So I have an artist, and a musician. I myself am coding, and writing for the game. I plan on buying Playmaker and using it with C# to add more possibilities so the coding is not a problem, and I already planned out the story and the like, so that’s not a problem. The problem is I’m trying to find out if my 2D Game should be an Isometric or Top-Down one. I’m hesitant to say it, but it is an mmorpg. I also have a few other questions.
Questions:
I’m prepared to sing money in the Asset store for anything but the art and music. What are some good plugins or stuff that will speed up dev time?
What are the key uses for Isometric and Top-Down perspectives? Also, what are the flaws for each? And some of the key differences in 3D and 2D for Isometric Perspective.
Should I hand place or randomly generate items in Dungeons? What steps should I take to try and make a Generator Script that allows full customization, instead of purely random generation?
Is there an Asset already made to be used to generate enemy AI as well as other NPC’s AI? If so does it work for 2D and 3D, and does it allow for each NPC to have a AI Unique to each individual NPC?
Only you can answer this question when you have a better understanding of what you are building and how you will build it
Only you can answer this question when you have a better understanding of what you are building and how you want it to be presented. It’s totally up to you. There may be some market research you could do in terms of relative sales numbers for roughly ‘equivalent’ scope and quality game titles that may swing your direction.
Only you can answer this question when you have a better understanding of what you are building and how you want it to be played. Personally I would be very suspect of telling myself to use randomly generated anything. It’s always a lot harder than you expect to get anything fun from it. You essentially have to build the game by hand first to figure out what result you want out of a random generator.
Only you can answer this question when you have a better understanding of what you are building and how you want your NPCs to behave. There are some things like A* path finding and built in things like the NavMesh in Unity that may help build some components of what you need for NPCs. There will also be things like dialog plugins that help you implement player and NPC interactions and dialog for you game. But I’d be very surprised if there was an asset on the store that did everything you wanted for your unique game.
Conclusion, I feel like you need to design you game further before worrying about the details of implementation. If there are some key questions you need answering before you can further invest in design then RAPIDLY prototype specifically to answer those questions and then throw the prototype away and carry on designing knowing that you can solve the problem but you’ll do it much nicer next time around for the real implementation.
Another hint about prototyping, sometimes you don’t even need to prototype to answer a question. There are thousands of games out there. Find a few games that do the things you want to do and compare, e.g. iso vs top down, play them and see for you self which you prefer and try to imagine how each might work with any specific game mechanics you want in your game. If you still need to further convince yourself which might work with a special new mechanic then it’s probably time to prototype something. You can use asset store assets for prototypes too, e.g. the top down engine from More Mountains (no affiliation) could let you get a quick start on a prototype.
I suggest to not spend any dim on any assets, before you got strong understanding, what and how you want things to achieve.
You can make plenty of prototypes before hand, using just placeholders.
Test and learn about mechanics and approaches. Then consider add colors and flavor to your game. Don’t do it opposite way round. Dumping random stuff from asset store is relatively easy. Making them behave and look as per design, is completely different story.
Thanks for the detailed and helpful replies! I used to play Secret of the Solstice before it shut down, and then moved on to Ragnarok Online, I loved the Isometric style of RO, but i like the top down feel of some other games too. I guess since it’s possible to have both and implement them in a way that its up to the player would be cool, but I’ll just google that. I’m also welcome to any advice on networking, I think it’s best to make a game, and then convert it to multiplayer, ie the network manager.
Edit: My first Milestone is to make a Minimum Viable Product and form it into the first Prototype. I’ll start there.
I think you have your terminology around the wrong way:
Minimum Viable Product is the leased work you need to do to make your game SHIPPABLE to the public.
A prototype is just a quick hacked together whatever that proves or disproves a thing you want to test. They should be small, build quickly, and throw away when they’ve served their purpose.
Design → Prototype to prove concepts and answer unknowns → More Design → More prototypes → More design → More prototypes → Lock down design → Build game → Cut features → MVP… haha
Also, I wouldn’t implement it in a way that the player can choose. That will make building your game way harder. You’ll need to test the entire game from both angles to makes sure things work and read correctly. You’ll need to author assets so that that work in both angles, or… worse still, author assets twice! Just pick one that you think fits your game best.
