Level editing made easy with Automapping

NOTE: Since Tiled v1.9 was released, some of the details in this solution are no longer necessary (specifically, region layers can be omitted if you use the new workflow). as always, check your version and the relevant documentation for the most up to date information :)

Hey Pals!

Back with a new video all about Automapping in Tiled, which is my level editor of choice. Automapping / Autotiling can make level design really easy and fun without sacrificing fidelity in your designs by automating the process of placing each tile once you've input your scaffold. I use it all the time for Insignia, and in this video I show you how to set it up yourself.

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
0:35 - About automapping with Tiled
3:58 - Why I don't use the native Unity solution
5:06 - Creating a simple tileset
11:20 - Setting up automapping in Tiled
15:32 - Creating rules
28:56 - Taking your maps further
33:25 - Conclusion & Outro

Music:
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This video features clips from my stream. Catch it live: Mon, Tues, Wednesday and Fri 1-6pm AEDT.

Later, pals!

[jumpkut]

Attention! After Tiled v1.9, you no longer need the 'regions' layer. just the input and output layers! simplifies the process a bit. Tile on, brothers

[RILCOMusic]

Adam I speak for everyone when I say this video was NEEDED, thank you!!

[barbaravenuh]

Every video on this channel is a minefield of invaluable information. Not just the main information of the video topic but also the little sidenotes here and there are such useful information, especially for beginners.

[SadTown]

So glad you are part of the art / gaming community 🙏 Thank you for continuing to put in the time & effort to share your knowledge with everyone 👏

[RecordofRadio]

I'm not making a platformer, but this is a cool trick. These kinds of things aren't really for me in my gamedev journey right now, but can I just say that these are by far the best gamedev videos on youtube? I've seen a lot but your videos always seem to touch on subjects other channels rarely do.

[voxelheart]

I'm not working on a 2D game, but seeing your process on how you go about setting tile rules is helpful and useful in other applications as well. Great video!

[SuperMinecraft]

Awesome video.
Not only would i want more videos about tiles but also about level design!

[libberator]

Great video Adam! Love your stuff. On your point about Unity's solution, it's no longer "experimental". It's under "2D Tilemap Extras" but that's part of the default 2D bundle of packages (depending on your unity version). You can also expand it so instead of a 3x3 area of neighbors it can go up to 5x5. Though being able to specifically have a slanted tile instead of letting it try to infer if it should be slanted or a stair step does make your approach more flexible but more manual. You picked the right tool for your game's needs

Bonus tip (which Adam touches on for Tiled): Unity's RuleTile evaluates in the order you place your rules (top to bottom), so just put your most restrictive rules near the top and most relaxed cases towards the bottom

[kyousouka]

Not only is the regions layer unnecessary in Tiled 1.9+, it has explicit "Empty" tiles you can use instead of using "air" placeholders in your prototype layer. However, even before 1.9, it was possible to refer to empty tiles using "StrictEmpty", so this approach with "air" tiles was *always* a bit of a time-waster xP

Rules are also no longer applied in order by default, so if the rules rely on a specific order, they'll break. You can either make the rule requirements more specific so that order doesn't matter, or check "MatchInOrder" on the map to make them match in order (but you'll lose the performance gain of matching them simultaneously).

I'm mentioning this here because several people have come to the Tiled community with confusion stemming from this tutorial ): Since it's so new, it seems people assume it's up to date.

[CrossCoderDev]

I remember I was recently on the stream and I asked for this tutorial. Thank you so much for this video. I've been searching for videos on this topic to no end. You just saved me a lot of pain.

And also I didn't realize that I was not subscribed here, so I subbed :)

[hoot]

This is like the most powerful tool I've ever seen for indie gamedev

[gillesboisson]

Very practical video, it helped a lot.
I played with tiled automap and learned few more things that can helps.
Position of patterns in the automap file change the order of there application on your level, this means it's better to add simple / default pattern on top and more complex on the bottom, In my test I put mono block in a first row, walls in a second row and corners / holes a third row.
Avoiding using empty block in patterns is more practicak (most of the time) when you put differents elements like ladder, special platforms in the same map. Putting patterns in the right order helps.
Thanks for your content

[wizzlez]

Ooo, new video on autotiling! Looking forward to it

[Void-vnvf]

Thank you very much. I knew that Tiled could help to improve the level design process, but I under estimated how powerfull it was and how the Tiled to Unity could help. I will definitely dig this solution !

[kamaljit]

(input_prototype) will look for layer called (prototype) which i forget to rename.
😅Just in case For someone like me stuck at (22:27) when pressing Ctrl + M.

[seyedhusseinmirzaki]

took me some time to find this among ur videos but it totally worth it

[noface]

...I haven't been able to see your streams in a while but I got it working! Thanks!!!

[samuelbird]

This video is the answer to my prayers. Thank you!

[Mantimestwo]

I was looking at some of the older videos relating to this a while back and was a bit lost, hopefully this one will help me once I have time to deep into this stuff again, cheers!

[NeatGames]

Dang these tiles are so detailed! in my game I'm making my tiles super simple so I can finish the game. I will try this method thanks! :D