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

screenshot of TrenchBroom, a standalone brush-based 3D level editor for Quake-based game engines

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

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

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	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

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
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"