Welcome to Seanba.com
This is my little blog where I occassional talk about things I’m interested in (programming, video games, etc.) and share some knowledge I’ve learned through the years as a game developer.
Most people coming here are interested in the tools I’ve made available to help with 2D game developement using the Unity game engine.
- Aseprite2Unity a Unity pipeline for Aseprite sprites and animations
- SuperTiled2Unity a Unity pipeline for Tiled maps
If you’d like to learn more about me and some of the games I’ve worked on then check out my about page. Thanks!
Posts
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Aseprite2Unity Now Available
Happy New Year 2019! Over the holidays I got back into my hobby projects and put something together that others may find useful. Yesterday, I made it available for the public under the pay-what-you-want-or-free model.
I love Unity but working with the built-in sprite and animation editors has long been an annoyance for me. So, I took what I consider to be the best 2D sprite authoring tool (Aseprite) and created a scripted importer for it.
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Introducing SuperTiled2Unity
Tiled2Unity is dead. Long live SuperTiled2Unity.
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Object Type Support Added to Tiled2Unity
This is an update I’ve been waiting awhile for. Recently, Tiled has been updated with better support for Object Types.
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Convex Polygon Collider Support in Tiled2Unity
Tiled2Unity can now export polygons that are strictly convex. (Read more) -
Introducing Tiled2UnityLite with Support for OSX/Linux
Update: Tiled2UnityMac is now available (as of version 1.0.7.0) for Mac OS X with a full-fledged GUI.
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Improved Animations and Tile Objects in Tiled2Unity
Hi there and Happy Holidays. I got some glorious free time this Christmas break to finalize a couple of improvements I’ve been working on for Tiled2Unity.
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Retrieving Tile Information at Runtime with Tiled2Unity
If you are building a strategy or RPG style game then there’s a strong chance that you need to get at specific information about each tile placed in the world. Unlike platformers, where tiles are decoration, each tile is an important part of your game logic. In this post I’ll show you two techniques to easily add such support to your Tiled2Unity projects.
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Better Control of Tiled2Unity Files in Your Unity Project
Version 0.9.11.0 of Tiled2Unity has just been added to the Tiled2Unity Download Page. This build contains a couple of new features for power-users.
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Isometric and Hexagonal Map Support in Tiled2Unity
Tiled2Unity now supports exporting Isometric and Hexagonal maps into your Unity projects. (Read more) -
Review a Great Game Day: Zanac (NES)
My Review a Great Game Day entry focuses on the most essential SHMUP of the NES platform: Zanac (Read more) -
Previewer Improvements with Tiled2Unity
Note: My Tiled2Unity utility is available for download on this page. Also, please consider contributing to Thorbjorn Lindeijer’s Patreon for continued Tiled Map Editor support.(Read more) -
Tiled2Unity Update for Unity 5
Tiled2Unity is now compliant with Unity 5. (Read more) -
Revisiting Tiled2Unity Scale with Scaled Vertices
Tiled2Unity now supports vertex scaling for tile meshes and collision geometry. (Read more) -
Support Thorbjorn's Tiled Map Editor on Patreon
Help support Tiled Map Editor on Patreon! (Read more) -
Tiled2Unity is on GitHub
The Tiled2Unity Utility that exports Tiled TMX files to Unity is available now on GitHub (Read more) -
Tiled Animation Editor Support Added to Tiled2Unity
Warning: This is an old post! Animation support in Tiled2Unity is now greatly optimized as of release 1.0.0.0. You can now be more confident that a large number of animations will not sink performance as before.
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Tiled2Unity: Edge Collider Support in Tiled Layers
Tiled2Unity now supports exporting EdgeCollider2D components from polyline objects added through the Tile Collision Editor in Tiled. (Read more) -
The Real-Life Adventures of Mega Dad with Tiled2Unity
In this post, we implement animations, ladders, water volumes, scripted importers and more with Mega Dad and Tiled2Unity. (Read more) -
Additional Tileset Support in Tiled2Unity
A quick update on some Tileset settings that are now supported in Tiled2Unity. (With thanks to readers alerting me to such shortcomings.)
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Controlling Tiled2Unity Scale
Update: Most Tiled2Unity users will want to use the newer vertex scaling feature to scale their Tiled maps.
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Import Tiled Maps to Unity with Tiled2Unity
Export Tiled TMX files to Unity with the free Tiled2Unity Utility (Read more) -
Mega Man in Unity
In this post I detail my experience in re-creating Mega Man within Unity. (Read more) -
Review a Great Game Day: Double Dragon 2 (NES)
Today is Review a Great Game Day! I love this idea and have decided to review one of my favorite games of all time, Double Dragon II on the NES. (Read more) -
Super Metroid Symphony is in Captivity
Yeah, yeah, the title is a bit cheesy. (I was originally going to go with “The Galaxy is at Peace with Super Metroid Symphony”.)
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A Great Year in Austin Game Development
If you’ve worked as a game developer in Austin for the past 5 or 6 years you’ve no doubt heard the buzz: Austin game dev is in a bit of rut.
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My Striking Conclusion From One Year of Blogging
Writing is hard.
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Clever Code != Friendly Code
The other day I was looking at some old code I’ve written.
