are shadows important in rts games similar to sim city

Hey all,

I have a question regarding the importance of shadows in rts games like sim city where you place mostly buildings. I’m using the free version of unity right now working on an rts game somewhat similar to sim city in general although it focuses on a different aspect. In any case since creating shadows for instantiated prefabs is pretty much impossible and probably not even feasible performance wise for the free version of unity. How important are shadows then if you instead focus on making the game better in the other aspects such as gameplay mechanics, level design, ambience sound, animation, visuals such as high res textures ,etc.?

What I mean is would a game, if made properly in the mentioned aspects, still appeal to people to buy it even though if it doesn’t have shadows considering most games today have shadows? Thanks in advance.

I think that the next version of Unity (4.2) will actually include shadows in the free version. But anyway, shadows in a game like this have almost no importance whatsoever.

Bingo. It’s the gameplay that will make or break the game. They can have an impact in a game where atmosphere is more central to the game, but in a city type sim they won’t significantly impact gameplay.

Are you making “SHADOW, THE GAME”? :smile:
If not, then it really is just a peripherial concern. Concentrate on your gamplay, if you really want it for the art style reason, you can definitely fake it in RTS using Projector shadow (Unity - Manual: Projector component) which is avaliable to the free version of Unity.

Just look at Angry Bird, and a lot of games that have absolutely no shadow and people still love it. Original Sim City 2000 didn’t have shadow either.