2D or 3D for City Building

Getting Started
1

Hi.
I’m new to unity and game design (excluding making text based card games in python as a teenager a decade ago).
So I found Unity because I wanted to make a kind of City Building game.
I watched all of the Tutorials (literally all) and Live Trainings here to get acquainted before I start.
(PS I also scoured the forum whenever I wanted to make outside customizations to the tutorial projects and this community is fantastic! I found an answer to every question I had)
Anyway after doing all the tutorials I went on to make a prototype of my game.
It’s kind of City Building game but with just 3,4 Buildings (more like base defense).
The scripts work, points are added, enemies move well (cubes and spheres) etc. UI is ugly but at least works in interacting.

I have a problem with the Camera in 3D though, I don’t need to move it except 90 degrees at a time and the angle(rotation has to stay the same).
And now that the prototype works i wanted to go buy artwork in the asset store and found that most of the types of animations and artwork that I had in mind is suggesting using them in 2D.
It didn’t even occur to me because I thought based on the tutorials that 2D is just left and right.

What would you suggest for this type of game?
And what would be the benefits of using 2D over 3D? And the other way around?
Also I’m seeing 3D objects used in 2D Games in the asset store, So I’m utterly confused.

Thank you all in advance!

2

In Unity there is no great difference between 2D and 3D. So yes, you can put 3D models in a “2D” game and vice versa. Mix and match however you like.

The only difference is that in a 2D game, the camera is usually constrained to face the XY plane straight-on, and often with an orthographic (rather than perspective) projection. That’s it.

As a beginner, I suggest you first find a set of assets that look like they’ll work for you. Then build your game around that.

2 Likes
3

Thank you Joe,
Since I just tested in Unity Scene Player I was worried that there would be some issues when exporting it in the end.
I’m going to follow your suggestion and find some assets to replace the cubes and such.