I'm thinking about making an isometric RPG (western, not Japanese), and I'm curious: how would you go about making an isometric map?
They don't differ that much from general maps, only the shape of the tiles in fact. Instead of squares they use rhombic tiles with a angle of 120 and 60 degrees.
Wikipedia: *yoink*
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg/142px-Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg.png)
A side note: because of the irregular shape the tiles need to be transparent, so that they can be drawn on top of the tiles that lie behind them.