Complete MapperMate Tutorial for Beginners

Welcome to the comprehensive, beginner's tutorial for MapperMate. In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know to create stunning tilemaps for your 2D games. Whether you're a complete beginner or looking to streamline your workflow, this tutorial will get you up and running in just about 10 minutes.

MapperMate is designed to be the fastest and most intuitive tilemap editor available. Unlike traditional desktop tools that require downloads and complex setups, MapperMate runs entirely in your browser. This means you can start creating maps immediately, access your projects from any device, and collaborate with team members effortlessly.

What You'll Learn

• How to create your first MapperMate account and project
• Understanding tilesets and how to import them
• Basic tilemap creation techniques and tools
• Working with layers for complex scenes
• Adding collisions for player movement and boundaries
• Exporting your tilemap for use in games
• Best practices for efficient map creation

Step 1: Getting Started

First, head over to app.mappermate.com and create your free account. You'll get two projects for free—perfect for following along with this tutorial. You can quickly sign up with a GitHub account or e-mail address, just make sure you use a real e-mail as you must confirm it in order to start creating maps (I can't be dealing with spam accounts over here).

Once you're logged in and confirmed your e-mail, you'll see MapperMate's cloud library—the feature that makes it stand out the most from other tilemap editors (in my humble opinion). The library ensures all of your projects are accessible from one central location so you can access your maps across all devices no matter your whereabouts.

Click the "Create a new project" button to toggle the new project modal. Here you'll want to add your new project's name and then select a tileset. For this tutorial, we'll select the Sunnyland tileset by Ansimuz. Once selected, you have the option to pre-populate a map from a pre-built template. Although this is incredibly useful for getting a headstart and saving time, we'll forego it so we can focus on the basics of creating a map from scratch.

Hit "Create Project" and you'll be redirected to the map design screen.

Step 2: Understanding Tilesets

Tilesets are collections of small images (tiles) that you'll use to build your game world. Think of them as your building blocks - grass tiles, stone walls, water, trees, and characters. MapperMate comes with several built-in tilesets to get you started, but you can also import your own custom art.

To import a tileset, simply click the plus button located at the very top right corner of the tileset interface. MapperMate will automatically detect the tile size and grid layout. If you're using pixel art, make sure your tiles are consistently sized (common sizes are 16x16, 32x32, or 64x64 pixels).

Step 3: Creating Your First Map

Now comes the fun part - actually creating your map! Start by selecting a tile from your tileset and clicking on the canvas to place it. You can paint continuous strokes by clicking and dragging, or place individual tiles with single clicks. You can select multiple tiles in the tileset interface by clicking and dragging, or you can utilize MapperMate's many tools like the Fill and Line tool.

Use the zoom controls (scroll with mousewheel or pinch with trackpad) to get detailed work done or zoom out to see your entire level. The grid helps you align tiles perfectly, and you can toggle it on or off as needed with the hotkey 'G'.

Step 4: Working with Layers

Layers are one of MapperMate's most powerful features. They allow you to separate different elements of your scene - background terrain on one layer, decorative objects on another, and collision areas on a third. This organization makes your maps easier to manage and gives you more control over the final result.

Create a new layer by clicking the "+" button in the layers panel. You can rename layers and toggle visibility. This is especially useful when creating complex scenes where you need to see how different elements interact without interference.

Step 5: Adding Collisions

Now it's time to add collisions. Collisions are what'll prevent our player from falling through the map when gravity is activated—we need a way to say what objects should stop our player's movement as we navigate our map. Luckily for us, we have MapperMate's Collision Tool. Create a new layer, name it 'Collisions,' and then select the 'Blocks' tool. You can now begin drawing red blocks over the areas of your map in which you want your player to collide with. I recommend placing these on your outermost floor tiles for peak performance purposes.

Step 6: Exporting Your Creation

Once you're happy with your map, it's time to export it for use in your game. MapperMate offers several export options depending on your needs. The JavaScript export is perfect for web games and includes collision detection and player movement code. The Godot export provides files that you can import directly into Godot projects. There are also two premium exporters ('Platformer Game - Pro' and 'Top-Down Game - Pro') which add enhanced functionality such as out-of-the-box sprite animation, sidescrolling, camera panning, and more.

For this tutorial, try the JavaScript export. You'll receive a complete, playable game file that you can open in any web browser. It's incredibly satisfying to see your tilemap come to life as a fully functional game with just one click!

Next Steps

Congratulations! You've just created your first tilemap with MapperMate. From here, you can experiment with more advanced features like animated tiles, custom collision areas, and complex multi-layer scenes. The skills you've learned in this tutorial form the foundation for creating professional-quality game levels.

Ready to take your game development to the next level? Check out my in-depth video tutorials over on chriscourses.com which'll teach you how to build and code fully built out games using MapperMate.