Tools

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

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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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Planning tools

Good note-taking and writing tools can help you write design documentation, plan a project, track work tasks, and collaborate with others.

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: Verticality NextTrenchBroom

Last updated 3 months ago