How do I add collisions to imported Tiled tilemaps?

Questions
1

When importing maps from Tiled, how can I get collisions to work with the collision shapes I’ve defined in the Tiled Map Editor?
I’ve had a hard time finding clear information about this. The only thing I’ve come across is an auto-generated collision feature, but it seems too complex for a simple pixel game.

Would I need to import my maps in Lua instead and write a custom importer that reads the collision data from the Tiled file?

Maybe there are Lua libraries that could help with collisions? I found this: GitHub - erinmaus/slick: slick is a simple to use polygon collision library inspired by bump.lua

1 Like
2

bump

3

I just point back to the tilesheet .png file and let defold handle the collisions.

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4

Or are you asking how to setup collisions in tiled and then use them in defold?

If so, I’m not a pro at that process, but here’s what I got from CHAT GPT:

https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68f34b986e50819199db1c3169b8c609

5

And Claude said the same thing.

You have a couple of options for handling collisions with Tiled and Defold:

1. Define collision shapes in Tiled (recommended approach)

  • Create an Object Layer in Tiled

  • Add collision shapes (rectangles, polygons, etc.) on this layer

  • When you export and import the Tiled map into Defold, you can parse these object layers

  • Then programmatically create Defold collision objects based on the Tiled object data

2. Set up collisions entirely in Defold

  • Import your Tiled map as a tile map

  • Manually create collision objects in Defold that match your level geometry

  • This gives you more direct control but is more tedious for complex maps

The typical workflow:

  • Defold doesn’t automatically convert Tiled collision layers into Defold collision objects

  • You’ll need to write some code to read the Tiled object layer data and spawn collision objects in Defold

  • Many developers use Tiled for visual layout and rough collision placement, then use a script to generate the actual Defold collision objects at runtime or in the editor

What works well:

  • Use Tiled’s object layers to mark where collisions should be

  • Export to Lua or JSON format

  • Parse this data in Defold to create collision objects programmatically