2d Map based tile game engine

Question

Hello, I'm wondering if there is any map creator tool out there that can create terrains for 2d isometric games and export them as some form of xml or other open format document.

For eg. You would create how a 100x100 tile map. Use a paint brush to paint colours or textures on the tiles and specific collisions and animation. Then export the textures and xml so i can write my game to read this.

If there is no such program out there. I'd like suggestions to this method in developing 2d maps. I'm the programmer and my friend is the graphics guy whose going to be using the map maker.

Answer 1

Build the editor yourself. I once tried to make a multiplayer pacman clone, and I wound up giving up after I created the map editor. This was several years ago, so it wasn't the cleanest project, nor was it managed by source control. The concept is simple enough, though, that you should have no problem rolling your own.

Answer 2

A tutorial on C# Map Editors that I wrote for a ROM Hacking community. Should get you started.

Answer 3

Try Tiled, it supports isometric maps and produces XML map files. It's also free software, so you could easily modify it to suit your game.

Answer 4

The map is really a 2D array (a simple map). First think about the walls - N, E, S, W. What number can you place into an array's cell to represent the walls that are turned on or off? Remember, you have to display combinations of walls, so 1,2,3,4,5... would be a waste (hint: you can get it done with 4 values).

Now, once that's done, draw out your map on graph paper, then build an array with the values required to build the walls. Yes, it's flat, not exactly what you're looking for. Yet.

Next, write the really simple code to go through the array and draw the flat walls.

What's left? How to make them isometric. Isn't that really more of an optical illusion? They aren't 3D, but 2D tiles with shading.

In the time it would take you to find, download, install and learn an editor, you'd have a screen up and have learned some logic.

Next think about layers (floors) - more 2D arrays.

Editor shmeditor. Bah.

Answer 5

The TaT Tile Map Editor is a free and quite powerful 2D map editor. It saves a level in XML, and this data can be converted and imported into your game fairly easily. I used it myself as the basis of a Flash adventure game. There is a tutorial series here that shows you how it can be done.