Question about development of prototyping tools.

I'm not sure if this is a common quesiton in the list, but I think tool
programming is a very overlooked issue of software engineering in game
development.
So my question is, since many here have tremendous experience in the game
industry and worked on huge projects, what kind of tools do software
engineers supply to game or level designers so they can, for example,
prototype a game stage before, say, 3D artists start working on a final
version?

In more depth, games like Halo, God of War or Mario Galaxy for example have
really complex scenarios, so complex that a height map or grid map editors
do not suffice for prototyping. I can imagine that before 3D artists can
start working on the final art, a simpler looking prototype must be created.
I also can imagine that creating such prototypes need constant adjusting on
the fly (a cliff may be too high, a room to small to fit the enemies, a
target out of shooting range), so either special tools for editing stages
are created or special plugins for integrating with, say, maya are needed?
Also, is it common that game or level designers know how to work with 3D
apps for stage design? or do engineers have to create special tools for
them? If so what kind of tools?

Cheers!

Juan Linietsky

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