
Tile Studio: development utility for graphics of tile-based games - cheiVia0
http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/
======
m48
I was always under the impression this program was a level editor made
primarily for use with for the author's Clean Game Library [1], a game engine
for a functional programming language named Clean [2]. I haven't used either,
but maybe people into functional programming will be interested in studying a
working game engine made in a functional programming language back in 1999?
[3]

As for interesting features the program offers on its own… it has a pretty
decent integrated graphic editor for tilemaps [4], and uses a template
language for defining the output format instead of providing a generic
parsable file format [5]. It also appears to abstract away layers by making
each tile in your map consist of a "front," "middle," and "back" tile [6]. In
general, it seems like a more old-school version of Tiled, and may be useful
for people developing for/on older systems that want a very lightweight
tilemap editor.

For people used to programs like Tiled, though, there's probably no compelling
reason to switch to this tool. The lack of a working undo function in the map
editor could be a dealbreaker, for one.

[1]
[http://cleangl.sourceforge.net/index.php](http://cleangl.sourceforge.net/index.php)

[2] [http://clean.cs.ru.nl/Clean](http://clean.cs.ru.nl/Clean)

[3]
[http://cleangl.sourceforge.net/thesis/](http://cleangl.sourceforge.net/thesis/)

[4]
[http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/drawing.html](http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/drawing.html)

[5]
[http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/tutor.html#CreateTSD](http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/tutor.html#CreateTSD)

[6]
[http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/tutor.html#MapEditor](http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/tutor.html#MapEditor)

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ivan_ah
See also [http://www.mapeditor.org/](http://www.mapeditor.org/) which is
another good software in that space.

~~~
TheGRS
Yea my first thought was "is this any better/worse than Tiled?" If you are a
Unity user you should also check out Tiled 2 Unity:
[http://www.seanba.com/tiled2unity](http://www.seanba.com/tiled2unity)

~~~
bitJericho
I maintain a library for Tiled in the Monkey X language.
[https://github.com/bitJericho/bit.tiled](https://github.com/bitJericho/bit.tiled)

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rtpg
I remember watching Notch do a ludum dare and actually use paint.NET as his
level editor.

Each color can be set to a tile, and you can read in the bitmap easily to load
a level. A fun way to quickly crank out maps.

~~~
realharo
Similarly, I once made a game with vector-based levels and just used Inkscape
as the editor.

~~~
veli_joza
This might be the perfect application of Inkscape. As programmer, you can edit
XML model and add data to your objects. You can also write Python plugins to
integrate into your asset pipeline.

I used it to draw art which was converted to bitmaps, define polygon shapes
for Box2D bodies, define joints between shapes (rope/spring/hinge), select
static/dynamic properties, assign mass/restitution/friction...

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coderjames
I use Tile Studio as my only sprite and map editor for 2D platformer
development (first in C, then C++, now Lua/Love). The ability to define my own
output format instead of having to deal with somebody else's XML is a killer
feature for me - a primary reason I've previously tried and discarded Tiled.

~~~
cableshaft
You can define your own output format? Hot damn, I'm sold. It took a long time
to get Tiled parsed, especially since I needed additional features it didn't
have.

And that was years ago, so I wasn't looking forward to going through that
process again.

I wish more software in general allowed you to freely define your output
format.

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tarr11
I wish there was strong, open source html5 tile editor

~~~
myfonj
I think that one could possible evolve from
[http://www.piskelapp.com/](http://www.piskelapp.com/) in near future; piskel
already has a simple "Seamless drawing mode" option and developer seems to be
open for ideas.

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poisonarena
I always use pyxeledit, cheap, professional, and works on mac and PC, and
great for animations

pyxeledit.com/

~~~
veli_joza
PyxelEdit is really good for creating graphics (sprites and spritesheets).
It's so simple and intuitive, makes it easy to focus on art and stay creative.
It can be used for making maps, but it's hard to compete with TilEd, which
supports hex maps, vector zones for triggers and other meta-data.

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triptych
He also worked on this [http://www.effectgames.com/effect/article-
Old_School_Color_C...](http://www.effectgames.com/effect/article-
Old_School_Color_Cycling_with_HTML5.html)

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coldcode
Is that correct: September 26, 2012 last update?

~~~
pyb
If it ain't broke, don't fix it

~~~
reflexive
If i̶t̶ ̶a̶i̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶b̶r̶o̶k̶e̶ it's on Sourceforge, don't fix it

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j_s
Related 2D art tool on HN 3 years ago: Sprite Lamp

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6696691](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6696691)

edit: semi-freshly re-written in C++ according to the blog

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wyqydsyq
It boggles me that a project hosted on SourceForge that hasn't been updated in
3 years and is in no way relevant lands on the front page of Hacker News...

~~~
berntb
I upvote lots of articles for the comments, to keep a reference.

(A good way to find the best open source product for X in the world is
probably to post a link to a bad product for X here.)

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qwertyuiop924
...But is it better than Tiled and Aseprite?

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bitmapbrother
Nice. Works on the Mac via Wine.

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astannard
I have little trust in anything from SourceForge, it may look good but it's
tainted by being on SourceForge so I wont touch it. Sorry

~~~
cheiVia0
[https://sourceforge.net/blog/sourceforge-acquisition-and-
fut...](https://sourceforge.net/blog/sourceforge-acquisition-and-future-
plans/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_of_sourceforge_since_its_acquisition_in/)

~~~
astannard
Thanks for the link, I am glad they are turning it around.

