Benefits and applications of isometric graphics in games
Core Concept: What is Isometric Projection?
Okay, we’ve already understood that isometric projection is very important. But what is it? Simply talking, isometric projection is a visual three-dimensional object representation in two dimensions. Diving into the technical aspects, isometric projection is the orthographic projection in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and the angle between any two of them is 120 degrees.
Maybe you’ve seen those cute 3D rooms featuring using isometric perspective that are very popular among 3D artists. This is a perfect example of an isometric projection use case. But it isn’t only one example of perfect isometric projection implementation. Isometric video game graphics are widely employed in various projects (especially pixel art). Surprising fact: isometric computer graphics isn’t always 100% isometric. For example, sometimes the x, y, and z axes aren’t necessarily oriented 120° to each other. However, it’s totally a different story.
Production managers and art directors prefer using isometric projection because it provides a uniform framework for designing characters and environments. It means all visual elements maintain a coherent style. What can be better to amaze players than this? Also, by using parallel projections, isometric graphics simplify isometric rendering processes compared to fully 3D environments. Of course, it leads to faster rendering times and lower computational requirements. One more thing: the predictability of isometric projections allows production teams to streamline workflows. Artists can create assets more quickly, as they don’t need to account for perspective shifts or depth variations.
Historical Context and Popularity
The father of isometric projection is Professor William Farish (1759–1837). He created the concept of isometry and described some main principles of it. When there weren’t any ideas of what are 2D or 3D isometric games, isometry was a popular tool only for engineers and architects. It allowed for the accurate visualization of three-dimensional objects on two-dimensional planes, which was very important for technical drawings and construction planning. By the mid-1800s, isometry was incorporated into architectural curricula in Europe and the U.S., defending its significance in design education. If you want to read more, press the button down below and enjoy!
The use of isometric projection gained traction in the gaming industry during the 1980s with arcade games like Treasure Island and Zaxxon, the first isometric games. These early titles demonstrated how isometric video game graphics could create engaging gameplay experiences by providing a unique perspective on game worlds. The popularity continued into the 1990s with iconic titles such as SimCity 2000 and RollerCoaster Tycoon. Honestly, these iconic titles are those we catch inspiration from time to time while working on our isometric projects.
As you can guess, the isometric games quickly became very popular among game developers. It’s simple to explain: isometric games often require less processing power than their fully 3D counterparts because they don’t need to calculate perspective distortion or depth variations. This makes them accessible to a broader audience, including players with less powerful systems. Back in the 20th century, it was especially important and made isometric games the number 1 choice among game developers.
These days, isometric projection continues to thrive in the gaming industry, particularly within strategy and role-playing genres. Games like Hades and Divinity: Original Sin II perfectly showcase how modern titles utilize isometric views to create engaging stories and complex gameplay mechanics.
Modern game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine have also adopted isometric projection techniques to enhance visual fidelity while maintaining low resource requirements. With the help of these tools, developers can create dynamic lighting effects and detailed textures that help to make excellent isometric games. We’ll talk about it in detail later.
Isometric game development is popular even among indie developers! The indie game scene adores isometric projection for its nostalgic vibe and powerful artistic potential. Many indie developers prefer to work with an isometric style to craft unique gaming experiences that will stand out in a crowded market. Popular isometric indie games like Hyper Light Drifter and Children of Morta also showcase how isometric perspectives can be used creatively by indie developers to deliver interesting stories and outstanding gameplay.
Technical Insights for Cross-Team Communication
So, isometric projection has become an essential technique in modern game development, especially if the talk is about the creation of 2D assets that mimic 3D environments. However, the perfect way to prove the isometric projection usefulness is a comparison. Let’s compare 2D and 3D assets and find out the main differences between them.
Effective Collaboration with Developers
You may be surprised, but isometric graphics fosters better collaboration between artists and developers. It’s because working with isometry is a very standardized process. With a consistent viewpoint and asset specifications, communication becomes more straightforward. Artists provide assets that developers can implement with minimal adjustments that streamline the integration process.
This efficiency reduces the likelihood of miscommunication and errors during isometric game development. Clear guidelines and expectations help both artists and developers to focus on their respective tasks, leading to a more efficient workflow. Additionally, the modularity of assets in isometric graphics allows for easier testing and troubleshooting during the development cycle.
Easy Implementation in Unity and Unreal Engine
It’s time to talk in detail about how Unity and Unreal Engine impact efficient isometric game development. The main point is that Unity and Unreal Engine offer full support for isometric graphics because they are one of the best engines for isometric games. They provide tools and templates specifically designed for isometric projection, simplifying the development process and cross-team communication too. Artists and developers often use effective built-in features for tile mapping, collision detection, and camera control tailored to isometric views.
The accessibility of these tools means that teams can focus on creativity and gameplay exactly as on technical aspects of isometric game development. The engines also support scripting and customization, allowing for unique mechanics and interactions within the isometric framework.
Unique Cases for Unity:
Tile-Based Games
Unity's Tilemap system allows developers to easily create tile-based environments. By using isometric tiles, teams can design complex landscapes that feel expansive while maintaining performance efficiency. Using tilemaps in Unity also promotes an efficient workflow by allowing for the reuse of assets across different levels or scenes. Since tiles are modular, they can be designed once and applied multiple times throughout the game. This reusability saves time and ensures consistency in the game's visual style.
Dynamic Lighting
Unity's lighting system is effectively utilized in isometric games to enhance depth perception and atmosphere. Developers can create dynamic shadows and highlights that add realism to 2D assets, making them appear more three-dimensional.
