## TL;DR

Tilemaps are 2D level design systems using a grid of reusable tiles — the foundation of classic and modern 2D games (Super Mario, Stardew Valley). Tiles are small images (16x16, 32x32 px) arranged in layers (ground, objects, collision). Tilemap editors: Tiled (industry standard), built-in editors in Unity, Godot, GameMaker.

## Core Explanation

Tile layers: ground (terrain), object (trees, buildings), collision (invisible). Autotiling: automatically selects tile variants based on neighbor tiles (e.g., water edges connect). Tile palette: organized collection of tiles. Tilemap performance: GPU batches tiles into few draw calls. Isometric tilemaps (2.5D): tiles drawn at 30° angle for pseudo-3D perspective.

## Further Reading

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