Several months has passed since the last JugiPaint update and I owe some report of what is going on with its development. Well, I must say that I took a little break from JugiPaint. I am now working on another, smaller graphic application which will be used for something I couldn’t really fit into JugiPaint. The new application is a tool for creating 2D tile maps for games. As you may know I have developed few games several years ago (before I started with JugiPaint and its predecessor Comicado) . Nothing too fancy, 2D indie games, but I know quite well what is needed for producing graphics assets for 2d games. The new application is based on my editor used for producing maps for my games. 

Here is the first screenshot of my new application in action:

The shown map is from “Little Space Duo”, a puzzle platformer game I coded ten years ago.  As you can see the application is currently called JugiTileMapper. That name will probably not stay as it sounds a bit cumbersome.

My main goal for this application is to be a straightforward map editing tool suitable for producing large maps with many different objects. These objects can be grid positioned (tiles) or free positioned (sprites). The key editing tool is a powerful ‘multitile’ and ‘multilayer’ brush which allow quick editing of large map areas. The custom parameters are possible per object, layer and map. The maps are exported as simple data structures which can be easily included into existing projects; I will also check out tools like Gamemaker and support their map formats if such exists.

The development of this new tool is progressing nicely and I think beta is not so far away. Unfortunately JugiPaint is for now on hold. One thing you may expect in future from JugiPaint are features for easier production of 2D game graphics. It currently quite lacks in that area (even some base features like the grid are missing).