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World Engine: the online RPG Map Maker Kickstarter is LIVE!

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by owlbear, Mar 5, 2017.

  1. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    Hello All,

    Because we're gluttons for punishment, the team over here has been hard at work preparing our new World Engine map builder for general consumption.

    World Engine will launch on Kickstarter early next week!

    WorldEngineLogo.png

    The tool is built on canvas web technology enabling it to work in any browser on desktop or tablet. Technically the system also works on phones, but the screen space is a bit cramped!

    You can see the preview site over here and you can access a preview edition of the web-application here.

    Accounts are still being worked on, so your mileage will vary in terms of saving and loading maps. Also ** be warned that this system is pre-alph and **all** maps will be purged before we launch the kickstarter next week**

    Okay, PSA done. On with the coolness!

    World Engine is a gridded map builder which handles both tiles and free form drawing. In the current incarnation (pre-alpha) tile painting is working and freeform drawing is working as well, however only tiles are actually attached to the grid and available for printing/exporting into your favorite VTT's.

    The following is a snippet from the kickstarter video showing tablet usage and free hand + tile blending.

    tablet.gif

    World Engine's free hand drawing is a path based painting system which will enable us (and you) to change textures even after a map has been made. Additionally, you'll be able to toggle shadow, outline, and change various other properties like brush stroke type.

    Filled-Shape.gif

    Tile drawing is definitely where World Engine found it's roots. As you can see below, we offer an infinite grid and the ability to scale, rotate and place tiles in multiple layers. Right now the layer system is still very much in development so it's functions are pretty basic.

    tile-drawing.gif

    One of the most common questions folks have is can I load up my own tiles. The answer is yes! with API connection to Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and Google Drive, to name a few, planned at launch you'll be able to access your own tilesets where ever you tend to store them.

    Additionally, we're adding a full library of tiles which will be accessible both within D20PRO and World Engine. If you own them in one place, you'll have access to them in the other.

    External URL.gif

    Finally, when we go live, you'll be able to create your own tiles, blend existing tiles, tile sets and apply a raft of filters to your layers or map as you see fit.

    Because pictures speak louder than words... check these out these samples.
    The first is a free hand drawing using the current, limited, non-grid friendly draw tool implementation.

    Waterfall-handdrawn.png

    The second here is a full dungeon/tomb with traps, secret doors, and objects of interest. The tile sets in use are our own tiles, as well as Hemenway's Item set and a few assets from Graemation for good measure.

    lowres-tomb.png

    We're absolutely pre-alpha at this stage, however, the D20PRO team has been using this tool inhouse for map making for over a year -- the last few crawls were completely built using the tile features.

    The core features are as follows:
    • Infinite grid/canvas
    • Extensive tile library with support from major tile artists
    • Custom wall and fill texture brushes
    • Shadows and outlines
    • Cloud save
    • Multiple levels of Undo
    • Snap-to-Grid Tile painting
    • Free Tile painting
    • External URL based tile import (pull sources from anywhere)
    • External Cloud storage connection for Dropbox, OneDrive, Box and other popular services
    • Filter library for post processing maps
    • Photoshop like layer system
    • Tons of brush options with more planned for the future
      • Roller
      • Pattern Brush
      • Pencil
      • Flood Fill
      • Tile Eraser
      • Freeform Eraser
      • Eyedropper
      • Text Painter
      • Gradient Brush
      • Felt Marker
      • Scatter Brush
      • to name a few
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    Another freeform sample. When the UI is complete, you'll be able to draw these, export them then add the result to your tile library. See below for a re-imported hand-drawn tile blended with another asset.
    lava_river.png

    Using a drop in Bridge on top of a hand-drawn (in-app) free form tile. When the tools are fully functional, you'll be able to drop and repeat your own tiles and then blend the edges either by hand or with filters.
    Use-Your-Own-Tiles.PNG

    And one more example of blending freeform drawing and tile painting. Here we have tiles painted at an angle to the grid and hand drawn elements used to join them.

    Waterfall-askew.PNG

    The original tile map before hand painted elements were added.
    Tile Map 004-sm.png
     
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  3. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    So, we haven't launched yet, but one of the devs sent me this lovely screenshot. I thought I'd share.

    HexMap.PNG

    Apparently hex maps are mostly function now!

    The idea is that the Hex and/or Grid can be enabled on output. These hexes are space aware, so could be used for snapping, however, the underlying logic is still grid based at this point.

    More to come as the team pushes on towards the Kickstarter launch!
     
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  4. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    The Kickstarter for World Engine is live!

    World Engine is our awesome new map maker that will let you create jaw-dropping maps quickly and easily. World Engine runs in your browser, and is optimized for touch, so you can build your maps on virtually any device. The app makes it a breeze to mix and match pre-made tiles with hand drawn shapes and textures to create truly custom maps.

    You don’t have to be graphic designer to create great looking maps for your campaign with World Engine. Easy-to-use doesn’t mean limited, however. World Engine supports all the mapping features you’d expect – pens, brushes, fills, layers, snap to grid, scaling, rotating, layers, transparencies – and more. It also provides the advanced tools that artists need to take their maps to the next level.

    Kickstarter backers can be the first to use World Engine with alpha/beta access AND they’ll lock in an exclusive low subscription rate.
     
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  5. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    Funded and unlocked the first Stretch Goal! Congratulations to all involved!!
     
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  6. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    So close the next goal. Figure I'd share the new "tutorial video" re-roll that just went up on Youtube.



    Lots going on behind the scenes to improve the tools and get ready to handle accounts. Exciting times!
     
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  7. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    Goal two unlocked last night. It adds a watercolor brush to the system which will do cool visual style effects.

    Plenty more tools to unlock as well as additional content :) Keep sharing!
     
  8. owlbear

    owlbear Administrator
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    Oh, and here's a little house map example using the development branch of things

    This was done with some of the newer draw modifier tools to lock the brush stroke axis (i.e. draw straight lines)
    The map is an example of blending textured tiles, brush strokes and opaque pen fills (hand drawn shadows for trees, etc).

    House.gif
     
  9. Wesley Gorby

    Wesley Gorby Production/Community Manager
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