My first digital map vs my latest one - 2 years of progress

I started hand-drawing maps for my D&D campaign back in 2022, and my first one was just a mess of crooked lines and messy labels. After switching to Inkarnate last year and practicing about an hour a week, my latest map actually looks like something from a book. What pushed your skills forward the most when you were learning digital mapping?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryanburns1mo agoMost Upvoted

Honestly the first one probably works fine for a game anyway.

the_robert1mo ago

Game development is full of people who think good enough is fine. If you settle for the first one you'll be kicking yourself later when you realize you could have pushed harder. A two year improvement gap like that shows you what you're really capable of when you don't just phone it in. The second one is clearly better and that's the level you should hold yourself to.

angelaellis1mo agoMost Upvoted

Isn't it wild how much difference a couple years of practice makes? I've had that same feeling with a few hobbies where my early stuff makes me cringe but I'm proud of how far I've come. It's really cool seeing your improvement side by side like that.