Hi Guys,
I’m wondering what most people use for level creation/design/editing. And not just for prototyping, for full fledged design and editing. Is there a good plugin for unity? What is the industry standard paid program? and free?
Thanks for any info.
What they basically do is decide on a game genre they like, eg, FPS or RPG, and download free or buy an asset that implements that genre as a framework while replacing the art used with their own. As for your question directly, the Unity Editor is the level creation/design/editing platform although it’s of no use, practically speaking, to create the actual art work used in the levels you create, only to integrate them.
For the art you’re best to learn GIMP and Blender for the lowest costs but highest time investment. Otherwise, buy or free from the asset store and elsewhere and re-texture and re-tint as needed to create your own look. Re-texuring will take more self-education than you think but it’s worth while even if you decide not to learn how to 3D model.
There is a package that greatly extends Unity, but it still won’t replace actual content creation tools.
It also depends on what industry you’re talking about. Professional development is a little more standardized, but indie development is all over the place. If you’re funded, you might build models and levels in Maya or Max, and do 2D art in Photoshop. If you’re self-funded, you might build levels in Unity using ProCore (like Ryiah just mentioned above) or Rotorz Tile System or RPG Map Editor for 2D games, and perhaps texture with indie tools like Ultimate Unwrap. If you’re unfunded, use Blender and Gimp (or Paint.net) and the built-in Unity editor features, which are free and still get the job done.
Or you could use something like DunGen to procedurally generate your levels. It depends on what kind of game you’re making.
Or hop over to the Job Offering or Collaboration forums to find a level designer to work with. 
Thank you all for your responses.
I have been looking at the procore editor and looks pretty good. The reason I ask this is because I have been doing simple inside building level creation and the step of texturing the walls seems super inefficient so I was wondering if there was a better streamlined process. Currently using unity/blender/photoshop.
Honestly I just figured I wasn’t using the right tools because uv mapping is a major pain in the a$$, and I’m not great with photoshop so the walls and floors always look like crap. And because I have been modeling using unity primitives I have been creating the textures in unity without uv maps of the objects so then I have to spend time on tiling, width of object, to get everything to look right. I have always paid modelers to do this in the past but have always been interested in learning so I have been messing around with level creation.
Question, from what goat suggested, if I buy unity packs from the asset store, how do you export uv maps without the procore editor? Is that even possible?
EDIT**** Nevermind, I found object exporters in the store
I suppose I need to spend more time on mastering texturing to make it look polished.
It is a content creation tool. It’s not a Max/Maya/Blender replacement, however - it’s a brush-style modelling tool. So it’s strong and fast for making levels or architectural models, but it’s weak at pretty much anything else.
On the flip side, while you certainly can make your level/architectural geometry in Max/Maya/Blender, the workflow is somewhat longer and things like UV tools are far more general purpose - you get a lot of extra flexibility, but that could well slow you down where you don’t need it.
As an example, if you make your level geometry in Maya then there’s a good chance you’ll have to add (or modify) colliders as a separate step in your pipeline. Do the same thing in a brush-based tool and it’ll generally do 99% of that for you with no extra effort on your behalf.
It’s common to use a brush-style tool for levels and also something like Max/Maya/Blender for your characters and props. It’s all about the right tool for the right job.
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Right, that it can’t replace modellers is what I was referring to. Amusingly enough I haven’t actually gotten around to getting myself a copy of ProCore yet despite occasionally bringing it up. 