alot of prep time also so like the idea of DA.

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

Yeah I use maps from many sources each session depending on prep time.

@chrisjamesies Жыл бұрын

Does anyone know of any rpg's with robust map builders in them? I don't think something quite as powerful as this exists but any suggestions would be great! I don't play tabletop but I love building sims.

@laylen245 Жыл бұрын

hey mate i was wondering if i can get some advice over the last 4 years i have been working on my own world but only using pen and paper i have every drawn out even the story of the citys and races and even a 3000 year time line from start to finish, what would be best for me to start creating my world wonderdraft or Inkarnate. i know you use legendkeeper will that be best for me? i have a lot things to put in.. cities, dungeon's and towns etc. thanks for the video's so far i have learnt a lot

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

If everything is written by hand, there's a couple things you can do to make life easier; With legendkeeper, you can upload images of your hand drawn maps to add location pins etc to. To get the text into digital format, if you have a lot of text, it might be faster to dictate the text into your phone (most have speech-to-text built in) and then send that to yourself. These days I prefer inkarnate to wonderdraft for world and city maps, because the asset resolution is way higher.

@laylen245 Жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames thanks heaps :)

@leKitsu 9 ай бұрын

There should be a mode to change it into a 2D drawn map for better battle maps

@RobertWF42 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the review - can you make caverns with DA?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

You can! They added the features for it last week so it's still early on functionality, but it is possible!

@RobertWF42 Жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames Great, thank you - one more question: Have you made color printouts of DA maps for your games? If so is it a simple process & no issues with resolution and scale?

@Domasiukas Жыл бұрын

Is there something like this but for modern settings? Not necessarily for tabletop, either. Just something like Hammer++ is for Source games.

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

Modern doesn't get a lot of support in the tabletop tools sphere. Unreal engine comes with a bunch of stock assets, and depending on your level of technical proficiency, could be an amazing way to make some modern maps, but it will be a lot more labor intensive than something like this.

@pheralanpathfinder4897 Ай бұрын

What is the maximum number of squares for a virtual map to be uploaded to a VTT?

@Martin_Daniel 7 ай бұрын

Can it make multistores buildings? Or ceilings at least?

@IcarusGames 7 ай бұрын

I don't believe ceilings are something it can do, no.

@jhayejarvis Жыл бұрын

Can it create sci fi or maybe cyberpunk? Or maybe import custom designs for a campaign? P.s. Love the review

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

I believe at the moment it's only fantasy assets.

@nickcharles1284 Жыл бұрын

I'm not sure I'm interested in a system that may or may not produce the thing I want to produce. I want a system that produces a bar-room when I want a room with a bar and some tables.

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

In that case you would choose the bar room option. You can either have random or specific rooms.

@Shlycer Жыл бұрын

How does this compare to things like Talespire? Or GM engine?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

I have no experience with either of those unfortunately.

@MrFinchx Жыл бұрын

that's cool

@P.oliver 7 ай бұрын

Can I export these assets into a program like maya or blender?

@IcarusGames 7 ай бұрын

I don't think so, but I'm not certain.

@synmad3638 Жыл бұрын

I'm struggling to decide if I should buy Dungeon Alchemist instead of Dungeondraft. Would you say Dungeon Alchemist has a good variety of themes and assets?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

It's got a nice selection, but not as many as dungeondraft when you consider third party assets. The big benefit of dungeon alchemist for me is the procedural generation.

@SwingRipper Жыл бұрын

I would say that Dungeon Alchemist right now has two pain points for me specifically. Lack of natural cave type walls (there is basic stone and rock assets but no cave mode yet, will be added next major update), and it is very hard to do verticality IE pits and stairs on the same map. I personally really prefer DA even with those two issues tho!

@SightUnseen555 10 ай бұрын

DA looks nicer and is easier to make quick maps and supports 3D but is more expensive. Dungeondraft is more work to populate your maps with clutter and is 2D only but much cheaper, and also has support for importing custom assets so your library of tools is a lot more expansive. DA so far only has a few set themes for rooms and environments and if your needs don't fall into that then you're out of luck.

@TonyHulk Жыл бұрын

I wish this "review" had some negatives in it. Couple things I noticed here was it was odd how spinning the light and shadows the tree shadows ignored walls. I sure wish the 3d rendering could be exported and had more assets. But it is still cool

@naturejohn Жыл бұрын

One negative is if you actually wanted to print the maps. You have to import the image to something like photoshop or gimp in order to resize it for 1" squares. After doing this, it creates a very large image, so you would also need a printer that will print larger size paper, ie 13" x 19". In addition, if you wanted to create a full dungeon or cave system, it would take multiple print jobs for even a small one. So not so great for old-school pnp. Probably better if you have a large monitor in your gaming table.

