Hey everybody,

I'd like to share my work on my tilebased map editor "Tyler" with you and would like to gather some feedback and ideas during the development progress.

I want to build an alternative to Tiled - the current more or less standard editor for tilebased maps - in HTML5 and Javascript.

My motivation behind the project is, that I am currently working on a little browsergame for fun that is also using tilebased maps.

I found that Tiled is lacking a couple of features I would want to see inside a map editor - some of them are game specific.

My problem is: its a C++ project, based on Qt. While I am a more or less talented web-developer, I have no clue of building stuff with C++ and I don't want to learn it just to try and extend Tiled somehow

My plans for Tyler so far are:

• Support of the Tiled Map format (JSON)
• Creation and management of palettes (so you can configure things like water-animations right inside the editor)
• Automatic prettifying of maps with autotiles
• Minimap generation
• Object management with free, JSON-style custom object properties
• Support of own modules/plugins based on JavasScript

I am especially looking forward to the users developing their own modules that can be integrated into Tyler with a breeze. I have build a easy to use API that can be used to:

• Create own Tools to draw on the map
• Append containers to the sidebar of the application
• Append buttons the toolbar of the application
• Interact with other modules of Tyler by exporting a public module context
• Through the public module context:
  • Embed new data into the Info-Sidebar-Box
  • Add plugins to the "new map"-process chain.
  • Add plugins to the "save/load map"-process chain, so you can create your own output file formats.

Tilers own tools and nearly all functionality is based on that same module system to make sure it gives 3rd party devs the post freedom in creating their own stuff.

Since the whole editor is based upon HTML5 and JavaScript, it should be easy for most people to extend its features to their like.

I also plan a public repository, where the most useful modules can be hosted and activated by every Tyler user.

But enough of the talking, here are a few impressions of the editor - I hope you like it

Screenshot of the UI state from about a week ago:

Screenshot of the layers sidebar panel:

Screenshot of the "Create a new map" dialog:

Screenshot of the current module manager, displaying Tylers core modules:

Most recent screenshot of the tooltips I implemented today:

The editor supports so-called "infinite maps". This means, you don't have to specify the dimensions of your map, when you just want to start sketching around. The map is really infinite - you can simply move around and draw wherever you like.

Upon map creation I added the possibility to chose from different options, regarding the used tileset:

• Create Tileset from image
  You upload an image and it is turned into a tileset (the usual approach).
  
• Generate Tileset
  You pick which types of tiles you (will) need and in which size you want them and
  Tyler generates a Tileset of simple colors for you. Great when you want to sketch
  out some maps, but don't already have a tileset created.
  
• Preset Tilesets
  You can choose a tileset from a list of bundled tilesets and start working with it.

Isometric maps are currently not supported, but I will certainly add them at a later point in development.

Phew, this post grew quite lengthy... I hope to fetch good feedback and a couple of ideas for my editor

greetings,

Chris

I definitely plan to release Tyler as a Desktop Application as well.

While it has its benefits to offer the Editor as SAAS - no installation, always most recent version - it comes with a heavy downside: no local filesystem access for saving your data.

I will propably include the usage of a service like dropbox in the online version of tyler, but in my opinion its absolutely necessary to have access to your filesystem in order to work properly with such a tool.

Thanks for the good luck

I will try and keep this thread updated when I make further progress.

How about something like this for saving ? http://updates.html5rocks.com/2011/08/Saving-generated-files-on-the-client-side

Man, feedback is rolling in :)

@Ravyne:

I have gathered a lot of experience in developing SAAS in the recent years. My company creates such apps on a daily base. I know what kind of features I would have to implement on the server; but the lack of proper save-to-hdd support in browsers is a real downside of that thing.

The problem is, that you would want to work with local files, since you need to work with that files inside your game. Also uploading all data to the server first, then downloading again is very tiresome for the user. I really want the application to feel like a native one.

Even the FileSaver.js library @l0calh05t suggested (thanks for that!) just triggers a download. Goes straight to my downloads folder in chrome without asking.

So offering Tyler as SAAS will definitely be done - maybe I will even throw in a hosting solution for the generated map data, but imho a offline application with native access to the filesystem is a must :)

But hey - maybe it turns out that folks are happy with the SAAS solution and will abandon native apps at all :D

There is currently no website available for Tyler, I'll try and set one up when I have a first version ready (and docs for the module API).

Until then, you may just follow this thread - I'll post any updates in here :)

greetings,

Chris

The problem is, that you would want to work with local files, since you need to work with that files inside your game. Also uploading all data to the server first, then downloading again is very tiresome for the user. I really want the application to feel like a native one.

Even the FileSaver.js library @l0calh05t suggested (thanks for that!) just triggers a download. Goes straight to my downloads folder in chrome without asking.

The FileSaver at least avoids uploading to the server first. That it goes straight to your downloads without asking depends on your configuration of chrome.

Found this on the same site too btw http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/dndfiles/