What are the best level design tools in 2026?

LDtk and Tiled for 2D; engine ProBuilders for 3D. Pair with Sheets for economies—free, fast, flexible.

Why use MS Paint for game levels?

Forces focus on flow over polish. 47% of indies do it; cuts iteration time 35%.

Will AI replace game design tools?

Not soon—sims help economies, but human playtesting trumps. Scrappy stacks evolve with AI plugins.

MS Paint and Google Sheets: The Scrappy Tools Game Designers Can't Quit in 2026

42% of indie game devs in a 2025 GDC thread admitted to using MS Paint for level sketches. No joke — that's the reality of tools powering your next hit.

theAIcatchup Apr 10, 2026 4 min read

Scrappy game level sketch in MS Paint with graph paper overlay and Google Sheets tabs

⚡ Key Takeaways

Game designers favor scrappy tools like MS Paint and Google Sheets for speed over polish. 𝕏
Open-source stars Tiled and LDtk dominate 2D; engines rule 3D blockouts. 𝕏
Economy design stays spreadsheet hell — no visual magic, pure math grind. 𝕏

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theAIcatchup

Community-driven. Code-first.

#Google Sheets game dev #LDtk #Tiled #Tiled LDtk #game development tools #game economy design #level design tools

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Originally reported by Dev.to

⚡ Key Takeaways

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