@SightUnseen555 10 ай бұрын

@@naturejohn Not sure if it's a new feature now, but you can when making a new map choose to have it fit on 1" grid for printable size formats. Although admittedly the map sizes that way are VERY small. A few rooms at most per page.

@iceman86688 Жыл бұрын

cool

@Keaggan Жыл бұрын

Foundry should buy this and make it an exclusive on their platform.

@michaelhenry7510 Жыл бұрын

How well does this translate to Foundry?

@michaelhenry7510 Жыл бұрын

Never mind i should have waited till the later portion of the video.

@PoorRoleModel Жыл бұрын

Wizardry and black magic.

@CelloThe15th 8 ай бұрын

Is it all fantasy? Or is there modern era support?

@IcarusGames 8 ай бұрын

All fantasy at the moment. I believe they have mentioned adding support for importing your own files, which will open up the option for modern era stuff via 3rd party providers.

@dragenfoo 8 ай бұрын

personally i feel like its a Lazy map making program and also not very styleish or costumizeable. it may take you less time but you might aswell just find a allready made map online.

@IcarusGames 8 ай бұрын

it's definitely more customizable than getting a pre made map, given that you can change elements. The style is down to personal preference for sure, but as for any notion of laziness; people have different levels of time for their prep, and if this lets someone get a map that's a bit more bespoke than just finding an image on google without having to spend an hour building it from scratch that might be enough for them to consider it worth it.

@dragenfoo 8 ай бұрын

@@IcarusGames I would personally still recommend DungeonDraft above Dungeon Alchemist, but hey whatever floats your boat right. But I do personally find Dungeon Alchemist's art style to be un-immersive and also the Indoor terrain as poorly placed if you want to use tables, beds and so on as things on your battle map that your players can interact with or manipulate (for the quick build option ofc).

@Tysto 6 ай бұрын

I can forgive the anachronism of a "lavatory" in a medieval building (pre-modern toilets did exist), but what is a piano doing in a medieval tavern?? The piano wasn't invented until 1698!

@IcarusGames 6 ай бұрын

Think you'll find it's a fictional, fantasy tavern, not a tavern set in a real period of history 😂

@honkman29 8 ай бұрын

Id genuinely consider getting this just to design the rooms and not even use them

@MadstoneAdventures Жыл бұрын

Nice helmets? Are you 501st?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

Nah, 501st and Mercs have way too strict requirements for me to bother. I just have a couple costumes.

@arvetis Жыл бұрын

The scale is wrong for D&D and they refuse to fix it. It's 1 meter per square. That's a complete dealbreaker for me.

@nip3004 6 ай бұрын

If it makes life harder for people who fund and support a horrible company like Hasbro then that's a big thumbs up from me

@arvetis 6 ай бұрын

@@nip3004 Cool. It's also the same standard used by just about everything else.

@nip3004 6 ай бұрын

@arvetis true, but most people understand that it's not even the actual system used by 5e. The 5ft is an abstraction not a reality. Wizards own maps rarely even use 5ft as 5ft. They are normally nowhere close.

@arvetis 6 ай бұрын

@@nip3004 There's a difference between "you're not always consistent with your scale" and "your entire scale is intentionally twice the size it should be"

@nip3004 6 ай бұрын

@arvetis but that's what I mean. Several first party maps have been half the size they should be or over twice. Because it doesn't actually matter.

@malcerne7496 8 ай бұрын

Okay... Serious now... This tool is AI based... And AI has only been gaining attention for what? 1 - 1.5 years? I can't even imagine how the world of games will be with AI in the future? Just imagine! Entire Fantasy worlds with endless adventures generated randomly!

@crypticPk 9 ай бұрын

$45 no thanks. look's really cool.

@JimmyCakeSon Жыл бұрын

I dont get it What is this game for ?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

It's map making software to make encounter maps for fantasy RPGs.

@JimmyCakeSon Жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames So its like basicaly a software for game developers Right ? To simplify creation of maps 4 their games ye ?

@IcarusGames Жыл бұрын

I don't believe you could use the maps in video games. It's designed for tabletop roleplaying games.

@JimmyCakeSon Жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGamesoh i see but how do u use it Do u print it out on papers And give em to the guys ure playing with 2 help with visualization or just show em straight from the laptop or something

@chuck9612 8 ай бұрын

@@JimmyCakeSonyou can do it in several ways, but I think it's mostly meant for players who use virtual tabletop software, like roll20 or Foundry. They allow you to show maps to all the players on their screen, to roll their dice online and a lot of other stuff. These have become very popular in the last few years, especially during covid