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Grid Cartographer for creating dungeons in CRPGs

LarryTyphoid

Scholar
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
2,233
I plan on using Grid Cartographer professional edition to create maps for a Wizardry-like first-person tile-based CRPG. The professional edition allows you to export maps in a variety of file formats like JSON, XML, and CSV. Has anyone else done this? If not, what method for mapping would you recommend? I'm writing this in C so far, mostly out of not knowing any better.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,086
Location
デゼニランド
Has anyone else done this?
I did it for testing purposes to see if it will optimize the level design process, as the last thing I want to do is to spend days planning a level only to realize the plan was fun on paper but sucks ass gameplay-wise.

It'll take a bit of work to parse the exported data and get used to the format, but you'll be able to add new dungeons and tweak their designs much faster.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
If there'll be any sort of map visualization in your game anyway then you may as well just make your own tool using a common code.
 

LarryTyphoid

Scholar
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
2,233
If there'll be any sort of map visualization in your game anyway then you may as well just make your own tool using a common code.
Any resources on how to go about doing so? I'm a complete gamedev virgin.
 

quaesta

Educated
Joined
Oct 27, 2022
Messages
150
If there'll be any sort of map visualization in your game anyway then you may as well just make your own tool using a common code.
Any resources on how to go about doing so? I'm a complete gamedev virgin.
  • Your map is either a 2D array or a 1D offset array, of entities
  • Each entitiy represents a tile (what is the floor), walls (what is the north, south, east, west) of it, ceiling (if applicable), flag (trap, quest, etc), and any creature/item on it
  • You have a toolbox (like picrel) of stuff you can place on it
  • save in whatever format you want
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/09/winforms-designer-1.png
It shouldn't be too hard, but if you're a codefag virgin it might be tricky. I've heard of people using Tiled, so you can give that a shot as well.
For actual libraries, you want something that can render windows. Anything can work, so just get your perferred language, and look up it's GUI library and you should be ready.
 

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