Here is what we are looking at doing. We are making a retro style game using sprite sheets. In our code we have it set up so that the world map rendering uses an image to define the placement of tiles... in other words, based on the hexadecimal color on the image the tile rederer knows which tile to get from the sprite sheet and render in that location. For example: if I define the sprite in the upper left corner as being the hexadecimal color of 000000 (black) - anywhere I paint black pixels on the map image (where 1 pixel represents 1 tile in game), that sprite will be used when the game renders...

Ok, I hope that makes sense. I know this is a method that has been used for quite a while, and I know there are tile mapping programs... would you know of a tile mapping program that will allow me to define a hex color for each tile and then render a pixel map using those colors in place of the tiles?

would you know of a tile mapping program that will allow me to define a hex color for each tile and then render a pixel map using those colors

If I'm reading that correctly, it is as simple as opening up your favorite drawing program (or MSPaint) and zooming in. Colors will be nearly-black shades of blue, but should be distinguishable.

You might instead use an indexed color graphics format, such as gif, then assign a different color to each index. Maybe you've got 2 types of water tiles, indexed values 7 and 8, assign those two shades of blue. Then maybe you've got 6 basic dirt tiles, indexed values 1-6, assign those index values to shades of brown. Maybe index values 9-13 are tree tiles, assign those index values to shades of green. Etc.

Whatever you use for them, hopefully you're using a lossless graphics format. :-)

Alternatively, you any tile map editor, and convert its output to an image?

If you also build a reverse conversion, you can even consider the image as the primary tilemap description

I've seen similar formats, but not image based, just a text file, for example, 1-9 is the tile type, 0 is a blank tile, and you end up with something like:

1111111111111111111111111111
1000000000000000000000000001
1000000000222000000000000001
1000000000000000000033300001
1111111111111111111111111111

I think that the idea might be to provide a simple method for players to create their own levels.

Typically with a tile editor, you're drawing the tiles to the screen so that you can see what the finished level is going to look like rather than create an abstract representation of the level. Maybe there's some existing program out there that does what you want to do but if I were in your shoes I'd write my own tool to do what you're looking for.

Or, a low tech option might be to print off a page showing the sprites and underneath indicate the respective colour values. Or maybe create some kind of word file with copies of the sprites that you can reference as you're drawing the level. In effect, this would be all there is to a tile editing program as you've described (if I understand your description). You would then need to add some code to your game to load the image file and translate the pixels to whatever tile or sprite index you want.

Ok, I hope that makes sense. I know this is a method that has been used for quite a while, and I know there are tile mapping programs... would you know of a tile mapping program that will allow me to define a hex color for each tile and then render a pixel map using those colors in place of the tiles?