Anvil Level Design

Anvil Level Design

Anvil adds TrenchBroom and Hammer inspired tools to Blender. Enjoy improved UX for blockouts, texture alignment, hotspots, and prefabs while taking advantage of Blender's existing power and flexibility.

Install Anvil Quick Start

Anvil Level Design for Blender is game engine agnostic.

Turn Blender into a level design powerhouse

Block out rooms, browse and assign materials, align UVs, set up hotspots, place prefabs... and then build the production ready version of your level in the same workspace.

The Anvil Level Design workspace inside Blender with viewport, texture browser, and Anvil side panels visible

Designed for fast iteration

Tools exist to remove clicks, busywork, and mental load.

Apply Material UV copying texture alignment across faces
Apply Material UVsCopy material and UV alignment across faces.
Auto Hotspot applying atlas details to selected faces
Auto HotspotElements of a hotspot atlas are automatically applied to faces.
Curved road geometry with aligned road texture
Curve RoadTexture alignment tools creating tiling across curved geometry.
Box Builder creating a simple blockout volume
Box BuilderSketch blockout volumes directly in the viewport.
Cube Cut carving a corridor opening between rooms
Cube CutCarve corridors and openings through room geometry.

Examples and Testimonials

Anvil is aimed at level designers who like TrenchBroom and Hammer-style speed, but want to stay close to Blender's modelling tools.

A moody Build-engine style corridor created by Schouffy.

Image source: Lurking on Steam

Anvil reignited my passion for Build-engine style level design.

Its workflow makes grayboxing and iteration incredibly fast, while Blender's modeling tools provide all the flexibility needed for creating level geometry.

The custom interior-building tools are especially impressive, and texture application/alignment feels intuitive and efficient.

After trying many alternatives like ProBuilder, UModeler, and TrenchBroom, Anvil is easily my favorite. Alex, the creator, is also very active and helpful on Discord.

Schouffy
A low-poly snowy lava landscape by Cardboard Satelite.

The TrenchBroom workflow encourages some great practices, and I'm so glad to finally see that in Blender.

I especially like how straightforward texturing is now.

Cardboard Satelite
A pixel-art style stone waterside level by Hennejoe.

I used to use Trenchbroom exclusively but Anvil made me comfortable to start making levels directly in Blender, the ability to quickly texture and manipulate rooms is awesome!

Hennejoe

Patreon

Support ongoing Anvil development

Anvil is free. Patreon support helps fund docs, polish, testing, and new level-design tools.

Support on Patreon

Install Anvil and get started!

Follow the installation guide, then read quick start for an introduction to the most common features.

Install Anvil Quick Start

Source on GitHub Footnotes for the Future