About the Tool
Pixel Map Generator is a creative tool designed for game developers, tabletop RPG enthusiasts, and world builders. It lets users generate and customise pixel-art style maps with a great deal of creative control over the output.
The tool provides colour controls, threshold adjustments, and layout options that let users create a variety of pixel-based maps. The output can be used directly in games or as reference material for tabletop campaigns.
Features include: manipulating the colours and thresholds of biomes, adjusting the noise the map is based on, generating custom seeds, loading preset colour palettes, and saving and loading generator files to continue working on the same map across sessions.
My Process
Concept Work
Pixel Map Generator started as an assignment for DXB211 - Creative Coding at QUT, where each student had to develop a creative piece using p5.js. I had no prior experience with terrain generation or Perlin noise, so the approach was highly exploratory from the start.
My initial concept was that a user would input parameters - map size, desired biomes, structures - and a pixel map would be generated from those inputs. I sketched out what I was aiming to make before touching any code.
Pixel Map Generation Prototyping Work
After researching terrain generation concepts, I began experimenting with how Perlin noise worked in p5.js - first creating a 2D noise map, then pixelating it and colouring it different shades based on noise values. From there I experimented with colouring pixels based on whether their noise value was above or below a threshold, which let me create distinct land and water regions.
I added sand next, but the visual output was getting messy. That pushed me toward simplifying the colouring approach by more strictly defining colouring thresholds. This resulted in a more pixelly but visually clear map aesthetic.
Pixel Map Generator Interface Work
With the generation working, I shifted focus to building UI elements that let users tweak properties interactively. Each iteration was driven by a question: what if the user could change the seed? What if they could save and load maps? What if they could adjust biome thresholds directly?
I kept refining the interface in response to those questions, eventually landing on a final version that unified the design into a coherent, usable tool. Originally developed for the unit in 2021, I later rediscovered the project and released it publicly on itch.io. Working in JavaScript and p5.js - entirely outside Unity and C# - gave me an opportunity to develop interactive software in a different context, and sparked an interest in building tools for asset creation that a follow-up project, Biome Box, continues to explore.
