C++

Tilemaps are very useful for making game levels.

A tilemap is a 'map of tiles' of a level. Each type of tile is given a number.

For example, in a space where you want a wall, you can use the number 2. In a place where you want nothing to appear, you can use 0 (and most people do.)

A typical tilemap looks like this:

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 0 1 0 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 2
2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 2
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 2
2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 2
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 2
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

It's made for a 640*480px large window where each tiles are 32*32px large.
Save it as "level1.map" in your project folder.
Open your project and your c++ file.

Add the headers and namespace to the top of the project.

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
 
using namespace std;

Now we will make a function that reads the map file and load it into a global array.

int tile[20][15];
 
void load_tilemap(string filename)
{
    ifstream map;
    map.open(filename.c_str());
    for (int x=0;x<20;x++)
    {
        for (int y=0;y<15;y++)
        {
            int tiletype = 0;
            map >> tiletype;
            tile[x][y] = tiletype;
        }
    }
}

In our main function we will call the function with the filename argument.
It is a void non-returning function, so everything have now been putted in the tile array.
In this example it will write the content of the tile array to the console window.

int main()
{
    int count = 0;
    load_tilemap("level1.map");
    for (int x=0;x<20;x++)
    {
        for (int y=0;y<15;y++)
        {
            count += 1;
            if (count < 20)
            {
                cout << tile[x][y] << " ";
            }
            else
            {
                cout << tile[x][y] << endl;
                count = 0;
            }
 
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

But in your game, you would check the content of the tile and draw the correct tile on the screen.
Like this:

if (tile[x][y] == 1)
{
    apply_surface(x*32,y*32,surface_player,surface_screen);
}