moonshotadv VS tiled

I made a jam game a few months ago where I abstracted out the levels into a JSON file. I'd imagine you could do something similar and it'd likely be more flexible than your bitmap method. In case it's useful, here is the actual example I'm talking about: https://github.com/elennick/moonshotadv/blob/main/levels/levels.json

When you decide on the high-level design of the resume, start building your map in Tiled. You can customise the map from the basic game you already have or build your one from scratch - just try and see what works best for you.

A more sophisticated approach may be to use something like Tiled (https://www.mapeditor.org), but it typically takes a lot of code to to parse a Tiled map, so I wouldn’t start there. The exact needs of your game will dictate the approaches you use. Starting simple means you can make good, visible progress getting your game to work. And I’m sure that plenty of real games have shipped where the levels are just text files.

When I first messed with Phaser, I just used a 2D array to plop in my tiles, but that was very tedious. That's when I discovered the Tiled map editor! I was able to "paint" with my tilemap to create a map with various layers. I made a ground layer, a wall layer, an enemy layer, and a potion layer.

There is also Tiled from https://www.mapeditor.org/ as a tilemap editor.

and for the map creation side there is plenty of software ! this one is nice and open source and free etc etc : https://www.mapeditor.org/

PolishedMap, for use in-game. But, if you're just sketching stuff out, PolishedMap doesn't have the most convenient UI, so something quick with great features like Tiled works well

I use Tiled with this tileset I found in Pilot NET. The maps it creates are entirely form over function - no fancy art or effects unless you add them a different way - but they're very legible. Then I use Foundry's drawing tools to sketch out outlines for cover, object sizes, etc. (Here's an example of a map I made for a Train Heist combat - orange is Size 1, yellow is soft cover, purple is difficult terrain, and so on.)

If you want to add grids or hexes, you’ll need to edit the image in an image editor to add those. I’d suggest looking at TileD at https://www.mapeditor.org or something along those lines.