Tower defense style, 2d top down, isometric or 3d?
Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Discussion/Tower defense style, 2d top down, isometric or 3d?
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| Dear all, as the topic says, for a td style game which kind of graphics would you prefer, what would you do? Easiest to do for me would be plain 2d top down but isometric (2d) or real 3d (isometric) as well would be an option, too. That might sound like a stupid question but I really scratch my head about that one. 2d has its benefits as well as 3d... Oh well I might add, this is for mobile platforms! |
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| one the of some times seldom thought of benefits of going 2D is that you can create really stylistic animation and art not everything looks better in 3D, I'v played a load of these games it's one of the things I have planned to make for ages and never gotten around to, but by far the best one I have played and enjoyed the most and would ultimatly like to emulate in some way is Kingdom Rush, it's art style simple animation and balance is simply perfect. so I guess I would say 2D with a really nice art style.  |
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| Thanks Paul, I tend to agree! I think I will download that game you mentioned. Had it on my screen already. :) edit: Paul, by any chance, could I hire you? :) Not free of charge of course. So I would do that till it's almost complete with captain placeholder graphics... Would you be able to create such lovely graphics? |
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| If you have warcraft 3 try to get the map elemental td. It has a really nice upgrade sxstem where you can combine different classes of towers to a new one and upgrade and combine again and so on.... And when i need just a little break from coding i sometimes play one or two rounds bloon td 5... Nice html game. I would say, the upgrade and level system is the most important part. I've played one 3D TD on android, where i would say it made it worse. So stick to 2D graphics system |
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| I also like "experience" in TDs ... to towers get better (kill = exp). I have surely hundreds of TDs for WC3 we played during the last years - some really got nice ideas (power up slots, experience, money towers, aura towers, towers versus invisible). Mazing TDs (maze around waypoints to make their path long enough). I myself like prerendered assets (more details than 3D) and prefer them to cartoonish 2D (especially these spine-based-animated thingies, often looking odd...). BUT ... if of course all depends on the theming of your TD ... if you play "body versus invaders" (cell-towers, virus mobs etc) then a toonish look might be preferrable... or not. View i prefer is similar to the screenshot above: top view with "simulated depth", so maybe some kind of >60° camera angle (so much "top view" that you do not have to care about scaling the units the higher the Y-axis-value). bye Ron |
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| Xaron normally sure, I'v done the art for a number of other monkey developers and their games so doing your art would be a privilege, sadly at the moment I am working hard on my own game and between writing all the code and doing all the art I really do not have much time at the moment. If this is a project your planning to start later in the year please give me a shout again closer to the time just in case my situation changes. |
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| Hey Paul, that's for sure something for later this year if not next year till I'm far enough to tell it a game. ;) edit: And thanks for all the comments! I will use 2d and Monkey of course! This will be my biggest Monkey project so far, including multiplayer... |
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| Sound good Xaron gives me time to finish my own stuff, I sent you a mail so when your closer to the time just drop me a mail or poke me again on here. |
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| Thanks Paul, have you sent that mail already? Because I've got nothing so far. ;) |
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| Oh yeah I did, hmm.... I wonder if I sent it to Playniax by mistake lol, had both your e-mail address' open at the time , he's probably wondering what the hell I was talking about, either that or it went into your spam folder? |
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| I sent it to the mail you have for this site, I'v sent it again to your Gmail it's nothing major just a question or two about the project but we have tons of time so no rush. |
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| LOL Paul, got it and answered! |
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| 2D, 2.5D, and isometric are going to be your easiest options. As soon as you move into 3D development you enter a world of hurt in terms of assets, effects, interfaces, unit pathing... things that would take you a few days with a 2D engine. Ultimately it all comes down to the style of game you want. Personally I would base my decision on whichever is easiest to get out the way so that you can get going with the fun part. Writing engines is boring. Adding game logic is fun. :) |
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| I loved kingdom rush so much, sadly i beat that game so quickly because of how addictive it was. |
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| I loved kingdom rush so much Yeah me too! Great game! I was surprise to find out that each level is just a huge image, no tile maps!! |
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| it makes a lot of sense when you think about it as it allows you to create really nice looking set's or art, when working with tile engines you always hit that point where it's obvious your working with tiles, but from the second you look at Kingdom Rush you can tell that its not. It's not the only one taking the apparent easy route either there are a number of them that do it which simplifies the game design a whole lot. |
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| Yeah I guess so, but it means your artist must be always around as they will need to create all the levels for you and then you need to set up your "walk-able" areas. If you have your artist create a good tileset, the game designer can then create whatever kind of level it is and can rework them quickly if they is an issue with the map - the artist would have to actually redraw the map! |
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| Ultimately, the target audience won't really care if it's made from tiles, prerendered images, or magical rainbow fairy dust. As long as it's colourful and doesn't require more than one mouse button, it'll do well. |
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