I’ve been working on this asset for 2 years now, so it’s with great pleasure that I present you what I think is my best asset so far, the TopDown Engine.
Buy the TopDown Engine on the Asset Store right now!
One of the questions I get the most with the Corgi Engine is “can I create a game like Zelda / Hotline Miami / Final Fight with the Corgi Engine?”. Well no, you can’t, because the Corgi Engine was created for platformers / sidescroller games, not top down games like these. But with the TopDown Engine, you can!
I’ve tried to match the Corgi Engine in terms of quality and content, and I think it works. I hope you’ll like this new engine as much as I do.
You can learn more about the engine on its dedicated page, where you’ll also find a support contact form should you need help with anything. And please don’t hesitate to use this thread to discuss future updates and features you’d like to see added to the Engine.
The TopDown Engine is a complete solution for top-down games, available on the Unity Asset Store.
It’s been designed to act as a foundation for all sorts of top down games, from dungeon crawlers like Binding of Isaac, to adventure games like old Zelda games, through beat em all like Final Fight or gun heavy games like Hotline Miami.
It’s a fast, production ready, versatile, lightweight, and easy to extend solution that will help you give a serious boost to your project.
Here’s the release trailer for it :
GETTING STARTED?
You can start by having a look at the functional documentation, which covers all aspects of the TopDown Engine. There’s also a complete documentation for all classes, which are all heavily commented, so it’s very easy to understand and improve on as long as you have basic Unity understanding. If you don’t want to get into code, there’s still a lot you can do in the inspector or simply by replacing assets! There are also video tutorials to get you started.
PLAYER ABILITIES
To allow you to create the characters you want, whether they’re controlled by the player, or are AI enemies or friends, the engine comes with two character controllers : a 2D controller and a 3D controller, to cover all your needs.
Along with the controller, you’ll find a complete Character system, organized in dedicated abilities, to get your character ready in seconds thanks to the AutoBuild Character feature.
Abilities included in the engine include move, run, walk, crouch, crawl, dash, cone of vision, fall down holes, handle one or more weapon, activate buttons, jump, 3D pathfinding, push, walk and slide on slopes, use moving platforms, slow down time, and more.
Animation parameters are handled by the engine as well, so you can focus on what’s important. The engine uses Unity’s native animator system, which makes it compatible with any animation solution out there (Spine, spritesheets, animated meshes, etc).
DEMO LEVELS
The TopDown Engine comes packed with 10 demo scenes, set in 4 different universes : Koala, Loft, Minimal2D and Minimal3D. These demos range from “complete” levels to demo scenes focusing on specific aspects of the engine, such as pathfinding, AI, or weapons setups.
ADVANCED AI FOR YOUR ENEMIES AND FRIENDS
To power up all your AI agents, whether they’re NPCs, enemies or allies, the engine comes with the same advanced AI system as the Corgi Engine. Built around a “brain” and a combination of actions and decisions, it’s a battle proven, robust system that will cover most use cases. And if you’re going for something really specific, it’s super easy to extend.
Here are some of the actions included in the engine : move towards target, shoot, wait, change weapon, aim at target, pathfind your way to a target, patrol a set of points, move randomly.
And here are some of the decisions you’ll be able to base your transitions on : target in range, target in line of sight, distance to target, being grounded, being hit, health level, target’s state, time.
In total, that’s more than 25 actions and decisions ready to use. And no code is required, all that is setup from the inspector, and allows to create complex behaviours, such as “patrol this set of node until a target comes in range. Try to aim at it, if there’s a line of sight, shoot, otherwise move towards target. Get back to patrolling after 10 seconds of this if the target isn’t in range anymore”.
ADVANCED WEAPONS & INVENTORY
The Engine comes with a complete weapons solution, building on top of 3 years of expertise in weapons in the Corgi Engine. Whether you want to create projectile based weapons (rifles, guns, shotguns, plasma guns, rocket launchers…), or melee weapons (fists, swords, axes…), it’s got you covered. You can even combine weapons into combo weapons, allowing you to chain attacks like you would in any beat em all. Game feel is built into these weapons, and you’ll be able to natively add VFX, animations, recoil, spread, scren shakes, flashes, and much, much more, to have your weapons feel extremely good everytime you shoot.
If you want to store your weapons, the TopDown Engine includes as a gift the Inventory Engine, More Mountains’ dedicated solution for inventory management. It’ll allow you to create and manage inventories and items (collectibles, usable, equippable…). It will also handle ammo management (store different types of ammo, decide how it’s consumed), and will allow you to create keys to unlock chests, doors, and pretty much everything you want with a new and super flexible system.
Of course, all this comes with save and load mechanisms so you can keep your inventory constant across sessions, and your players will be able to pick their game up where they left it.
FEEDBACKS AND GAME FEEL
Game feel is More Mountains’ core pillar, and it’s built at the core of the TopDown Engine. Everything is in place so that each interaction can have proper feedback, and feels good. You’ll be able to define for most weapons and ability, straight from the inspector, a number of feedbacks to trigger when the ability or weapon gets used, or when the enemy explodes, etc. These include, among other effects : camera shake, freeze frames, shells, animated health bars, screen flashes, flickers, trails, time modification, muzzle flash, knockback, sounds, projectile spread, chromatic aberration, animations, particles, and much more.
STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE
Like the Corgi Engine’s reviews will show, More Mountains focuses on excellence, Unity good practices, and state of the art coding and structure. The TopDown Engine is no exception. It’s fully documented and commented, and both a great place to start if you’re new at Unity, and a great foundation if you’re a seasoned developer.
PACKED WITH RESOURCES
The asset contains all you need to create and release a game, and that includes common game mechanics such as sound management, scene loading, save and load system, health bars, checkpoints, time management, pause mechanics, auto character creation, as well as a full game loop : splash screen, start screen, options, pause, game over.
It also comes with tons of helpers to help at every stage of development. From small ones like a pixel perfect camera controller or an FPS counter, to large systems like achievements or a full UI solution, the engine is full of gems that you’ll love to use.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO CREATE AMAZING LEVELS
The Engine comes full of ready-to-use props to use in your levels, whether you’re building a 2D scene with sprites or tile maps, or a 3D one. Playable characters, enemies, weapons, projectiles, ground, walls, teleporters, doors, falling platforms, pushable blocks, moving platforms, 2D holes, destructible blocks, levers, time zones, traps, enemy spawners, chests, items, decorative field of view, doors to other levels, and much more are at your disposal.
MOBILE FRIENDLY
The TopDown Engine is built to support all devices, whether you’re aiming for high end consoles or PC, or mobile phones. The Engine comes bundled with Nice Touch, More Mountains’ mobile input solution, usually sold separately. This will allow you to add mobile controls like virtual sticks or buttons extremely easily.
The Engine is well optimized, and built following Unity’s good practices. It’s lightweight, and doesn’t generate garbage, to allow for great performance whatever the device.
