I am making a game with SDL currently. It is a simple 2D RPG game. I have this great idea to use static backgrounds and foregrounds. To do this I plan to create another layer that will serve as the collision mask, and cover area where the player cannot move to. I have been trying to find a good format to do this, I want something simple because I plan to write my own library to read the format, it seems that most vector graphics formats are simple enough for that, so its not a huge issue, and not all the information is necessary, for my application, since it will not be visible, no color information is needed. However, there are not that many formats available, and they all seem to be XML based (I don't care for XML), but in the end, I settled on SVG. I wanted something I could create in GIMP, if these masks are too hard to create, I may never finish this project (laziness)... However, I discovered that my version of GIMP will not save as/export to SVG format! It will open SVG, but not export to SVG. Very frustrating. So I went through all the trouble of compiling GIMP 2.7, but that still doesn't support SVG. I made sure to install all libsvg-dev headers before building GIMP 2.7.
What can I do to get GIMP to support exporting to SVG format
OR is there another SIMPLE vector graphics format that GIMP supports that I could be using?

Look in the gimp online plugin registry.

http://registry.gimp.org/node/100

Thanks, but it didn't work for me. I may not have compiled GIMP with python support, would that be a problem?
Anyway, I decided to go with Inkscape instead. I can import my raster graphics into Inkscape and then trace over them, which is exactly what I wanted. and the SVG files it creates are nice and easy to read.
Just can't figure out why so many formats use XML, XML is meant to be human readable, but vector graphics files aren't, so why not use something more efficient? I'll probably write a simple program to convert SVG into something more computer readable, that will serve as some basic encryption as well (not that its important).

Yes. You could try rebuilding on a vm just to see the results.

Built gimp again with python support. Got that extension working, but it isn't what I want. GIMP actually makes SVGs by default, you just have to open the paths dialog box and right click and say export. By default GIMP only exports paths, with the extension it exports strokes and fills and other stuff I don't need, so I would be better off without that script. That being said, either way, Inkscape is the better solution. Inkscape builds much nicer looking SVGs in the end, with nice coordinates in pixels, GIMP gives coordinates in inches, which isn't great for games. Plus Inkscape actually made a smaller file, as long as I export it as a plain SVG and not an Inkscape SVG.

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Good to see you found a solution. I hope your project is successful.