Art To Map - Create Game Maps from Artwork

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

Art To Map is a tool that I am creating to give game developers a new way of creating maps for 2D games.

The typical way of making maps for 2D games is to divide the game world into tiles and assign a “property” to the different tile objects. Art To Map changes things by relying purely on geometry. You are free to use any image you want to create a map, and not have to divide it into tiles.

Image used is from http://opengameart.org/content/simple-nes-like-village-tiles

Using different tools, you can turn complex artwork into a game map.

Current Tools:

  • Select Tool
  • Line Tool
  • Ellipse Tool
  • Rectangle Tool
  • Polygon Tool
  • Bezier Tool

Using this program you could turn something like THIS into a map for your game.

Features:

  • Tools: Select, Line, Ellipse, Rectangle, Polygon, Bezier, Rotate and Scale
  • Organize shapes and images into layers (with each layer having a different color)
  • Multiple projects open in different tabs
  • Save and Load projects
  • Add images to project
  • Mirror and Rotate images
  • Tinting and Transparency of images
  • Grouping/Ungrouping of objects. So you can move or transform a group by only changing one of the grouped objects.
  • Create shape with outline. Use an image outline to create a shape
  • Zoom
  • Export projects into JSON (and/or XML)
  • Improve UI and graphics
  • Undo, Redo, Delete shapes
  • Create libraries in different languages, so that the exported file can be used in games.

More features to come. Make some requests and I’ll see if I can implement them.

What do you think of this? Would you use it?
I’m thinking of making it opensource when I’m done, but I do need to make some money. Perhaps a kickstarter to make it open source?

#2

Looks nice but still very basic. Is the background just an image and you added the collision boxes, or is the background also composed out of multiple parts? And is this java2d?
Also I work with tiled but I don’t assign properties to tiles. You can have object layers in tiled and draw tile objects freely or add shapes like rectangles or ellipses. I build my graphics with the tiles, but for example the collision box of my level is simply defined with shapes. Maybe it would help you to have an in depth look at what is possible with tiled and other editors, so you can see what concepts work for you and what don’t.

Some things i’d find nice to have in such a level editor:

  • mirror sprites
  • rotate sprites (smooth rotation and snapped to 45° increments)
  • scaling
  • tinting of sprites (incl. Alpha value)
  • grouping/ungrouping of objects. So you can move or transform a group by only changing one of the grouped objects…
  • create shape with outline. Use an image outline to create a shape…

I’d be interested in trying your tool out, but it would require a runtime which works with libgdx, android and gwt, otherwise I don’t find much use for it (don’t have the time or the nerves to build another renderer XD). Keep up the work.

#3

It is Java2D.
The background is an image I added to the map editor, and I added collision boxes.

This tool is really for people who don’t wish to make maps that have a “tile” feel. If you want to have complicated and intricate artwork in a game, you can paint the entire map in an image editor, and then export it as a PNG. Load it into this program, and use the various tools to outline collision boxes.

I’ll include all those features, and I’m definitely going to create runtimes for LibGDX, and Java.

#4

Looks interesting. I was researching level editors that were non-tile based but didn’t find any I liked. This however… this looks nice.
How exactly does it export the map? Would it just be like a text or xml file I would read into my game? And if so, how would the collision boxes/shapes/changes made in the editor be represented in the exported file?

#5

Thanks for having an interest in this.
The locations of all the data points are saved in a file.