Overview
Unity’s Tilemap system is the engine’s 2D level-painting workflow for tiled environments. Instead of placing hundreds of individual sprites manually, teams paint tiles onto a Grid using a Tile Palette. This is especially valuable for pixel-art games where environmental art is built from repeatable seamless tilesets. (Charles, 2D Game Graphics — Interactive Web Course, see source-2d-game-graphics-course)
Setup
Core Tilemap pieces:
| Tool | Role |
|---|---|
| Grid | The parent transform defining cell layout |
| Tilemap | A layer of painted tiles |
| Tile Palette | The editor palette used to paint tiles |
| Tileset sprites | The imported art that becomes paintable tiles |
Typical workflow:
- Import the tileset correctly using unity-pixel-art-pipeline.
- Create a Grid and Tilemap.
- Open the Tile Palette window.
- Drag sliced tile sprites into the palette to create tile assets.
- Paint the level directly in the Scene view.
Pixel art workflow note
For pixel art, the Tilemap workflow depends on three separate things lining up:
- the tileset import settings
- consistent Pixels Per Unit
- a correctly configured unity-pixel-perfect-camera
The Pixel Perfect Camera settings do not go on the Tilemap Renderer. The Tilemap Renderer just draws the tiles. Pixel-perfect presentation is a camera concern, while crisp tiles are also an import-settings concern.
Usage
Tilemap is best when:
- the level is built from repeating 2D tiles
- alignment to a grid matters
- designers need to iterate on layout quickly
It complements rather than replaces art design pages like pixel-art-environment-art, which explain how to make a seamless tileset in the first place.
Gotchas
- If the import settings are wrong, the Tilemap will faithfully paint blurry art.
- Tilemap is ideal for regular grid-based spaces; highly irregular painted scenes may still be easier with layered sprites.
- Grid size and Pixels Per Unit must match the art style, or tiles will not line up cleanly.
Related
unity-pixel-art-pipeline · unity-pixel-perfect-camera · pixel-art-environment-art · cellular-automata · source-2d-game-graphics-course