How to Export Tilemaps to Unity

There's a certain pain that comes with designing tilemaps in one tool, then having to manually recreate everything in Unity. You'll export your tileset, import it, slice the sprites, create a tilemap, paint everything again... it's tedious, and honestly, it kills the creative momentum you had going.

MapperMate's Unity export solves this. You design your map in the browser, hit export, and you get a .unitypackage file that imports directly into Unity with everything pre-configured. Your tilesets, your layers, your collision data. All of it, ready to go.

Below is the exact workflow I use to go from MapperMate to a playable Unity scene in under 5 minutes.

What You'll Need

• A MapperMate account (free to create)
• Unity 2021.3 or later (the 2D template works best)
• A tilemap with at least one layer

Step 1: Design Your Map

I won't go deep into map creation here since that's covered in the beginner tutorial. The key thing to know for Unity exports is that your layer structure matters.

Each layer in MapperMate becomes a separate Tilemap in Unity. So if you have a "Ground" layer and a "Decorations" layer, you'll get two Tilemaps in your Unity scene, stacked in the correct order. This is exactly what you want for proper sorting and collision handling.

Step 2: Export to Unity

Once your map is ready, click the Export button in the bottom-right corner of the editor. You'll see a list of export options. Select "Unity".

MapperMate will generate a .unitypackage file and download it to your machine. This package contains:

• Your tileset images, already configured as sprites with correct slicing
• Tile assets for each tile in your tileset (the things you paint with in Unity's Tile Palette)
• A prefab with your complete tilemap scene
• Collision layers with TilemapCollider2D attached (if you used the Collision Tool)

No manual sprite slicing. No recreating your map tile by tile. It's all done for you.

Step 3: Import into Unity

Open your Unity project (or create a new 2D project). Then either:

• Double-click the .unitypackage file, or
• Go to Assets > Import Package > Custom Package and select the file

Unity will show you a list of assets to import. Keep everything selected and click Import. You'll find your assets in a new folder named after your MapperMate project.

Step 4: Add the Prefab to Your Scene

Inside the imported folder, you'll see a prefab file (it'll have your project name). Drag this into your scene hierarchy, and your entire tilemap is there, layers and all.

The prefab contains a Grid object with child Tilemaps for each layer. If you had collision data, those layers will have TilemapCollider2D components already attached and configured.

At this point, you can add a player, set up your camera, and start playing. The collision layer will automatically block movement if you've got a Rigidbody2D on your player.

Making Changes

Here's where MapperMate really shines compared to designing directly in Unity: iteration speed.

Need to change your level layout? Jump back into MapperMate, make your edits, re-export, and re-import. The whole cycle takes maybe 30 seconds. Compare that to Unity's tile palette workflow where you're clicking individual tiles, and MapperMate's brush tools and multi-tile selection start to feel like a superpower.

I usually keep MapperMate open in one browser tab while developing in Unity. Design, export, import, test. Rinse and repeat until the level feels right.

Common Issues and Fixes

Tiles look blurry in Unity: Make sure you're using "Point (no filter)" for the Filter Mode on your sprite import settings. The export sets this up correctly, but if you reimport manually, Unity might default to Bilinear filtering which blurs pixel art.

Collisions not working: Check that your collision layer has the TilemapCollider2D component, and that your player has a Rigidbody2D and Collider2D (like BoxCollider2D). Also verify that neither is set to "Is Trigger" unless you want trigger behavior.

Layers in wrong order: The sorting order is based on your layer order in MapperMate. Layers higher in the list render on top. If things look wrong, adjust the Order in Layer property on each Tilemap Renderer, or reorder your layers in MapperMate and re-export.

Why This Workflow?

I built MapperMate because I was tired of the friction between designing levels and implementing them. Unity's built-in tilemap tools are functional, but they're not fast. They're not fun. And when level design isn't fun, you make fewer levels, and your game suffers for it.

With MapperMate, I can sketch out a level idea in minutes, not hours. The browser-based editor means I can work from anywhere, and cloud saves mean I never lose work. When I'm ready to test, one export and import gets me into Unity immediately.

If you're serious about making 2D games in Unity, this workflow will save you hours. The free plan gives you one project to try it out. If you find yourself wanting more, the premium plans unlock unlimited projects, premium export types, and priority support for when you're deep in development and need help fast.