Top down shooter

Unity Engine
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1

Hi everyone,

I’m a 3D artist, and currently working on a top down shooter similar to Raiden for the iOS. I’m currently using Maya to build all the assets. The game will be semi-3d but it will still be top down. My question is, whats the best approach for creating the backgrounds environment. Also in Unity when you are looking top down at the environment, should the camera be moving or the background?

Anybody have any suggestion, I will greatly appreciated.

2

I’m not sure i’m understanding what you’re asking for. it’s a Topdown shooter that you’re making so how are you seeing a background? to give advice in building an environment i’ll need more information like: is it a series of corridors? outdoors? Cliffs/defined roads? foliage? what is the lighting/shadowing that you have in mind?

3

The way you see the background is from a top down view. The camera will be facing 90 degree down at a 3d terrain. Mostly outdoor environments which will includes Cliffs, cities, roads, forest etc. For the lighting, I would to bake the shadow into the textures.

4

I forgot to mention that this is a Top down aircraft shooting game.

5

I’d make the background move. Put the background on several planes and have them move at different rates for the parallax effect

6

What are the advantages of moving the background vs camera. If the background is moving, how does this effect ground enemies?

7

In AirAttack (HD) we moved camera over static 3D background (camera angle is 60 degrees).
Moving (3D) background environment will have bad influence on performance, due to recalculations inside physics, clipping, and you also cannot use Static batching then.
http://www.artingames.com/project/2/AirAttack/

Roswell Fighter (HD) combined 2D background with some 3D enemies (also made with Unity)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/roswell-fighter-hd/id370135149?mt=8

As a reference you should also check SkySmash 1918 (2D)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skysmash-1918/id332505217?mt=8

I think, that Roswell and SkySmash are also moving camera over background.

1 Like
8

I’ve have AirAttack on my iPhone. Its a fantastic game. Great jobs guys at Artingames. Thanks for the Advice Colargol, I may have some more question later down the line since my development is similar to AirAttack.

Also thank you everyone for your advice who has reply.

I’ll keep you guys posted where i’m at with development.

Kue,