Emulating 3rd person movement/collision from example games

Unity Engine
1

Hey!

I’d like to start working on a new project, and after messing around with Unity physics a bit I’m trying to figure out the best approach for the movement and collision model. Any advice from the experts here on which I should use is greatly appreciated before I burn too many cycles experimenting.

The game is full 3D with a fixed overhead camera. The player is controlled with a gamepad and needs to react to simple collision detection with the environment and other dynamic characters. Elevation changes would be a nice to have, as would online co-op.

Here are some examples of similar systems:

(Animal Crossing)

(Fantasy Life)

(Spiral Knights)

My question:
What system should I be using for character movement and collision, assuming gamepad input? Applying physics forces? Direct vector translation on x/y/z? I’m worried that forces might feel sluggish and not give direct control that you’d expect out of systems shown above, but I know that vector math I’ve used in previous 2D games isn’t going to easily cut it either.

Assuming I use Unity 3D, what approach should I take given the example videos above? Tutorials or documentation appreciated!

Thank you for your help!

2

The physics system in Unity is pretty well equipped. You can easily overcome “sluggish” movement if you code your movement script well. Direct translation would be a lot harder to use as players can end up walking through things but once again, if coded well, would be equally as effective as forces.