[WIP] Isometric Scene

[MikeG]

I thought i'd try something different (for me at least) this time, and i've always been interested in game tiles so i thought i'd give them a go. I probably bit off more than i can chew going for isometric tiles straight away, but i think they're progressing nicely. As you can probably tell, I've cut lots of corners with horizontal flipping, but i wanted to at least get a basic tile for each position to work with. The flipping works fairly seamlessly, so i'm not too stressed about that at the moment. I'm pretty happy with how to south-east faces work, but the south-west ones don't look as good to me, so i'll redo them later i think. I just wanted some feedback before i get stuck into it again, since i'm not that great at critiquing my own stuff



I think the grass looks pretty crap, but i think that about most low resolution grass. I was going to try the bulky leaf look of secret of mana 2 or whatever that game is (i'm sure you all know) but i like the many thin grass blades look better, so thats what i attempted.

After the cliffs are done(ish) i think i'll try either long grass or a dirt road. These tiles aren't for anything in particular, but i just wanted to make some, so if anyone wants to suggest some sort of game they might be appropriate for (some sort of less cartoony isometric advance wars might be cool) feel free to let me know and if i like it i might gear the tiles towards that. But really they're just something more to do during uni holidays

[JonathanOfDrain]

I think it look good for the most part but the grass on the rock pedestal bothers me, it's too vertical. Some of the grass should hang over a bit or at least not be so flat with the ground. It looks artificial.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Yeah, those tiles aren't really tiles in that they aren't representative of how you'd build the world in a game. Looks pretty nice and detailed, though, with a quite natural feel to it. Needs shadow, though.

[Ben2theEdge]

I've developed games using regular square tiles, and using isometric diamond-shaped tiles. And square will save you a LOOOOOOOOT of headaches. Trust me.

[Hyrule_SwordsMan]

Quiet nice, thou you should choose and show better the light point. Both sides of the hill have the same lightnings
try to fix that, but other that that is very cool

[MikeG]

After reading these comments, i wanted to start anew, so i spent a couple hours on this new version, and this is what i've got so far. I think the grass is FAAAR better than it was before (i even took a colour out ), but i'm not sure about the new style of cliff. I like it fine, but... i dunno, the old one seemed more natural somehow.

Anyway, i think i addressed the lighting issue, since the cliff is more accurately shadowed on the face, and there's a shadow on the grass at the base of the cliff.

The tiles almost seem useful now as well, since there's clear "passable" or "not passable" in each. I might move the back cliff face back a bit to allow units to stand on the top face, but not underneath, since at the moment its sort of neither has room to stand on.

But i wanted to get some more feedback from you guys before i kept going in the wrong direction if the first version is better. Right now, i'm torn between the two.

Anyway, here's the old and new versions side-by-side. Any comments you have about which bits of each you like more would be greatly appreciated!

OLD --> NEW

[EyeCraft]

Hello. Nice work you've got going here.

I find the texture of the cliffs on the first incarnation alot more interesting. One of the main problems with the grass in the first one is that it doesn't interact with the cliffs at all. The cliff graphics look to simply be superimposed over the grass texture. The grass should be overlapping the bottom areas of the cliff, and masking the NW-NE walls.

The colours are very monotone, in both. Try hue-shifting and unifying the overall palette more.

The grass in the second image seems alot flatter, contrast-wise, and appears more to be thick matts of some leafy plant, such as oversized clovers, rather than grass. Shadow at the base of the cliff conflicts with the highlights you have on the base of the cliff itself. If one is present, the other shouldn't be.

Give more of an interesting angle to the light. It seems to be coming straight down, directly from above. Give it more of a pitch, so that more highlight and shadow dynamic can be introduced into the tiles.

[MikeG]

OK, i think i've finished doing the cliffs. I'm not actually sure what hue shifting and unifying the overall palette means, but i put the darkest grass green and a blue into the cliffs shadows, and i think it works pretty well. I know there's no shadows on the grass below the cliffs, but they'll be coming later, if at all. I quite like the cleanliness of the shadowless ground.

[Hyrule_SwordsMan]

I like a lot more the 1st one. The 2nd grass looks like circles and not lines. I just don't like it.
I recommend you using the 1st incarnation of the cliff and grass