Making Maps

I have always loved maps. Even as a small child, I was fascinated by those picture books with town or city scenes where you could discover all those little details and where you could see the complete town or city and imagine walking around in it. That is probably why I became so fascinated with them in the first place. At some point, then, I also became fascinated with the process of map-making and began to try it out for myself.

Whenever I come across a map in a book, even today, I can’t help but be fascinated and study it for longer than I probably should. It also doesn’t matter whether it’s a world map, an area map, a city map, or a blueprint (so, essentially, a house map). I love imagining what it would be like to be there and see it all.
Because of my fascination with maps, I’ve not only tried to draw them myself — although I have —, I’ve also looked into programs to do that with over time. Early programs I used for that were the Arcane Mapper and the Dungeon Painter Studio. Both are pretty easy to use and I have enjoyed working with them, but especially the Arcane Mapper relies heavily (or did the last time I used it) on the user finding more assets elsewhere.
I did get my hands on CC3+ as part of a Humble Bundle as well and now, with a stronger computer than I had then, I have also been looking into it, but it’s a hard one to get a grip on. Very powerful, but also very complicated.
Finally, unfortunately too late to back it on Kickstarter, I came across Dungeon Alchemist, which now is my go-to for digital map-making (although I as a writer am not the actual target audience). Dungeon Alchemist not only comes with a lot of assets (and the team is still adding more, as the game is still officially in Early Access), but also with an AI that can populate rooms according to their function without you having to put down all of the assets (furniture, decorations, lights, etc.) by hand. You can still change things later (or re-populate the room or delete all assets) with a few clicks, which is great.
So, yes, at the moment, Dungeon Alchemist is my main go-to when I quickly want to do an area map or a blueprint — mostly a blueprint.

Yet, recently I’ve also started to watch videos on YouTube from a guy who does ‘easy’ maps for fantasy games and suchlike. He’s doing it all — world maps, area maps, city maps, and dungeon maps (so something extremely similar to a blueprint) — and he’s doing it all with easy steps that make it look simple.
I’ve been trying it out already and I find that he’s right about it being simple and good-looking at the same time. That is good for the future, as I plan on doing some maps once I get to projects like “Sword and Dagger” which are set in a fantasy world and might profit from having at least a map of the city they’re set in. Being able to do them myself is a must, as I’m still self-publishing with little money to spare for help.
While I’m not yet prepared to produce something I would put into a book (and this year I won’t really have to, as the books I’m publishing are set in varieties of the real world and don’t need specific maps), I have begun to make my own maps and I enjoy it, so there’s a few things I’ve learned already.

The first thing I’ve learned, from Dungeon Alchemist as well as my own maps, is that planning is important. It’s best to start a map with a list of rooms, buildings, or landmarks you want and need to include.
For one thing, that will give you a hint on the size, as if you have a list of fifteen rooms your mansion must absolutely have, you will definitely need a larger map than for a peasant’s hovel with two rooms and a little outside area.
In addition, it will also help to spread those around the map early and then see to how they can be connected or what can be put around them. With a city map, for instance, you will want to put down all the buildings the city needs to function for you (all buildings in your story, for instance, or building that are needed for your RPG campaign) first and then fill up the space between the different streets with other buildings to reach ‘city’ status for the map.
Knowing beforehand what you’ll have on a map (or blueprint) means finding it easier to place everything in a logical way, too. If I have a dining room in my mansion, it should be close to the kitchen. A morning room should have windows facing east (as that was the point of a morning room — using the sunlight as early as possible). Bedrooms are usually on the first floor and not on the ground floor of a building (first and second floor respectively for Americans … or people from northern Germany). Taverns in a fantasy city should usually be close to big streets with a lot of traffic and to areas where a lot of people live or work. Inns might be close by the city walls, either inside or outside, to provide easy lodgings for travellers upon arrival in the city.

The second thing I’ve learned is that simple decorations can make a map look far more lively. A few simple trees made of triangles or circles with one or two lines underneath for a trunk, for instance, make the map look much better and are easy enough to do. A few short lines for grass, either straight or at an angle, can show open grassland or swamps. A triangle that’s open on the bottom is a mountain. A thicker line is a river — map-making is not only something for excellent artists. When I’m thinking back on the maps I’ve found fascinating in the past, many of them were no more complicated than that, either. Certainly, the map of Middle-Earth that held my attention longer than the Lord of the Rings novels wasn’t made with anything more complex than simple drawings to show important landmarks, cities, or other places.
Even a simple map can enhance the pleasure of reading about a strange world by quite a bit. It’s also easier to reproduce for a book or even an e-book. I will incorporate some kind of map at some point in the future, I just need to work on my skills with drawing them for a little longer, either by hand or in CC3+.

Map-making can be an interesting addition to a writer’s skill, especially if you’re writing fantasy and there are places you can’t just look up. It will be very helpful to keep distances similar and have a good idea of what is where in your world. Whether you’re just sketching out a map on a piece of paper or go all out with specific software is down to your interests, needs, and means. Look into it and see if it is helpful for you.