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Epic Mickey in Stores November 30th
Back in June I was still a bit high from the positive response Epic Mickey had received from our E3 showing:
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Double Fine Productions Makes Me Sick to My Stomach
Double Fine Productions has a great idea for their new video game, I only wish I had brought the same idea to light years ago when I first thought of it. (Read more) -
My First YouTube Appearance with Disney Epic Mickey
I’ve worked booths at E3 and Comic Con before in my career, but something that made this year’s event drastically different for me happened when someone from Disney public relations approached me with a camera crew in tow and asked me to do an interview for a press outlet.
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Do Not - Sometimes the Better Option
Andy Hunt, easily my favorite programmer-type author, recently tweeted this bit of hard-earned wisdom:
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Disney Epic Mickey at E3 - What a Show!
I’ve been to E3 before for the games I’ve worked on and have reached the same conclusion as the vast majority of game developers attendees: Going to E3 sucks.
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Geeky Cool Father's Day Present
Today I was treated to my usual Sunday morning pancakes on top of my Father’s Day present. Pretty cool, no?
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Disney Epic Pancakes - I Have a Point
Team Barton has a ritual every Sunday morning where the kids let the grown-ups sleep in a bit and the family is rewarded with pancakes afterwards.
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The Tragic Cost of Pac-Man? Yeah, Whatever.
Remember how cool it was when Google turned their homepage, and logo, into a playable version of Pac-Man?
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So that's why I can't stand people
By programmer standards, I think it’s fair to say I’m a fairly social guy. I imagine most people I’ve worked with would say I’m a friendly, approachable guy – perhaps even a bit extroverted.
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Difficult achievements + easy mode = weak design sauce
In which I complain, perhaps unfairly, that the combination of very challenging achievements with the unsatisfying Easy difficulty setting leads to a rather poor design in a cherished gaming franchise. (Read more) -
Programming Commandments (not just for juniors)
In which I challenge fellow game developer Chad Stewart to expand his Programming Commandments to programmers of all levels and experience, and not just the junior programmer. (Read more) -
Descendants of Erdrick: My new favorite indie band
In which I take my 7-year-old daughter (and fellow video gaming enthusiast) to see the Descendants of Erdrick, my new favorite band that covers music from the golden age of video games. (Read more) -
On running, goals, and software
I tried my hand at long distance running and failed. I still learned something along the way, however. (Read more) -
My take on Zack & Wiki sales
Having not taken a single marketing course in my lifetime, I think I can teach the Capcom execs why Zack & Wiki really did so poorly in retail. (Read more) -
Free graphic programming books (including GPU Gems)
GameRendering Dot Com shares a collection of free books covering hardware graphics programming. A detailed chapter on the deferred lighting used in Tabula Rasa is included, with a props towards yours truly. (Read more) -
Starting the working year with a wicked gaming hangover
During a much needed holiday break, I (re)discover why my gaming habits would kill me if I didn't have a career to attend to. Thank goodness my job is making video games. (Read more) -
What The Boss can teach me about game development
Jon Stewart tells me something about Bruce Springsteen that I'm now bringing to work with me everyday. (Read more) -
1,099 retail games in 2009
According to a report cited by Gamasutra, there was a staggering 1,099 console video games released to retail this past year.
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Fun programming exercises with Project Euler
I don’t know about programmers in the real world but as a video game programmer I often worry about my coding skills getting a little bit stagnant due to our near-universal reliance on C++. And that problem is even worse if you work at one of those places where fancy stuff like templates, the STL, and smart pointers are discouraged (because “they’re slow”, or something) and especially so if inheritance gone wild is encouraged.
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A killed MMO. How very rude.
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As a firm believer of Gabe’s Greater Internet F*ckwad Theory, I’m really not that much of a multiplayer kind of guy. Still, in the mid-2000’s I got hooked for a bit on City of Heroes – so much so that I sought out a job with their publisher, NCsoft, back in 2004. -
OMG! A real Transformers game?
While gushing over Rocksteady’s exceptionally executed Batman: Arkham Asylum one thought kept occurring to me: I am insanely jealous of Batman fans. Playing Arkham was a blast for me, but for the hardcore Batman connoisseurs? It must have been pure Nirvana.
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How do you make the best Superhero game ever?
Sefton Hill, game director behind the super-polished Batman: Arkham Asulum recently granted an interview to Gamasutra’s Kris Graft. I want to do better at my job, so when a developer behind a hit game shares his insights, and the formula behind their success isn’t simply this industry standard …
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Here goes ... something?
Well, here I am. This blog is something I’ve been thinking of doing for awhile but just now gathered the momentum needed to get it running. Great. Now all I have to do is feed it meaningful content and I’m all set. I have a new found respect for people who actually make something of this.
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Hi! My name is Sean Barton (aka Seanba).
I’m an American-Canadian software developer working in Austin, Texas where I never have to shovel snow. 
My career focuses exclusively on video game software and tools. You can read more about me here.
Aseprite2Unity imports sprites and animations for use with your Unity projects. Like all my tools it is available for free or name your price.
SuperTiled2Unity is a collection of Unity scripts that import Tiled Map Editor files to your Unity projects. You can download for free or name your price.
(Note that regular Tiled2Unity is now deprecated.) 
Like my tools? Consider making a donation as a way of thanks!