ProFantasy needs to advertise the Annuals better.
This is a suggestion for ProFantasy.
I have known about Campaign Cartographer for quite awhile. I was impressed with it, but not enough to buy it. It looked like maps were easy to make and formation of things within the map (Mountains, Forests, Structures) looked natural and easy to make look professional. But the original symbols, textures, and default stuff is simply ugly. Well, perhaps not ugly- but outdated. Nothing anyone who is serious would ever use, and art that real professional artists would indeed deem as ugly.
So I passed on CC3. For at least a year, if not more. I went home with nothing but the idea that when I need maps, I will have to contract a real artist and pay for one. Then I came around to needing maps again. I decided that if I were to pay someone to make a map, and I needed a map, I need an idea of what type of map, how it will need to look, what I will need for my game, but most of all- the art style.
I go on DeviantArt and Google. I don't find very much. Nothing spectacular, besides a beautiful painting of an old Tolkien map. It made sense to end up with this map as my example, since it is the very map that INSPIRED me to even want a map in my game! The Middle Earth CCG, using this map in a collection of cards and regions that the game let you travel through, is the foundation of my game's system.
This didn't help me. Back to ground 0. So I decided to give ONE LAST CHANCE to google and random artists' maps. I redefined my google search to "D&D Map" and low and behold, I found a plethora of artists that were amazing. Eventually ending up choosing Djekspek from DeviantArt. His maps looked at the level I needed. Still, I didn't want to have to hire an artist. Damn you Campaign Cartographer! Why can't you have symbols like Djekspek!?!? You are the software I need, but the symbols are so ugly. The expansion symbols are slightly better looking, but still not good enough.
I find Djekspek's own website from his DeviantArt page. What is this? W.T.F.? He did symbols for CC3? What is an Annual? I am so confused! I have been on the website and I thought I had looked at all products they have to offer. Annuals? Isn't that what they call newspapers or articles about random crap I probably don't care about?
Low and behold... Annuals are actual products. And these products include symbols! I had no idea. The website does not make this clear. It advertises CC3, DD3, City Designer, and all of that. It advertises "Symbol Sets", but they aren't exactly at the quality a professional needs. I'd imagine that in the Symbol Sets page, they might mention Annuals.
The MOMENT I found out that I could get Djekspek quality symbols with CC3, I purchased both CC3 and Annual 6. I thought of purchasing Annual 7 for the Tolkien type symbols as well, and perhaps some day in the future I will.
The Symbols in the Annuals, should be the symbols used in the bulk of CC3's advertisements. Not to fool anyone, as CC3's defaults should make it clear. But these symbols look so much better, so professional, so amazing- why wouldn't they be linked all over the website, advertised like crazy? I had been to the website over 6 separate visits, and never knew about these. I had probably clicked everything BUT "Annuals", as I thought that was some kind of news article collection.
Thank you for letting me share my perspective. It is my pleasure to give ProFantasy a thorough understanding of at least one customer's perspective, from first visit to purchase over 6 visits later.
I have known about Campaign Cartographer for quite awhile. I was impressed with it, but not enough to buy it. It looked like maps were easy to make and formation of things within the map (Mountains, Forests, Structures) looked natural and easy to make look professional. But the original symbols, textures, and default stuff is simply ugly. Well, perhaps not ugly- but outdated. Nothing anyone who is serious would ever use, and art that real professional artists would indeed deem as ugly.
So I passed on CC3. For at least a year, if not more. I went home with nothing but the idea that when I need maps, I will have to contract a real artist and pay for one. Then I came around to needing maps again. I decided that if I were to pay someone to make a map, and I needed a map, I need an idea of what type of map, how it will need to look, what I will need for my game, but most of all- the art style.
I go on DeviantArt and Google. I don't find very much. Nothing spectacular, besides a beautiful painting of an old Tolkien map. It made sense to end up with this map as my example, since it is the very map that INSPIRED me to even want a map in my game! The Middle Earth CCG, using this map in a collection of cards and regions that the game let you travel through, is the foundation of my game's system.
This didn't help me. Back to ground 0. So I decided to give ONE LAST CHANCE to google and random artists' maps. I redefined my google search to "D&D Map" and low and behold, I found a plethora of artists that were amazing. Eventually ending up choosing Djekspek from DeviantArt. His maps looked at the level I needed. Still, I didn't want to have to hire an artist. Damn you Campaign Cartographer! Why can't you have symbols like Djekspek!?!? You are the software I need, but the symbols are so ugly. The expansion symbols are slightly better looking, but still not good enough.
I find Djekspek's own website from his DeviantArt page. What is this? W.T.F.? He did symbols for CC3? What is an Annual? I am so confused! I have been on the website and I thought I had looked at all products they have to offer. Annuals? Isn't that what they call newspapers or articles about random crap I probably don't care about?
Low and behold... Annuals are actual products. And these products include symbols! I had no idea. The website does not make this clear. It advertises CC3, DD3, City Designer, and all of that. It advertises "Symbol Sets", but they aren't exactly at the quality a professional needs. I'd imagine that in the Symbol Sets page, they might mention Annuals.
The MOMENT I found out that I could get Djekspek quality symbols with CC3, I purchased both CC3 and Annual 6. I thought of purchasing Annual 7 for the Tolkien type symbols as well, and perhaps some day in the future I will.
The Symbols in the Annuals, should be the symbols used in the bulk of CC3's advertisements. Not to fool anyone, as CC3's defaults should make it clear. But these symbols look so much better, so professional, so amazing- why wouldn't they be linked all over the website, advertised like crazy? I had been to the website over 6 separate visits, and never knew about these. I had probably clicked everything BUT "Annuals", as I thought that was some kind of news article collection.
Thank you for letting me share my perspective. It is my pleasure to give ProFantasy a thorough understanding of at least one customer's perspective, from first visit to purchase over 6 visits later.
Comments
Thanks ProFantasy! And thanks Djekspek!