Marqués’ tool has actually been out in open beta for over a month, but it’s today’s update that really caught my eye. By adding a little “plop” animation to tile placement, Map Sketcher gains an almost Townscaper-like quality that makes sculpting these dungeons an absolute joy. It can be a little fiddly at first, but within minutes I was bashing out multi-tiered sprawls deserving of any Skyrim contender.
Of course, these hallways are a lot less vibrant than Stålberg’s procedural seasides, but there’s a charm to Sketcher’s almost architectural layouts - like I’m working at some kind of goblin construction firm, perfecting the blueprints for the dark lord’s evil lair. While I doubt we’ll see the kind of incredible constructions that came out of Townscaper from Map Sketcher, the latter does at least promise a degree of playability. A server browser lets you invite friends for a proper game of D&D, tokens and all, letting you quickly bash together scenarios for your weekly group. Of course, you’ll still need some kind of dice-roller and voice tool to actually run your adventures. Marqués also plans to eventually let you export maps as 3D models, making this potentially a really interesting option for prototyping gamedev levels. If you’re looking to a neat way build your next death labyrinth or just want to throw some lovely blocks together, however, D&D Map Sketcher can be played in your browser for free over on Itch.io.
