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

[@DungeonAlchemist]

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

[@ShellySummers]

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

[@3nertia]

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

[@DungeonAlchemist]

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

[@3nertia]

@@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]

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

[@alexrobbins5000]

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!

[@tearstoneactual9773]

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.

[@BTimelessC]

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.

[@hectorcornejo1468]

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]

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.

[@zibbitybibbitybop]

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]

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.

[@jamesaskins9547]

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]

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

[@jamesaskins9547]

@@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]

@@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!

[@Great.AnotherChristian]

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

[@platinumshadow5626]

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]

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.

[@knavesquill9198]

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

[@PoorRoleModel]

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.

[@lolzorzegiknietWoWzz]

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

[@lynnskelton7971]

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!

[@SightUnseen555]

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.

[@frozi7711]

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.

[@MarcoJasper]

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]

@@MarcoJasper so I use Roll 20 for tokens and dynamic lighting

[@Hendriksys]

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

[@etiennecrowe6011]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@IdgaradLyracant]

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.

[@WalkOnNick]

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

[@helix3955]

Looks amazing, thanks for the thorough review!

[@TheBeast12567]

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

[@kevc5532]

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

[@DM-CW]

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

[@RayRayVs]

thank you for your time

[@Aznpockeygirl]

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]

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 ☺️

[@LastNameTom]

LOL, the sun casts shadows on things inside a building. Great review though, I might buy it now.

[@droidgeist]

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.

[@kharmstorm1]

Looking into this a year later. I play tabletop and am curious if it prints well when you went from the 2D top down mode? You skimmed over settings but I’m hoping to get more info before buying as it’s roughly 40$ right now. I use standard battle maps and am hoping that I can make and print a tavern and be able to just place it on the map as one large tile.

[@DungeonAlchemist]

Dungeon Alchemist was originally built for top down printed maps. We offer the ability to design and print your map at home to a variety of popular paper sizes, custom map sizes that you can take to a print shop, or you can oven order you maps as a waterproof neoprene mat from our partner Kraken Wargames. Our maps can be exported as a Jpg up to 300dpi with or without the grid in Orthographic top down or Perspective 3D

[@kebman]

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

[@shawnpeterson2523]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@sterlingsilver9464]

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

[@andresyuhnke]

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

[@pheralanpathfinder4897]

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

[@nicholasvanaria8043]

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]

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

[@nicholasvanaria8043]

@@IcarusGames Thank you!!!!

[@MalcIgg]

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]

You can export the images as greyscale if you want.

[@exodous02]

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.

[@HBookbinderGM]

It is my go to map builder now.

[@theArtOFjon]

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

[@laylen245]

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]

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]

@@IcarusGames thanks heaps :)

[@will-m3q2t]

my guy responded to every comment what a nice guy🙃

[@b0baf00t8]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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!

[@Martin_Daniel]

Can it make multistores buildings? Or ceilings at least?

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@leKitsu]

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

[@Kaiju-Driver]

I'll admit, this looks super cool.

[@rickprocure6321]

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]

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

[@nickcharles1284]

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]

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

[@dragenfoo]

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]

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]

​@@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).

[@Shlycer]

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

[@IcarusGames]

I have no experience with either of those unfortunately.

[@Domasiukas]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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.

[@RobertWF42]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@RobertWF42]

@@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?

[@crankysmurf]

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).

[@P.oliver]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@synmad3638]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[@chrisjamesies]

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.

[@TonyHulk]

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]

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]

@@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.

[@michaelhenry7510]

How well does this translate to Foundry?

[@michaelhenry7510]

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

[@PoorRoleModel]

Wizardry and black magic.

[@CelloThe15th]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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.

[@jhayejarvis]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@Goop4646]

that's cool

[@iceman86688]

cool

[@arvetis]

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]

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]

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

[@nip3004]

@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]

@@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]

@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.

[@Tysto]

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]

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

[@Keaggan]

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

[@honkman29]

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

[@MadstoneAdventures]

Nice helmets? Are you 501st?

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@JimmyCakeSon]

I dont get it What is this game for ?

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@JimmyCakeSon]

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

[@IcarusGames]

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

[@JimmyCakeSon]

@@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]

​@@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

[@malcerne7496]

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]

$45 no thanks. look's really cool.

[@dutArkham]

thanks for the video Icarus. i hate to be that guy but have you seen a doctor lately? the left side of you mouth doesnt seem to match the right side, droop on the left side of the face is a sign of stroke.

[@IcarusGames]

I appreciate the concern (really!) but I've always had that lopsided, Elvis-style raise to the right side of my mouth that makes the left look a bit droopy. I have been back and forth to the Drs lately for other stuff so I'll mention it next time I see them as there's no harm in being double safe!