Is it possible to combine an Isometric and Traditional P+C view in one game?

[Binak Versailles]

Hi,

I have a concept for a game, but before I begin creating, I would like to know the opinions of those more experienced than I.

My idea is to have a game that begins in isometric view, that can then transition into the traditional point and click view at particular points. So when, for example, the player is travelling through the city, the game would be in isometric view, like this and when, for example, the player enters someones house or a building, the game would be in the traditional view, like this.

Is this possible and/or feasible?

BV.

[Slasher]

Yes, you can do this... just make sure each room is scripted correctly accordingly.

[CaptainD]

Should definitely be possible, I'm a little intrigued by your example pic though as I would not have called that isometric at all.  This is isometric:



That aside, it's just a case of having the correct sprite for each background type really.  Each "room" in the game can be whatever you make it.

[Snarky]

The image Binak links to is more properly an example of a top-down parallel projection perspective, rather than isometric.

Changing perspectives between rooms is not an issue, but you should be aware that AGS doesn't have any built-in support for making isometric, top-down or any other tile-based environments, and you could run into some limitations. Isometric view is particularly tricky since the baselines are diagonal, which can make it difficult to correctly determine when a character is in front of and behind some object.

[Scorpiorus]

Also, we can have up to 15 different walkbehinds in a single AGS room.

So if you are planning on using a large scrolling room/screen for your top-down city scene, like in Hyper Light Drifter you mentioned, it may be practically difficult to cover all the walkbehind cases there, without extensive scripting and/or other workarounds such as using room objects and probably even characters to work as extra walkbehinds (and there are additional limits on how much entities we can have in one room or be visible on screen, depending on the version of AGS).

The scripting solution (aside from coding your own drawing engine inside AGS) would be to reuse the same walkbehinds by adjusting their baselines at run-time with the SetWalkBehindBase(int area, int baseline) script function. This should be done carefully though (and may not even always work), as you may affect other room objects and non-player characters located/visible on the screen/viewport.

Another thing is that for Hyper Light Drifter/Japanese-RPG-style view you probably want your characters' X and Y speeds match, where as for Gemini Rue/classic-adventure-game-style view you'd have character y-speed slower than x-speed to fit perspective, using the Character.SetWalkSpeed(int x_speed, int y_speed) AGS script function.


Personally, I think it's actually a real shame HLD doesn't have any adventure game elements complementing its slash and shoot mechanics, looking at the presented game screen it has so much potentially interact-able objects and characters... That's probably because it's also console/gamepad-control-oriented, though.

[Binak Versailles]

Hi All,

Thank you very much for your feedback and suggestions. I just wanted an idea of the complexity of executing my idea and you have all been very helpful.

Thanks!

BV.

[CaptainD]

Hi All,

Thank you very much for your feedback and suggestions. I just wanted an idea of the complexity of executing my idea and you have all been very helpful.

Thanks!

BV.

All the best with making your game!