Just asking on behalf of someone else, and it's something I should know anyway. I imagine everyone here uses something that's already incorporated into their own game to some extent, however I'm interested in anything from the next step after paper & pencil. Anything people recommend that works as a standalone for simply viewing a design that won't necessarily need to be turned into a playable world? Heck maybe even Photoshop if you could force it to snap to grid and paint with selectable pieces. (Can it?) From what I've found, OGMO (http://www.ogmoeditor.com) and Tiled (http://www.mapeditor.org) sound ok, or maybe Mappy (http://tilemap.co.uk/mappy.php). Comments? Other suggestions? Cheers.
I like Tiled best. I made all of the maps for Sonic Zero using it. Palmtree Parkways map was designed in about a day and a half as a result. The only problem came was when I put it in Multimedia Fusion as 4096x4096 chunks. Multimedia Fusion would lose its shit over anything bigger than 2048x2048 (this is why the first release had intense lag). On the plus side, collision retardation was kept to a minimum.. yes we were kind of experimenting.. :v: I really hate Multimedia Fusions level builder.
I would also be interested in what people are using. I've just been doodling in paint.net and importing stuff into MMF to see what happens in Sonic Worlds. An actual editor that doesn't blow chunks would be wonderful to work with.
Designing levels? The recommendation I would go with would actually be something retro like TGF. Though the program is much weaker and older than MMF2 the interface is much easier and more streamlined to use. I used to generate and design levels in TGF and then export the .gam file to MMF/MMF2. I agree that MMF2's interface is not the best. It is overly complicated and it can be hard work to execute simple tasks. It's still the best program out there though for Sonic Worlds so that's why I continue to use it. I guess designing the levels in an art program is also an option. I'd rather skip that step though and just build in the game creator. Each to their own.
Link for TGF? There are a lot of acronyms on Google. Although Tiled is looking like it will do the job from Sparks' recommendation.
I'm guessing he means "The Games Factory": http://www.clickteam.com/website/world/the-games-factory-2 This is a much newer version than the one I used years ago, though.
