Quick Tile Editor

Rapid 2.5D/3D platformer level creation tools for Unity. Paint depth-aware tilemaps, stack height layers, drop 3D prefabs with pixel-perfect offsets, sketch enemy paths directly in the editor, and persist entire stages to JSON.

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Editor Highlights

  • True 3D grid & layer stacking — Paint on a customizable grid with per-rule Y offsets, automatically generating height tilemaps.
  • Dynamic skirts — Stretch or duplicate wall segments per layer with a single SkirtManager.
  • Seamless 3D object placement — Stamp prefabs using GameObject rules that manage offsets, colors, and rotation.
  • In-editor paths & AI hooks — Draw enemy routes and drive NPCs with PathFollower, NavMeshAgent, or manual motion.
  • Ground-blend texture masks — Paint GPU-backed masks with live blend previews for PBR texture sets.
  • JSON-backed pipeline — Save and load tilemaps, rules, objects, textures, and metadata in a friendly JSON format.

Getting Started

  1. Install required Unity packages

    In the Unity Editor, open Tools → Quick Tile Editor → 🔧 Install Required Packages to add the Tilemap, Tilemap Extras, AI Navigation, and Addressables packages automatically.

  2. Open the Quick Tile Editor workspace

    Launch the tooling via Tools → Quick Tile Editor → 👉 Open Quick Tile Editor. The shortcut creates or selects a QuickTilemapEditor object with the proper grid setup.

  3. Interface overview

    • Rules panel — Define tile, object, and texture rules with color, offsets, and target tilemaps.
    • Scene painting view — Paint tiles, objects, and textures directly onto the 3D grid with height-aware brushes.
    • Level controls — Save or load JSON scenes, regenerate skirts, and refresh previews when swapping levels.

Level Management

Persistent JSON workflow

  • Serialize every layer, placed object, path, texture mask, and rule into portable JSON files.
  • Reload saved stages instantly for iteration or runtime shipping on supported platforms.
  • Leverage utility helpers to rebuild tile dictionaries, normalize prefab paths, and refresh skirts.

Session control

  • Clear active scenes safely before reloading or importing external data.
  • Hot-swap between levels with reload, next, and previous commands tied to inspector controls.
  • Apply grid scaling and gather layout metrics to align NavMesh data or camera framing.

Drawing System

Height-aware painting

  • Paint or erase tiles per height layer while Quick Tile Editor generates supporting tilemaps automatically.
  • Swap rules mid-session and propagate updates across every tile referencing the changed data.
  • Regenerate skirts to match stretching or duplication preferences across the full stack.

Texture mask workflow

  • Brush GPU-backed paint masks and preview blend materials inside the editor.
  • Update render textures on demand to keep gameplay materials synchronized with editor previews.
  • Push paint mask globals so runtime shaders share identical blends.

Tile Rules

  • Define tile visuals, color overrides, Y offsets, and size values per rule.
  • Route tiles to specific tilemaps or rely on automatic height-based dictionaries.
  • Sync skirt behaviour and render order directly from rule data.

Game Object Placement

  • Create GameObject rules that encapsulate prefab references, color swaps, randomized rotation, and placement offsets.
  • Stamp prefabs while painting, keep preview objects in sync, and resynchronize scene instances when rules change.
  • Manage Addressables or Resources paths automatically when exporting and reopening projects.

Path System

  • Draw paths directly on the grid with color-coded waypoints for quick navigation design.
  • Assign paths to NPCs using PathFollower, switching between NavMeshAgent or manual motion per character.
  • Configure pauses, animation triggers, and runtime refresh behaviour to keep followers synchronized after loads.