A level editor in a game can extend that game’s potential playtime by hundreds of hours. They allow a constant stream of new material to use at little cost to the developer and give players a new way to engage with the game. Sometimes, custom levels become beloved parts of a game’s culture in their own right.
Not every game includes level editors, but they can be found across various genres in all manner of games. Some stand head and shoulders above the others due to their versatility, ease of use, or the sheer depth of what can be created with them.
10 Advance Wars Lets You Construct Devious Military Challenges
The Advance Wars games are a series of turn-based strategy games that see the player take control of a military force from a top-down perspective, using combined-arms troops to beat back their enemies and capture territory. The series has an exceptionally robust single-player, noted to be a good mix of challenge and fun.
Most games in the series also include a level editor. It has a fairly simplistic nature that serves as both a boon and a limitation. Nearly anybody can jump into the level editor and make something they would have fun with. Still, there is only so much further expertise can take you, with the versatility being limited.
9 Fortnite Has More Than Battle Royale
The gaming phenomenon known as Fortnite is best-known for its battle royale mode that focuses on gunplay and building defensive structures. However, Epic Games have been working on more gameplay variety than just an endless loop of players fighting to the death in an increasingly small space.
One of the features included is a creative mode with the ability to play the custom-created maps of others. The map creator itself is relatively intuitive, and some impressive works have been made, from obstacle courses to deathmatches to scenic adventures. Unfortunately, the game’s fairly limited run-shoot-jump-build mechanics put a cap on what can be done.
8 Portal 2 Allows For In-Depth Puzzles To Be Made
Already known as one of the best puzzle games ever, Portal 2 also includes a level editor that allows the player to create their own puzzles, with Portal 2‘s dazzling array of mechanics on display.
The depth is such that entirely enjoyable levels have been created that don’t even use the Portal Gun, the game’s central mechanic. However, the editor is limited by a slightly harsh limitation on items. Furthermore, due to the game’s heavily physics-based nature, levels likely need more playtesting to simply be functional, let alone fun.
7 Far Cry 5 Allows Entire Other Games To Be Created
Level editors are not something one thinks of when Far Cry is mentioned. The series is best known for its first-person gunplay, open worlds, and storylines involving strange figures manipulating scared tourists into fighting wars they have little to do with.
Nonetheless, Far Cry 5 came with an arcade mode, including the ability for players to create their own enemy-filled levels for people to run through. With many assets and tricks available, the level editor is notoriously flexible enough that people have recreated levels from Goldeneye, even getting lawyers involved.
6 Warcraft 3’s Level Editor Invented A Whole New Genre
Often, level editors are exploited to create gameplay never envisioned by the developers. Many shooter games have seen themselves turned into races, obstacle courses, or platformers. It’s rarer that an entire genre is launched, however.
Warcraft 3‘s map editor was intended to be used for players to create narratively interesting or challenging maps to battle across in a traditional real-time strategy format. Most players, however, found it more fun to create maps solely centered around using a single hero unit, treating the game more like an RPG. One such map, ‘Defense of the Ancients’, eventually blossomed into the MOBA genre, with games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends.
5 Minecraft’s Simplicity Belies Its Depth
Minecraft is best-known for elaborate house-building and its monster-fighting survival. When not being used to make interesting houses, its Creative Mode has been used to create a wide variety of levels, many of which can be downloaded online.
They vary from obstacle courses, survival challenges, narrative adventures, to multiplayer game modes like Hunger Games-esque battle royales. Despite Minecraft‘s simple appearance and building mechanics, it can get complex. A downside is that creating anything takes a lot of time, and without external tools, maps have to be built one block at a time.
4 Halo’s Forge Mode Shows Halo’s Versatility
‘Forge Mode’ was introduced in Halo 3, designed to allow players to make minor changes to multiplayer maps by swapping out weapons and vehicles or adding additional scenery and obstacles. Players began to push at its limits, so developers Bungie vastly expanded it for Halo: Reach, adding the aptly-named ‘Forge World’, with wide-open spaces for level design.
The mode can range from simple tweaks to entire new party games like ‘Speed Halo.’ Despite its versatility, the editor is also hindered by a lack of tutorials. Most mechanics are not explained and are all but crucial to making anything close to a professional map.
3 Mario Maker 2 Improves On Excellence
The Mario games have relatively simple gameplay centered around running, jumping, and the use of items that nonetheless require a wide range of skill and technicality. Super Mario Maker put the tools to create Mario maps into the hands of every player, and its sequel added even more toys to play with.
With nearly every trick the developers have ever pulled in players’ hands, Mario Maker 2 has one crucial feature for ensuring the quality of its maps. Before a map can be published, its creator must beat it, helping to ensure that however difficult a level is, it is made in good faith.
2 Roblox Is Built On Custom Games
Roblox is less of a game and more of a game creation system with an intuitive user interface. The vast majority of Roblox content is custom-created minigames that mimic many classic game types and pre-existing games.
Being that nearly its entirety is a level editor, Roblox has earned criticism for monetizing its creator, with components being purchasable through microtransactions. Despite this, it has garnered respect for the sheer variety and depth of what can be created, and for its rewarding of mastery.
1 Little Big Planet Is A Level Editor With A Tutorial
The Little Big Planet games technically have singleplayer modes, but those often serve as little more than tutorials for the dizzying number of tools provided to players in its main draw, its level editor.
Through the vast number of tools presented in an intuitive interface, players have created nearly every kind of content in Little Big Planet. Possibilities include the game’s typical platforming levels, narrative adventures, vehicle-driving games, shooter games, and even things like open-world adventures and genuine computers.
NEXT: 10 Best Non-Star Wars Games For Star Wars Fans
Next Spider-Man 2: 10 Ways We’re Worried It’s Too Soon For A Third Solo Spidey Game
About The Author
Isaac Williams (169 Articles Published)
Isaac Williams is a movie-goer, TV watcher, journalist, blogger, gamer, comic book-fan, and roleplayer. He’s been a bartender and a waiter, and now he writes lists for CBR. He focuses on TV shows and movies. In his free time, Isaac can be found gaming, reading, playing D&D, walking Birmingham’s lengthy canals, and catching up on movies.