Tilemap

A tilemap is a grid-based system that allows you to efficiently create and render 2D environments by placing tiles from a tileset onto a grid. Under the hood, it's a data structure that defines which tiles go where in your game world. It allows you to build levels, maps, and environments by "painting" with pre-defined tiles rather than placing individual objects.

This image shows Godot's tilemap editor in action. This level from our 2D game development course is entirely composed of tiles.

In Godot, the TileMapLayerTileMapLayer node lets you quickly create complex 2D worlds by drawing tiles onto a grid. The node uses a tileset resource that defines the available tiles and their properties. This approach is efficient as it reuses the same tile graphics and textures across the entire map and only stores the position data for each cell.

Tilemaps are particularly useful for creating platformer levels, top-down RPG worlds, strategy game boards, or any game that uses a grid-based layout.

You can create very detailed environments with a good tileset and tilemap editor. For example, the environments of the game CrossCode are made with tilemaps.

In this scene from the game CrossCode, the environment has organic shapes, and yet it is made entirely with reusable tiles.