Introduction to tilemaps

Build the game world and levels of your 2D project by painting tiles onto the scene.

Note: To use tilemaps, make sure the 2D Tilemap Editor package is installed in your project. For more information, refer to set up your project for 2D games.

To paint with tiles, follow these steps:

1. Create a tile palette, which is a collection of tile assets you paint with. Tile assets are rectangular, isometric, or hexagonal sprites.
2. Create a tilemap, which is the area you paint the tiles onto, then paint your tiles. For more information, refer to Paint tiles into the scene.

Render Pipeline Compatibility

Tilemaps are supported by all render pipelines that support 2D projects.

Types of tilemap

Unity supports the tilemaps with the following tile layouts:

• Rectangular. This is the default.
• Hexagonal. This type of tilemap is often used for strategy games. You can align the hexagons so they have a point at the top, or a flat edge at the top.
• Isometric. This type of tilemap uses a 2D grid to create the illusion of 3D height and depth.

Additional resources

• Tilemap API documentation
• 2D Tilemap Extras