Book 2, Culture
Book 4, Learning
Tools
Links to various level editors, game engines, and art tools
Moddable games (recommended)
When you mod a game, you get to re-use all of their graphics, sounds, code, and most importantly, their core game design and tuning. We strongly recommend learning level design by modding.
This is a list of recommended games with well-supported toolsets and active communities. Download the tools, build levels, ask for help, and share your work.
We generally recommend Quake and Doom since these games have large active communities, free stable multiplatform tools, and proven design.
Game
Editor
Combat
Scripting
Community
Quake 1
static, dynamic (Horde mode)
Combat setup
- Static: pre-placed enemies, arcade style, "fire and forget"
- Scripted: pre-placed enemies with some control over AI behavior
- Dynamic: high level "director" manages enemies automatically
- Multiplayer: combat centers around other players
screenshot of TrenchBroom, a standalone brush-based 3D level editor for Quake-based game engines
3D game engines
Modern all-purpose game engines almost never have good level design tools by default, so you should expect to download and install additional plugins to aid construction.
Engine
3D tools
Scripting
Community
screenshot of Godot v3.0, rapidly emerging as a popular free and open source community alternative to Unity and Unreal
2D level editors
If your engine already has a built-in 2D level editor, then use that. But if you're using a homemade engine or web-based framework, you'll need a standalone 2D level editor.
Unlike the fragmented 3D editor ecosystem, all standalone 2D level editors are open-source, stable, and engine-agnostic with easily parsed JSON file formats. Here we generally recommend Tiled, with its many features and widespread engine support.
2D level editor
Notes
built-in Unity
built-in Unreal
built-in Godot
more recent tool, streamlined, lots of features
not actively developed, but still simple + solid
screenshot of Tiled, a free open source standalone 2D tile-based level editor
3D art tools
In most cases, we don't recommend using 3D modeling tools to build levels. That said, all these tools basically do the same thing, and you should use whatever tools you like using.
We generally recommend Blender, free open source software that now rivals commercial tools. Older artists often prefer Maya or 3DS Max because they already learned it + industry pipelines are tightly coupled. But let's be clear -- Blender is basically the future, and Autodesk's days are numbered.
Tool
Notes
free and open source; steadily getting more popular in industry with rich feature set
2D art tools
Good 2D art tools are vital for drawing level layouts and diagrams, and essential for making your own graphics and textures. Some of these tools even run online in your browser for free.
Tool
Notes
cheap Photoshop / Illustrator alternative
free ad-supported Photoshop clone, in-browser (!)
free open source Photoshop alternative
free open source Photoshop alternative
free old school Photoshop alt with bad name
cheap popular pixel art painting tool
free open source Illustrator alternative
free online Illustrator alternative, runs in browser
free (PWYW) moodboard tool / reference image manager
free open source moodboard manager with PureRef-like drag and drop
Planning tools
Good note-taking and writing tools can help you write design documentation, plan a project, track work tasks, and collaborate with others.
Tool
Description
a notebook (real-life, paper)
many designers keep personal notebooks; think of it as a portable always-on browser tab
popular freemium service for collaborative whiteboarding / "mindmap" / planning
popular freemium service for notes, lists, wikis, documentation
popular freemium service for "kanban" style project planning in games
cheap ($50) writing tool popular among authors, rich outlining features
free open-source lightweight personal wiki that lives in a single .HTML file on your device
Google Docs
sometimes it's best to keep it simple
Moddable games (all)
These moddable games are NOT part of our recommended list, for one or more reasons:
- player or modder community has died off
- OR the tools are too old, unsupported, broken, or painful
- OR the tools are seen as "illegitimate" by the industry (even though the industry is wrong)
But what matters most is your enthusiasm and energy. The best tool is the one that you will actually use and finish projects.
Game
Editor
Combat
Scripting
Community
CoD: Modern Warfare (2007)
CoD Radiant
static
visual
???
Dreams
in-game
static
visual (+intense!)
in-game
Far Cry 5
in-game
static
visual
in-game
Gears of War
UnrealEd 3
scripted
visual
???
Half-Life 2
Minecraft
static / dynamic
code (Java via Eclipse+Forge)
To review...
- but anyway, you should use whatever you feel good about, because making and finishing stuff is more important than social consensus
- the ultimate level design tool is "giving a shit"
Last modified 3mo ago