Dungeon Mapper 0.2 alpha
So I’ve been playing a bit of Arcana lately on the SNES, and due to the inadequacies of the built-in automap, I’ve been trying to keep my own map. Unfortunately, the “best” solution I’ve found so far is still grid paper; Dungeon Crawl Map Maker without the Bullshit is pretty close, but it’s far too slow and fidgety with the current mouse interface.
So I’ve decided to start writing something myself. The goal of this program is to be fast, precise and keyboard-driven. The idea is to simply move a cursor around the map and quickly draw walls & floors without constantly switching and clicking all over the place. This is a preview version to get people’s opinions on the idea and control scheme, etc.
Here is how I’ve mocked it up so far:
- Arrows : Move cursor
- Page up/Page Down : Next/Previous Dungeon level
- Space : Draw floor
- W, S, A, D : Draw walls (in specified direction)
- X : Draw glyph (stairs up/down icons only so far)
- Q, E : Select wall type
- Z, C : Select glyph type
- F, V : Select floor type
- Plus, Minus : Zoom in and out
Also, due to the use of S as a functional key, the save/load keys have been remapped to the F-keys. The dungeon size is now variable (choose the size when you select “New”), and files can be saved or loaded as .dungeon files. Since it is keyboard based, the dungeon will scroll when you move the cursor to the edge of the screen since I had problems with the OS-based scrolling. Note when drawing, you can hold down the “draw” buttons and move the cursor with the arrows to quickly block in an area/create a corridor, etc.
Here’s more or less what I plan to implement:
- Lots more Floor/Wall/Glyph types
- Customizable controls (maybe?)
- Note-taking
- Printing
Here’s the download: DungeonMapper-0.2a.zip (165 KB)
It’s Java-based, so you’ll need to install that first. Once that’s done, you should be able to un-zip it somewhere and double-click on “DungenMapper.jar”. If that doesn’t work try opening a command-prompt and running “java -jar DungeonMapper.jar”.
In any case, what I’m interested in is:
- Is this actually useful? Have you already found something better?
- Do you have any issues or suggestions with the control scheme?
- What Floors/Glyphs/Walls are you looking for? I’m planning to provide similar capabilities to Etrian Odyssey and some of the stuff from the Dungeon Crawl Map maker linked above.
I’ve also included a partial map of the Ice Mines from Arcana, which just happens to be where I am in the game and which prompted this entire development exercise. It can be useful if you want to play around in an existing map without drawing a whole new one… or if you’re playing Arcana too :D
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[...] updated the original Dungeon Mapper post with an updated version of the tool. Major improvements [...]
Pingback by Zerk Zone » Dungeon Mapper Updated — January 17, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
Can’t get this to run on Mac OS 10.5.8. Java is updated to current, but just starts and stops.
Comment by Mike — February 26, 2010 @ 1:28 am
Oops, I must have uploaded a bad build (some of the images didn’t get packaged into the JAR file somehow). I have fixed the situation and re-uploaded; try now.
Comment by Zerker — February 27, 2010 @ 8:47 am