The Level Design Book
BookResources
  • The Level Design Book
  • ✨What is level design
  • Book 1, Process
    • πŸ—ΊοΈHow to make a level
    • 🧠Pre-production
      • Pacing
      • Research
      • Worldbuilding
      • Scope
    • πŸ”«Combat
      • Enemy design
      • Encounter
      • Cover
      • Map balance
    • πŸ› οΈLayout
      • Flow
        • Circulation
        • Verticality
      • Critical path
      • Parti
      • Typology
        • Gates
    • 🏠Blockout
      • Massing
        • Landscape
        • Composition
        • Prospect-refuge
      • Metrics
        • Modular kit design
        • Doom metrics
        • Quake metrics
      • Wayfinding
      • Playtesting
        • Player persona
    • πŸ“œScripting
      • (stub) Navigation
      • Doors
    • β˜€οΈLighting
      • Three point lighting
      • D6 lighting
      • Lighting for darkness
    • 🏑Environment Art
      • Shape and color psychology
      • Texturing
      • Storytelling
      • Optimization
    • 🌈Release
  • Book 2, Culture
    • 🦜Level design as culture
    • History of the level designer
    • Zero player level design
    • (unfinished pages)
      • History of architecture
      • Structural engineering primer
      • History of environment art
      • History of furniture
      • History of encounter design
  • Book 3, Studies
    • πŸ”How to study a level
    • Single player studies
      • Undead Burg (Dark Souls 1)
      • Assassins (Thief 1)
      • (STUB) The Cradle (Thief 3)
      • (STUB) Sapienza (Hitman)
      • (STUB) Silent Cartographer (Halo 1)
    • Multiplayer studies
      • Chill Out (Halo 1)
      • (STUB) de_dust2 (Counter-Strike)
    • Real world studies
      • Disneyland (California, USA)
      • (STUB) Las Vegas (Nevada, USA)
  • Book 4, Learning
    • πŸŽ’Notes for educators
    • Project plans
      • Classic Combat
      • (Unfinished WIP pages)
        • Modern Combat
        • Modern Stealth
        • Exercise: Direct Lighting
        • Exercise: Whiteboard 2D
        • Level Design Portfolio
        • Design Test: Adaptation
        • Exercise: Layout
        • Exercise: Verticality
  • Appendix
    • Tools
      • TrenchBroom
    • Assets & Resources
      • Recommended talks
      • Recommended books
      • Quake resources
        • How to package a Quake map/mod
      • File formats
        • FGD file format
        • MAP file format
        • MDL file format
    • Communities
    • About this book / authors
    • License / copyright
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Moddable games (recommended)
  • Moddable games (all)
  • 3D game engines
  • 2D level editors
  • 3D art tools
  • 2D art tools
  • Planning tools
  • To review...
Export as PDF
  1. Appendix

Tools

Links to various level editors, moddable games, engines, and art tools

This page contains several lists of links to useful tools, both ancient and modern:

  • Moddable games (recommended). Short list of moddable games for "serious" level design, with active level design community tied closely to the game industry.

  • Moddable games (all). A much longer list of known games with modding tools. For various reasons, we don't recommend using these tools.

    • But in the end, the best tool is whatever is most interesting to you.

  • We also list general 3D game engines, 2D level editors, 3D art tools, 2D art tools, and planning tools common in the game industry.

Moddable games (recommended)

When you mod a game, you get to re-use graphics, sounds, code, and most importantly, 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

TrenchBroom (guide, video); see Quake resources

static, dynamic (Horde)

visual (entities) + code (QC)

QM Discord, Slipseer, Quaddicted

Doom

GZDoomBuilder, SLADE3 (guide)

static

code (ACS)

Doomworld

Half-Life 2

Hammer++ (SDK 2013 SP or Mapbase)

static / scripted

visual (I/O)

RTSL, MapLabs, TWHL

Counter-Strike 2

Hammer 2 (wiki, video)

multiplayer

code (VScript2?), visual (Pulse?)

Mapcore, Steam

Portal 2

Puzzle Maker (in-game)

--

visual

Steam

Team Fortress 2

Hammer++ (guide)

multiplayer

visual (I/O)

tf2maps

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

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 your enthusiasm matters most. The best tool is whatever you will actually use to finish projects.

Game
Editor
Combat
Scripting
Community

CoD: MW (2007)

CoD Radiant

static

visual

???

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Radiant (BO3 Mod Tools)

dynamic (zombies)

code (GSC)

???

Crysis 2

Sandbox 2 Mod SDK v1.0

static

???

???

The Dark Mod

DarkRadiant (wiki)

static (stealth)

code (DoomScript)

TDM Forums

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Divinity Engine 2 (guides)

scripted (RPG)

code (Osiris, guide)

Larian Forums

Doom 3

DarkRadiant (wiki)

static

code (DoomScript)

idtech4 Discord

DOOM (2016)

SnapMap

static / dynamic (Conductor)

visual (Logic entities)

in-game (SnapHub)

DOOM Eternal

idStudio (guide)

static / dynamic (Encounter Manager)

visual (Logic Designer)

official Discord

Fallout 4

Creation Kit

static

code (Papyrus)

NexusMods

Far Cry 5

in-game

static

visual

in-game

F.E.A.R

WorldEdit (FEAR SDK 1.08) (guide)

scripted

???

