I have a problem. My sprite creation workflow goes like this: add a new sprite to a spritesheet, then hardcode the coordinates and dimensions in various places. I don’t even use an atlas. So this week I decided to start using one.

Then I have another problem. It seems most devs have individual sprite files, and use tools like Texture Packer to create a spritesheet and atlas. My sprites are on the sheet itself, in one big image file. (This let’s me easily adjust sprite colors and see how sprites look next to each other) That means I would have to create my atlases by hand. Pre-made tools aren’t an option.

Enter Atlas Manager. It’s a program specifically for libgdx that allows the user to add and remove sprite entries to and from an atlas without the need of creating individual image files for each sprite. Users can edit existing sprites. Animations will also be supported. So far ,it’s mostly a bunch of Scene2d widgets stuck together.

Atlas Manager as it looks today

It’s nice to finally be comfortable enough with Scene2d to be able to whip something out this quickly. While developing tools isn’t pushing the game towards completion, the goal is to save time in the long run.