What would you like to see in a tile-based, 2D level editor?
Any features you’d like OGMO or Tiled to have? What do you think is essential but hasn’t been done?
I’m grabbing a few ideas for something I’ll release soon, in order to plan future versions.
I haven’t used OGMO before, i don’t know is it have these features already. But i’m gonna write here some of my ideas:
Overall, I think Ogmo is pretty full-featured and reasonably intuitive, although I haven’t used it much. Tiled was really buggy when I last tried it. My biggest gripe about Ogmo is that it isn’t cross-platform.
It needs a lot of export modes,
XML
CSV
Whatever more
Also, make it so that unlike OGMO, if you edit the project, the level doesn’t close down. Don’t make it open new levels automatically either.
Make it really fast. The thing I hate the most with OGMO is that it is soo slow if I try to make bigger maps. It’s extremely slow.
Magic wand tool, much like in photoshop. Select tiles near each other that are the same.
Nodes, paths, etc.
Snap to grid, etc.
Mac support: This was planned from the start. I’m developing it with Python and Qt, so it should be cross-platform. It’s just a matter of building there, but I already have a Mac available to build there (and I’m on a PC, so that as well). I’ll try to build on Linux too.
Exporters support: I’ll try to add custom and scriptable exporters on the level editor on a future version, but it will come with one or two when I release it.
Object Inventory / Components / Mixins: Good idea. Will keep in mind! I can see why it would be useful.
Settings don’t break current maps: Yeah, that would be awesome. I’ll have to figure something out though. I had a thought of doing a update tileset feature as well, where you could sort the tiles in a tileset differently and the maps would be updated. I think I will do an updater tool of sorts, which will know what maps correspond to the project changed and update them, or something. Not sure yet. But it’s definitely on my mind.
Speed: Yes. The number one reason I started this was because my project needed large maps, and OGMO was just too slow to be able to do anything useful with it. I also didn’t like Tiled’s object support.
Tools: Yes. Lines, floodfill, selection, magic wand. All planned. Magic wand might come later, though. Would it just select all the tiles of a certain ID on the map?
Platformer “previews” thingie: Interesting. This would be very helpful indeed. Will think about it.
Area triggers: So, just an object that would be a rectangle or another shape that would have a certain tag and properties? Without defining it first in the project file? Yes, that would be a bit useful. Will think about it.
Export to HTML: huh?
Tile rules: Yes. This would be awesome. Definitely planned, just not for the first released version.
Bitmaps as tile grid: So, a bitmap of black and white pixels? Or what?
Simple geometry objects: Yes, planned.
On screen info: So, mouse coordinates, delta, etc. on the status bar? Okey, cool!
Also, yes, editting a project won’t close down the level. Nodes, path, etc. are also planned. Snap to grid as well.
I’m also thinking of a randomiser feature. You select a bunch of tiles, and when you paint, a random tile of the selection is used. Would work great for having a bit of variation in floors, walls, etc. - you’d just floodfill or draw a rectangle with a selection, and the random tiles would be applied.
I agree with most of the wishes expressed so far. My main concerns would be:
Some of these have been already proposed, but I thought to re-list them to stress their importance (for me). Hope to see this thing out soon. Any alpha-release date? 
Mixins would be amazing. I’m currently working on a puzzle game where certain objects have a limited number of uses, and I have to add the “Uses” property to each supported entity type manually. It would be awesome to be able to add a “UsageLimiter” mixin to the appropriate types and trust it to update everywhere if I make a change.
Nineslice scaling for entity images would be nice.
This may be way out of scope, but: The ability to add a preview of a level as an entity in a map, for building metroidvania maps.
@azrafe7 - all planned! some will be ready on launch, some later.
It’ll be open-source, I’ll probably upload it to github or something. Not looking to make money off it (and if I really wanted to, I’d probably add some plugin feature or something, but I don’t think I will).
Hopefully there will be something ready before May!
@jacobalbano: so what you mean by mixins is some sort of template to Entity creation? or what?
Also, what’s this preview thing you mean, exactly? How would it work?
Mixins: The way I’m imagining it to work is that when you define an entity, you also have the option of defining a component that adds a certain set of properties. Adding that component to an entity definition would add those properties to that entity.
So you have some entities:
And you have a mixin:
Now, when you define your entities in the project options, you add the UsageLimiter to the Smart bomb and Ammo crate entities. Now they show up as having that property in the editor, and the level file would look something like this:
<Entities>
<AmmoCrate x="100" y="100" Uses="3" />
<SmartBomb x="200" y="50" Uses="1" />
<Medkit x="75" y="300" />
<Medkit x="300" y="75" />
</Entities>
Previews: You know how a Metroidvania map will often look something like this:
Each of those segments could be designed as a single level, and the game loads them all in and arranges them at runtime based on their layout in an overview level.
So imagine you’ve got one “level” file that you drag the tiny rooms around in, and each room you’re arranging is a real preview of a level you’ve previously built.
Like I said, way out of scope. 
Oh, okey. The mixins you mentioned I did have them in mind already. Called them Definitions on my notes. Yeah, you’ll definitely see them!
The metroidvania thing, yeah, I think it’s a bit out of scope
I would like to see an editor have some kind of project management, though. Levels are rarely made in a vacuum, and few games have a single level. It makes sense that a tool should, at the very least, be aware of other maps and how they interact.
One of the coolest things about the RPG Maker series was the way they handled transitions. You could add a transition to a map (like entering a door) and it would bring up a list of maps and allow you to click a location on any map to transition to. I could see that being quite useful.
I see your point. Yeah, the transitions on RPG Maker were great. I’ll try to think of a good way to implement something like that.
But I don’t need a game engine. I already have FlashPunk… I do need a good editor that fits my needs, though, that’s why I’m doing it.
i was kidding x)
i’ve one other idea for level editor that may make everything very very useful & more understandable (maybe?)
That’s an editor asks to user when started
“What kind of levels are you going to design? (what kind of a game are you working on)”
Why need that? Actually no need that for a game designer…
But! That makes you as a level editor designer to be able to add specific features to your editor depends on game type.
I’d love a layout much like Tiled, but with pre-made entities like ogmo. It sucks to have to make “new” entities in Tiled all the time.
The only thing that sucks about OGMO is how horrible slow it is. I wish someone could take the source code and make it as a fast as Tiled
Different XML exports is important
haha