Discord

Fortnite

Creative Mode

multiplayer

visual (Devices)

in-game, Reddit

Gears of War

UnrealEd 3

scripted

visual

???

Half-Life 1

Valve Hammer Editor (guide)

static

visual (entities)

TWHL

Halo Infinite

in-game "Forge" (guide)

multiplayer

visual (nodes)

in-game

Left 4 Dead 2

Hammer (L4D2 Tools)

dynamic / multiplayer

visual (I/O) + code (VScript)

Steam

Metro Exodus

Exodus SDK

static

visual (VS)

mod.io

Minecraft

Creative Mode (guide) / Forge

static / dynamic

code (Java Eclipse+Forge)

Planet Minecraft, CurseForge

Prodeus

in-game (guide)

static

???

official Discord

Quadrilateral Cowboy

DarkRadiant (guide)

none

code (DoomScript)

Steam forum

Quake 2

TrenchBroom (video)

static

visual (entities)

Map-Center

Quake 3 Arena

NetRadiant-c, GtkRadiant

multiplayer

visual (entities)

LvL World

Quake 4

Q4Radiant

static

code (.script)

???

Roblox

Studio (guide)

all

code (Lua)

official Discord, RobloxHelpers

Shadowrun

Shadowrun Editor (guide)

scripted (RPG)

code (Gumbo)

Steam

Skyrim

Creation Kit

static

code (Papyrus)

NexusMods

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

X-Ray Engine SDK

dynamic

???

???

Thief 1 / Thief Gold / Thief 2

DromEd (guides, wiki)

static (stealth)

visual (Stim) + code (OSM)

TTLG

Thief 3

T3ed (guide)

static (stealth)

visual (Actors, Triggerscript)

TTLG

Unreal Tournament (1999) ("UT99")

UnrealED 2.1 / 227h (guide)

multiplayer

visual (Actors) + code (UScript)

Oldunreal, ut99.org

Unreal Tournament 4 (dead)

Unreal Engine 4 (guide)

multiplayer

visual (Blueprint)

Discord

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

Unity

ProBuilder, RealtimeCSG

C#, Visual, Playmaker

Official Unity Discord

Unreal

CubeGrid, Modeling Mode

C++, Blueprint

Unreal Slackers Discord

Godot

CSG

GDScript, C#

Godot Community

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

Sprite Shapes, Tilemaps, Tilemap Extras

built-in Unreal

Paper2D tilemaps are "experimental"

built-in Godot

TileMaps; supports autotiles

Tiled

most common standalone editor, supports many engines (Unity, Unreal, Godot, and more)

LDtk

more recent tool, streamlined, lots of features

Ogmo

not actively developed, but still simple + solid

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

Blender

free and open source; steadily getting more popular in industry with rich feature set

Maya

common in games and film, expensive but free for students

3DS Max

common in games and architecture, expensive but free for students

Cinema 4D

not often used in games but perfectly usable, free for students

SketchUp

used by architects but no topo / UV tools, don't use it beyond blockout phase

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

Photoshop

expensive photo-editor / painter, has student discount

Illustrator

expensive, good for vector maps, has a student discount

Substance

expensive, popular powerful texture generator tool, free for students

Affinity

cheap Photoshop / Illustrator alternative

Photopea

free ad-supported Photoshop clone, in-browser (!)

Krita

free open source Photoshop alternative

Paint.NET

free open source Photoshop alternative

GIMP

free old school Photoshop alt with bad name

Aesprite

cheap popular pixel art painting tool

Inkscape

free open source Illustrator alternative

Boxy SVG

free online Illustrator alternative, runs in browser

PureRef

free (PWYW) moodboard tool / reference image manager

Allusion

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

Miro

popular freemium service for collaborative whiteboarding / "mindmap" / planning

Notion

popular freemium service for notes, lists, wikis, documentation

Trello

popular freemium service for "kanban" style project planning in games

Scrivener

cheap ($50) writing tool popular among authors, rich outlining features

TiddlyWiki

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

To review...

  • for learning 3D level design fundamentals, we recommend modding Quake or Doom

  • for making 2D levels, we recommend Tiled

  • for general 3D art, we recommend Blender

  • for general 2D art, the world still uses Photoshop

  • for planning, we recommend keeping an IRL paper notebook for personal sketches, notes, etc.

  • 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"

PreviousExercise: VerticalityNextTrenchBroom

Last updated 9 months ago

It is possible to import TrenchBroom files into Godot, Unity, or Unreal. See for recommended plugins and importers.

TrenchBroom > Compatibility
screenshot of TrenchBroom, a standalone brush-based 3D level editor for Quake-based game engines
screenshot of Godot v3.0, rapidly emerging as a popular free and open source community alternative to Unity and Unreal
screenshot of Tiled, a free open source standalone 2D tile-based level editor
Page cover image