Tile Studio

Tile Studio is a comprehensive and accessible application designed to offer a professional yet simple method to make tile-based games. The program contains a bitmap editor for creating tiles, and a map processor for designing level maps.

Since the app is portable and comes with all the necessary files into an archive, it can be stored on an external drive, and directly launched on any PC. The tool provides a user-friendly and easy-to-use layout with the drawing tools on the left side of the window, as well as the working area and the color palette on the right.

In the upper part, you can access all kinds of options, from formatting to editing elements. The primary purpose is not to edit large bitmaps, like normal drawings, but work best with smaller maps (16x16,128x128 pixels). You can only design graphics and levels, not complete games.

With Tile Studio, you can easily open tiles from existing BMP or PNG bitmaps. There is an auto-detect button that can often find the size of the tiles automatically, once the transparent color has been set properly. Keep in mind that all changes made after importing a project are erased.

By default, the tool uses a smooth RGB palette. However, you can switch to a different one, which can contain other color combinations. You can edit each color separately, and make smooth transitions between colors.

The pencil function lets you draw pixel by pixel, or you can switch to the brush, for a thicker line. When a color pattern is chosen, all lines drawn with the brush start with the first one and end with the last.

With the geometric tools, it's possible to insert rectangles and circles. There are also filled versions of these shapes you can choose from. By using Ctrl+Tab combination, you are able to switch between the tile and the map editor. Once finished, the files are saved in Tile Studio Project (.tsp) format.

To sum it up, Tile Studio is a sophisticated and useful program that comes bundled with a wide range of options to create detailed tile-based games using painting tools, imported maps, or geometrical shapes.