Bevy Experimental Editor

A VERY experimental scene editor for Bevy games.

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What's Here (so far!)

Scene Editing

Click and drag to place entities, use gizmos to move/rotate/scale. The inspector lets you tweak transforms, sprites, and UI components. Undo/redo works, and you can have multiple scenes open in tabs.

Asset Browser

Drag textures onto sprites. The browser scans your project's assets/ folder and lets you preview images before assigning them.

Tilemap Tools - needs work

Load a tileset PNG, pick a layer, and paint. Includes brush, rectangle, line, and fill tools. You can also edit per-tile collision shapes.

CLI Integration

Run cargo build or bevy run from the toolbar. Output shows up in a terminal-style panel with color-coded compilation progress.

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Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/jbuehler23/bevy_experimental_editor.git
cd bevy_experimental_editor
cargo run -p bevy_editor

First launch prompts you to create or open a project. The editor creates a workspace file at ~/.bevy_experimental_editor/workspace.json to remember your recent projects.

Running Your Game

Click the Run button in the toolbar. The editor builds your project and launches it in a new window. You can stop it anytime from the CLI panel.

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What's Working (kinda)

• Scene editing: Multi-tab workspace, transform gizmos, entity hierarchy
• Inspector: Edit common components (Transform, Sprite, UI nodes)
• Asset browser: Texture preview and drag-to-assign
• Tilemap painting: Brush/fill/line/rectangle tools with layers
• CLI panel: Run builds, see output, stop processes
• Project templates: Generate starter projects with the wizard
• Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+S to save, Q/W/E for gizmos, Ctrl+Z for undo

What's Planned

• Prefab system: Save entity groups as reusable templates
• Animation editor: Keyframe animations directly in the editor
• Physics gizmos: Visual collision shape editing
• Play mode: Test your game without leaving the editor
• Script hooks: Attach custom behaviors to entities
• UI builder: Visual layout tools for Bevy UI

Full roadmap: docs/EDITOR_ROADMAP.md

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Building from Source

Requirements:

• Rust 1.70 or newer
• GPU drivers supporting Vulkan, Metal, or DirectX 11+

Clone and run:

git clone https://github.com/<org>/bevy-experimental-editor.git
cd bevy-experimental-editor
cargo run -p bevy_editor

Faster dev builds:

# Use dynamic linking for faster iteration
cargo run -p bevy_editor --features bevy/dynamic_linking

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Using the Editor

Check docs/USER_GUIDE.md for a walkthrough. Key shortcuts:

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save scene
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Undo / Redo
Q / W / E	Move / Rotate / Scale gizmo
G	Toggle grid snap
Middle mouse + drag	Pan viewport
Mouse wheel	Zoom

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Modular Design

The editor is split into independent crates so you can embed just the parts you need:

• bevy_editor_scene - Scene management and persistence
• bevy_editor_tilemap - Tile painting and layer system
• bevy_editor_project - Project workspace and CLI integration
• bevy_editor_assets - Asset scanning and browser state
• bevy_editor_ui_egui - egui-based frontend (swappable)

Example of using just the scene backend:

use bevy::prelude::*;
use bevy_editor_scene::SceneEditorPlugin;

fn main() {
    App::new()
        .add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)
        .add_plugins(SceneEditorPlugin)
        .run();
}

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for details on the crate structure.

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Contributing

Pull requests welcome! Please:

• Run cargo fmt and cargo clippy before submitting
• Include tests for new features
• Update docs if you add public APIs

Open an issue first for larger changes so we can discuss the approach.

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License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache 2.0, your choice.

• MIT
• Apache 2.0

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Credits

Built with:

• Bevy - Game engine
• egui - UI framework (via bevy_egui)
• bevy-inspector-egui - Component inspector
• bevy_ecs_tilemap - Tilemap rendering

Thanks to the Bevy community for feedback and testing!