Choosing a 2D Tileset for Your Platformer

Buying a tileset looks like an art decision and is mostly a technical one. Three things determine
whether a set saves you a month or costs you one, and none of them are visible in the preview image.

Grid size: the decision you cannot undo

Everything in a 2D game is built around the tile grid — collision, movement distances, jump heights,
camera bounds, level layouts. Changing it later means rebuilding every level.

Pick before you buy anything, then only consider sets that match. Mixing a 16px set with a 32px set
is possible and always looks wrong, because the implied pixel density of the world changes between
them.

In Unity, set Pixels Per Unit on every sprite to your grid size, so one tile equals one unit
and your physics numbers stay legible.

Autotiling: the feature that saves the most time

Autotiling means the engine picks the correct tile variant automatically based on neighbours — a
ground tile knows to become a top edge, an inner corner, or a wall as you paint.

Without it you place every corner and edge by hand. On a twenty-level game that is days of work, and
it is work you redo whenever a layout changes.

What to check before buying:

• Does the set include the full tile matrix? A 47-tile blob set or a 16-tile
  “terrain” set. If the pack only has a ground tile, a left edge and a right edge, autotiling cannot
  work.
• Are engine files included? A Godot TileSet resource or a Unity Rule
  Tile asset saves an hour of configuration per tileset.
• Is a Tiled .tsx included? Useful even if you do not use Tiled, because
  it documents which tile is which.

The tiles that get left out

Preview images show the attractive tiles. What determines whether a set is usable is the awkward
ones:

• Inner corners — where two walls meet inward. The most commonly missing piece.
• One-tile-wide platforms — needs its own left/right/top combination.
• Slopes, if your game has them, with matching collision shapes.
• Transitions between materials — grass to stone, stone to ice.
• Edge caps for where terrain ends mid-air.

If the preview does not show inner corners, assume they are absent and ask before buying.

Parallax layers

A tileset without background layers gives you a foreground on a flat colour. Parallax is what makes a
2D world feel like it has depth, and matching backgrounds to a foreground set after the fact is
difficult — the palettes rarely agree.

A good set ships three to five layers at your target resolution, designed to loop horizontally. Check
the loop: a background that does not tile seamlessly shows a visible seam every few seconds of
movement, and fixing it means repainting.

Collision

Two approaches, and the pack should tell you which it supports.

Per-tile collision shapes baked into the tileset resource — the engine builds
collision as you paint. Fastest to work with, and what a well-prepared pack provides.

Manual collision where you place colliders yourself. More control, considerably more
work, and error-prone on slopes.

If the pack includes engine files, check whether collision came with them. It frequently does not, and
that is a day of work per tileset.

Setting the tileset up in your engine

Buying the right set is half the work. The other half is configuration, and the settings that matter
are few but unforgiving.

Unity

Import the sprite sheet with Sprite Mode: Multiple, Pixels Per Unit
set to your tile size, Filter Mode: Point and Compression: None. The
last two are what keep pixel art crisp; the defaults will blur it.

Slice with the Sprite Editor using Grid By Cell Size at your tile dimensions. Then
create a Tile Palette (Window → 2D → Tile Palette) and drag the sliced sprites in.

For autotiling, Unity needs Rule Tiles from the 2D Tilemap Extras package. Each rule
tile defines which sprite to use based on neighbours. Setting one up by hand takes about twenty minutes;
a pack that ships pre-configured rule tiles saves exactly that per tileset.

Godot

Godot 4’s TileSet editor handles this natively. Import the texture with
Filter: Nearest, create a TileSet resource, add the texture as an atlas source, and
use the terrain system for autotiling.

Godot’s terrains are more capable than Unity’s rule tiles out of the box — they handle transitions
between multiple materials without additional setup. If a pack ships a .tres TileSet
resource, most of the work is already done.

Tiled, as a middle layer

Many packs ship a .tsx Tiled tileset. Even if you do not use Tiled for level design, the
file is useful documentation: it records which tile is which, and which tiles are meant to connect.

Both Unity and Godot have importers for Tiled maps, so designing levels in Tiled and importing them
is a legitimate workflow — particularly if a level designer is working separately from the programmer.

Collision setup

Three approaches, in increasing order of effort and control:

1. Per-tile collision in the tileset. Defined once, applied automatically as you paint.
   Fastest, and what a well-prepared pack includes.
2. A separate collision tilemap. Paint invisible collision tiles over your visual
   layer. More work, but lets collision differ from visuals — useful for one-way platforms and slopes.
3. Composite colliders. Both engines can merge adjacent tile colliders into one shape,
   which removes the “catching on seams” problem where a character snags between two tiles.

The seam-catching issue is worth knowing about in advance: individual box colliders on adjacent tiles
create tiny edges that fast-moving characters catch on. Composite collision solves it, and it is a
setting rather than a rebuild.

Layer order that works

A structure that handles most 2D platformers:

• Background parallax — three to five layers, furthest first
• Background tiles — non-collidable scenery behind the player
• Collision tiles — the ground the player stands on
• Player and entities
• Foreground tiles — vegetation and detail the player passes behind
• UI

The foreground layer is the one people skip and the one that adds the most depth for the least work —
a few grass tufts and branches drawn over the player sell the space immediately.

Animated tiles

Water, torches, machinery. Both engines support them: Unity through Animated Tiles in 2D Tilemap
Extras, Godot through the TileSet’s animation frames per tile.

Check whether a pack includes the frames. Animated water is one of the highest-impact details in a 2D
game and one of the most commonly missing from tilesets — a still water tile reads as unfinished in a
way a still rock does not.

A pre-purchase checklist

1. Grid size matches your project
2. Full autotile matrix present, not just the obvious tiles
3. Inner corners, one-wide platforms and transitions included
4. Parallax backgrounds included and verified to loop
5. Engine files provided — Rule Tile, TileSet resource or Tiled .tsx
6. Collision shapes included
7. Animated tiles (water, torches) if your game needs them
8. Source files, so you can add the tile the pack forgot

That last one matters more than it looks. Every project eventually needs a tile the pack does not
have. With source files that is twenty minutes; without them it is a mismatched tile forever.

Our 2D assets list grid size, tile count and included
engine files on each product page. Work-in-progress critique is welcome on the
2D art board.