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Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

dungeonscrawl.com

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Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#12

Post by probabletrain »

richard_mcp wrote: post #3

The "old school" style they're advertising is mostly based off of Dyson Logo's maps. I think it's interesting that this seem to come out after Dyson started teasing a similar program for his Patreon subscribers. On one hand, it's a great looking piece of software, but it feels a little scummy to write software that heavily leans on Dyson's style and then directly compete with him.

Actually, development started before Dyson's Photoshop product, and sure it leans on his style, but the hatching existed before and was popularised by him. It's a common style across many existing dungeon mapping tools, and just one of the styles offered by the tool.

Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#13

Post by richard_mcp »

probabletrain wrote: post #12
richard_mcp wrote: post #3

The "old school" style they're advertising is mostly based off of Dyson Logo's maps. I think it's interesting that this seem to come out after Dyson started teasing a similar program for his Patreon subscribers. On one hand, it's a great looking piece of software, but it feels a little scummy to write software that heavily leans on Dyson's style and then directly compete with him.

Actually, development started before Dyson's Photoshop product, and sure it leans on his style, but the hatching existed before and was popularised by him. It's a common style across many existing dungeon mapping tools, and just one of the styles offered by the tool.

I'm glad to hear that! The style is very popular in the drawn maps I've seen. I haven't been interested in maps for long and don't pay too much attention to digital map programs. I associate the style with Dyson, as that what I've heard other people do. I first saw you tweeting about the program after I saw Dyson's tweet and the Dungeon Scrawl site says the development began on May 8th, which is why I thought the timeline looked a little suspect. I'm happy to hear that's not the case.

Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#14

Post by nickthegreek »

e12e wrote: post #4
richard_mcp wrote: post #3

The "old school" style they're advertising is mostly based off of Dyson Logo's maps. I think it's interesting that this seem to come out after Dyson started teasing a similar program for his Patreon subscribers. On one hand, it's a great looking piece of software, but it feels a little scummy to write software that heavily leans on Dyson's style and then directly compete with him.

Is this somehow distinctive from Dragon Magazine / Dungeon Magazine from the late 80s in a way I'm not seeing? Or eg. the various TSR boxed settings with dungeons?

Dungeonscrawl is definitely inspired by Dyson.

Here are some tweets by the maker:

https://twitter.com/probabletrain/status/1259172635776294912... https://twitter.com/probabletrain/status/1258821040937013248...

Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#16

Post by cthalupa »

scott_s wrote: post #15

Is the Escher-esque image under "Isometric Edit Mode" ( https://dungeonscrawl.com/images/pic10.png ) a joke, or does the tool allow for physically impossible layouts? Or am I reading the image wrong and it's a physical layout?

> does the tool allow for physically impossible layouts?

I hope so! I've definitely run some dungeons that had Escher-esque layouts. It's for D&D dungeons, not real life architecture :)

Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#17

Post by scott_s »

jjice wrote: post #8

My dad has always talked about how much he loved having to draw his own maps for games like Labyrinth [0] and Asylum [1]. He just recently played Breath of the Wild and while he loved it, he mentioned how cool it would be to have to draw the map there. I love the spirit in this, great job! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth_(1980_video_game) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_(1981_video_game)

Your dad may enjoy the Etrian Odyssey series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrian_Odyssey) for the DS and 3DS where a big part of the game is you drawing the map on the bottom screen as you explore the dungeon.

Review of the latest game for 3DS: https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/17/16492092/etrian-odyssey-5...

Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#18

Post by aidenn0 »

scott_s wrote: post #15

Is the Escher-esque image under "Isometric Edit Mode" ( https://dungeonscrawl.com/images/pic10.png ) a joke, or does the tool allow for physically impossible layouts? Or am I reading the image wrong and it's a physical layout?

AFACT it's just a line drawing tool that supports isometric drawing.

One of the defining features of isometric is that such layouts are possible because the X/Y axes are identically sized (iso = same; metric= measurement) regardless of the position on the Z axis.

Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#19

Post by sbarre »

richard_mcp wrote: post #13
probabletrain wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, development started before Dyson's Photoshop product, and sure it leans on his style, but the hatching existed before and was popularised by him. It's a common style across many existing dungeon mapping tools, and just one of the styles offered by the tool.

I'm glad to hear that! The style is very popular in the drawn maps I've seen. I haven't been interested in maps for long and don't pay too much attention to digital map programs. I associate the style with Dyson, as that what I've heard other people do. I first saw you tweeting about the program after I saw Dyson's tweet and the Dungeon Scrawl site says the development began on May 8th, which is why I thought the tim…

I was hand-drawing cross-hatched style maps on graph paper in the early 90s when I was a teenager running my own campaigns, and I certainly don't claim to have invented it either..

Mine didn't look quite so good though. ;-)

Re: Dungeon Scrawl: Old school maps in minutes

#20

Post by probabletrain »

scott_s wrote: post #15

Is the Escher-esque image under "Isometric Edit Mode" ( https://dungeonscrawl.com/images/pic10.png ) a joke, or does the tool allow for physically impossible layouts? Or am I reading the image wrong and it's a physical layout?

The tool allows for that, but it takes some effort and familiarity to actually do - the isometric mode just does a rotate and squeeze scale
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