Wonderdraft: Map Making Tool

[dmw71]

I discovered this because of YouTube auto-play, but this looks pretty awesome (and, in my opinion, totally worth the $19.99 early buy-in price -- Wonderdraft).

Disclaimer:

The above link is the affiliate link for WASD20 (not me), taken from his review video (below), as I never would have even known this product existed if not for him.

I'm not familiar with Inkarnate, either, but, after quickly reviewing the two, as someone who has never owned or tried either (but thinks it's cool), I'm throwing my support behind Wonderdraft for three primary reasons:

1. Price. While there is apparently a free version of Inkarnate, the professional version is on a subscription model. While the rate isn't unreasonable, it essentially means having payments in perpetuity;
2. Ownership. Not that I'm actively looking to create saleable content with it (but, maybe?). Well, that is only possible with Wonderdraft:
   • Inkarnate: Terms of Use
     "Ownership of Website Content
     The Website, its content, and content created using the Website platform, are protected to the maximum extent provided by trademark, copyright and intellectual property rights law and applicable international treaties or conventions. All content displayed on or through the Website including but not limited to: User created maps, User created custom art (objects and textures), website-provided map art (objects, patterns, and textures), fonts, user created notes, lore and textual map content (location, notes, map description, and title)is owned exclusively by Inkarnate (and/or its affiliated companies, suppliers and licensors and is protected by trademark, copyright and intellectual property rights laws and applicable international treaties or conventions, both as a collective work and/or compilation, as these terms are defined by applicable law."
   • The closest I found to a terms of use for Wonderdraft is on their reddit page:
     Wonderdraft: FAQ, Features List, & Roadmap
     "2. How much will it cost? ...If you are a commercial company, you are required to purchase one copy per user."
     Edit (02/18/2020):
     "5. Do I own the copyrights/distribution rights to maps I make? ....The EULA is very similar to those of other graphical applications. Only internal content are protected. There are no licenses with regards to user-generated content. As such, the common law and practice is that content made with royalty-free assets provides copyright and distribute rights to the new author any originality added outside of the original assets.
     
     If you live in the US and want to bore yourself to death, here is an article that addresses this issue:
     
     https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf"
3. Undo. This is a huge feature for someone prone to make mistakes when learning a new tool.

Okay, I have a fourth reason:

• New. It's a new tool (hence the early buy-in price). As it stands, it looks like a pretty impressive application -- but there will undoubtedly be a lot of room for improvement. A quick look over at their reddit page shows that it's relatively active (with a lot of users posting examples of projects they've created), and that the developer is relatively responsive.
  
  I also like how they have a published product roadmap, with features broken out by likelihood of being added (there are more than a few in the 'Stretch (20% Chance)' category that I'm holding out hope for).

Apologies if this comes across as being saley, or pitchy. I have zero skin in the game and am just sharing what I think looks like a pretty interesting and powerful tool (that is easy to use, which is huge for me).


Anyway, here is the product review that sparked my interest, in case anyone else is curious to see it in action: Wonderdraft - Inkarnate Killer? (map-making app review).