Hammer level editor
Level editor in Developer tools
People recommend Hammer as one of the few level-design editors still maintained, and it is free for making game maps. It is often described as a newer successor to Worldcraft.
6 people recommended Hammer level editor in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 9 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 8 of those comments still count.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 1
The record
Recommended in 4 of 12 months
In 5 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 5 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 33% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 8 of the 8 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Used to build game maps
“Hammer is one of the few editors with actual level-design tools still maintained”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “S&box is now an open source game engine” Seen as improved Worldcraft successor
“I still see Hammer as a newfangled update to Worldcraft”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “The Quake Fan who built the map editor everybody uses”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TrenchBroom | 9 | 1 | 2 | 82% | 3 | — | — |
| Hammer level editorThis page | 6 | 1 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 opinions about it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I still see Hammer as a newfangled update to Worldcraft”
“I grew up using Hammer and this simply blows it out of the water.”
“neither ZFS, Hammer2 or GEFS suffer from this”
“I think the Story Ideas section is a nice touch.”
“It works offline, forever, storing plain text files (Markdown and TOML) in directories that define the project structure.”
“right now texting device, runs linux”
“I haven't seen these problems for a while now.”
“Hammer is one of the few editors with actual level-design tools still maintained”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.