I’ve been looking for games with level editors my whole damn life, this is why Mario Maker blew me away.
Jumper 2 was the first one I can remember getting very into, only made like, 10 stages but I spent forever on them. Knytt Stories had the same effect on me.
I’ve never been very good at it but the Lode Runner editor on the PC is lots of fun, I definitely played more of that than the actual game.
Timesplitters 2 was me making what I figured would be perfectly balanced and fun multiplayer maps only to realize I don’t have any friends to play with, so, yeah.
Then I got Cube, which was like a freeware first person shooter akin to Quake, I guess. It wasn’t very good, BUT it had a built-in level editor IN the engine that you could switch to at any time, AND it worked in multiplayer. And you did all the editing in the first person primarily using your mouse. So basically creative mode in minecraft, but more than 5 years before minecraft, and also with guns. It was amazing. My friend and I would spend all day just fucking around, making maps that didn’t make any sense or were incredibly stupid. I loved it.
Cube 2: Sauerbraten was better, technically, but by that point I didn’t really have anyone to play with so I didn’t mess with it much.
Uhh let’s see. I guess those are the ones that ruled the most and that I spent the most time with.