Tiled

Certain games don't have to rely on cutting-edge graphics to be good, especially on mobile platforms. Also, developing such games does not take long and it doesn't require large teams, due to their simplicity. If you plan to develop your own games, Tiled can help you create their maps. It provides support for orthogonal, isometric and staggered maps and it places a wide selection of tools at your disposal, like tile and terrain brushes. The application allows you to export your work in various formats, like T-Engine4 (.lua), Flare maps, Jason files and others.

Tiled is distributed under the GNU General Public License, which means that you don't have to pay for it. The application is available for Windows, Mac OS X and for various Linux distributions. It can be installed in less than a minute, without making any complicated settings along the way. Also, you don't have to meet any special requirements or sacrifice too many resources.

The user interface has an efficient layout. You can draw your map in a large editing area, select different brushes on a toolbar and make various settings, on different panels, on the right side of the window. What's more, the application allows you to work on multiple maps, on separate tabs. Maps are normally created tile by tile, but the software allows you to draw larger portions with a single click. To create a map, you need to have some textures, in JPG, PNG or other graphical formats, and import them as tile sets on the user interface.

Imported images are broken down into multiple tiles, which can be selected and inserted with a stamp brush. Alternatively, you can define one or more terrain types and shapes and insert them with a terrain brush. The possibility of inserting and stamping multiple tiles is quite helpful. For example, it can spare you from drawing large objects, like a house, tile by tile. You can just select the entire house from the tile sets and insert it in the editing area with a single click.

Another useful feature is the possibility of working on multiple layers, like in an advanced image editor. The application allows you to create tile, object and image layers, duplicate them and more. Thus, you can insert new tiles or objects, without affecting the ones beneath them. Objects can be inserted by drawing rectangles or other shapes or by drawing freely. You can change their size and position by clicking and dragging or by inserting new values on a small window, on which you can define other properties as well.