Let me start off by saying I am already a believer in this program, and I have been using it as a crucial tool in the creation of my fantasy world. There are many things about this program that make it better than its competition, and any serious writers or dungeon masters out there should consider Wonderdraft when creating their own play spaces. As a visual creator, having the ability to create maps as granular and as large as I want make it that much easier for me to plot out the major elements of my stories. If you, like me, need to be able to see the layout of the world you’re working on, then I cannot stress enough that you should consider Wonderdraft as your mapping solution.
Overview of Features
Wonderdraft is already a robust tool for map creation, and the developer Megasploot continues to work on the program to add new features and make the program better. Active in the community on Reddit, he receives feedback directly from users as he works to implement new features. Below are the features already found in the program listed on the Wonderdraft website.
- Generate realistic landmasses of different types
- Brush landmasses with automatically beautified coastlines
- Draw rivers and roads that look artistic with a few clicks
- Paint groups of tree and mountain symbols painlessly
- Artistically curated default map themes
- Create aesthetic labels using presets
- Map dimensions anywhere from 512 pixels to 8192 pixels
- DRM-free software and royalty-free user-made content
- Surface Pro 4, Wacom and digital pen support
Getting Started is Easy
Getting started on your map is easy. First, you want to make sure you pick a canvas size that will allow you ample room for detail. Don’t know what size is appropriate? Select one from the Templates. Then, pick either landscape or portrait and a theme to start with and you’re off! Don’t worry if you don’t like the theme you chose when creating the map – you can change this at any time!
Now you have a blank slate! Get to creating! Too much freedom and not sure where to get started? No problem. Use the Landmass Wizard to get a good starting point for your world.
Paint Your World
Want to change the color of the ground on your landmasses? It’s as easy as using the Ground Color Brush, adjusting your brush shape and size, selecting or defining a color, and painting away.
High Water Customization
All landmasses should have naturally occurring rivers and lakes. Putting them in Wonderdraft is easy – just use the built in tools for river and lake creation.
At any point, you can erase parts of the rivers and lakes if you don’t like them by using the Freshwater Eraser tool. Want to change the color of any water in the map? Just use the Water Color Brush.
Landmarks and Terrain
Time to start placing mountains, hills, valleys, buildings, bridges, cities and various symbols to start making your map look lived in! By using the Symbols tool, you can place any of the symbols you want, changing the colors and size as needed.
At any point, you can select groups of symbols you placed and delete them if you’re not happy with them. Feel free to start over at any point!
What’s in a Name?
What good is a map without any names of locations, rivers, lakes and regions? This is where you get to be as creative as you want!
The tools here are extremely impressive – Change anything from the Font, size, colors, outlines, CURVATURE and more. Writers block? Let the Name Generator create the name for you. Use the preset label types, or create your own and save it as a template for future use.
As with everything else, customize it as much as you like, and delete what you don’t. You really do have the power of a world builder at your finger tips here.
Conclusion
I use it. You should use it, too. I cannot say enough nice things about this program, honestly.
What’s more is that, unlike most of its competitors, this program is a one time purchase of just $30.00, whereas many of the other similar programs have recurring payment plans you have to subscribe to. If you’re like me and hate subscriptions, then take an honest look at this program.
Here’s a glimpse how I’ve actually used the program, in the world I’m creating.
If you’d like more examples of what can be done – and so many entries people have made blow mine out of the water – then check out the community on Reddit. With that said, I’m heading back to my world to make it even better. After all, this is only about 25% of the land in my map!
