On: Tile Studio: development utility for graphics of t...

[rtpg]

I remember watching Notch do a ludum dare and actually use paint.NET as his level editor.

Each color can be set to a tile, and you can read in the bitmap easily to load a level. A fun way to quickly crank out maps.

[realharo → rtpg]

Similarly, I once made a game with vector-based levels and just used Inkscape as the editor.

[veli_joza → realharo]

This might be the perfect application of Inkscape. As programmer, you can edit XML model and add data to your objects. You can also write Python plugins to integrate into your asset pipeline.

I used it to draw art which was converted to bitmaps, define polygon shapes for Box2D bodies, define joints between shapes (rope/spring/hinge), select static/dynamic properties, assign mass/restitution/friction...