Camera Control
Unity's camera tools allow developers to create fixed or dynamic camera angles that complement isometric gameplay. This flexibility allows for tailored experiences that boost the level of player engagement without sacrificing the advantages of an isometric view.
Animation Systems
The Animator component in Unity is often used to create smooth animations for characters and objects within an isometric framework. By utilizing sprite sheets or skeletal animations, developers can bring their 2D assets to life while maintaining the consistent visual style characteristic of isometric games.
Optimizing Art and Production Pipelines
Less 3D Modeling Work
Isometric video game graphics make the development process easier because it isn’t as complex as full 3D modeling. Unlike fully 3D-rendered environments that require colossal attention to perspective, isometric projection presents objects without distortion, using parallel lines to project dimensions. Due to this, artists can create assets without accounting for perspective foreshortening, reducing the workload and time required for modeling. So, the next step of isometric game development comes faster and all the processes become time-consuming.
By eliminating the need for multiple camera angles and complex 3D model animations, artists focus only on refining the visual details and stylistic elements of the assets. They start doing only one job, and they are doing it well. This efficiency speeds up the development process and lowers production costs.
Faster Asset Creation and Replacement
Since assets are designed to fit within a fixed perspective, artists usually produce and modify them without extensive adjustments for different views. It’s particularly beneficial during the prototyping phase, where rapid iteration is very important. Moreover, asset replacement becomes less cumbersome. If an asset needs to be updated or improved, artists can focus only on the individual element without reworking surrounding assets or camera angles. Due to this, isometric game development cycles become faster and allow for more dynamic responses to feedback during testing phases.
Easier Work with Lighting and Shadows
Lighting and shadows have always played a significant role in creating in-game environments’ mood and depth. In isometric graphics, the fixed viewpoint implements lighting effects simply. So, artists pre-render shadows and highlights without the computational overhead of dynamic lighting systems.
This approach not only enhances performance on a range of hardware but also grants artists greater control over the visual outcome. They can craft the ambiance of each scene with big attention, using lighting to guide player attention and highlight important elements within the game.
Saving Money on Animation
Obviously, animation in full 3D environments requires extensive resources to achieve realistic motion from multiple angles. Isometric graphics handle this by limiting the number of necessary animations. Now, characters and objects can be animated within the confines of the isometric perspective. Also, this approach reduces the cost.
The cost-effectiveness extends to the use of 2D animations within the isometric framework. Artists can employ sprite sheets and frame-by-frame animation techniques, which are generally less resource-intensive than 3D rigging and motion capture. This approach makes high-quality animation more accessible, especially for indie developers and for projects with budget constraints. So, primitive animations are better done with 2D, but complex rigging animations are better and faster done with 3D.
Modern Applications and Opportunities
Easier Control of the Artistic Style and Possibility of Realizing Stylized Art
As you already know, isometric graphics offer a unique canvas for artists to implement stylized art into various projects. It’s possible due to the uniformity of the isometric grid that provides a consistent framework and allows for greater control over the visual style. Artists can experiment with exaggerated proportions, unexpected color schemes, and unique textures without worrying about how these elements will translate across different perspectives. This approach also helps to come up with something new and make the best-looking isometric games.
The isometric viewpoint also works well with pixel art style, cel-shading, and low-poly designs. This flexibility allows artists to craft distinctive visual identities for games, enhancing the projects’ aesthetic and setting them apart in a crowded market. The ability to realize isometric stylized art effectively contributes to a game’s branding and can significantly impact its reception by the audience.
Isometric Tilemap with Unity: Benefits and Applications
Unity’s isometric tilemap system streamlines the process of creating complex game levels. By utilizing tilemaps, artists and level designers can construct environments using a grid-based approach, which is well-suited for isometric perspectives. The tilemap system supports layering, enabling designers to stack tiles on top of each other to create deep and mesmerizing designs. This layering capability is essential in isometric games to simulate a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane.
Tilemaps are also optimized for performance within Unity. By batching tile rendering operations, the engine reduces the number of draw calls, which is very significant for maintaining high frame rates, especially on lower-end hardware. This optimization is very important for isometric camera games, which often display large portions of the game world simultaneously.
Unity’s tilemap system is highly customizable too. Developers can extend its functionality through scripting to implement unique gameplay mechanics or visual effects. For instance, interactive tiles can be created to respond to player actions, such as switches, doors, or environmental hazards. Additionally, Unity supports animated tiles, which can bring environments to life by introducing movement and dynamism to otherwise static scenes.
And of course, Unity boasts a large community of developers and artists. In this community, developers can find many resources, tutorials, and assets related to isometric tilemaps. Community support accelerates the learning curve for new developers and provides solutions to common challenges encountered during development.
Access to community-created assets and tools can further streamline the development process. Artists and developers can leverage these resources to enhance their projects without starting from scratch, allowing them to focus on the unique aspects of their game.
Impact on Game Design Illustrated by the “Ocean Keeper” Game
In Ocean Keeper, the isometric perspective changes to the better not only the clarity of the game space but the game in general. Players have a broad view of the environment, that allows them to see incoming waves of enemies from a distance. This visibility helps game designers too. They can increase the volume of enemy waves without overwhelming the player, as they have sufficient time to react and strategize.
Building on the enhanced visibility, the isometric view in “Ocean Keeper” expands the player’s tactical options. Players can observe enemy movements and plan their actions accordingly. The ability to see the battlefield from a strategic vantage point encourages players to utilize positioning, such as moving to one side or taking defensive positions to manage enemy waves effectively.
The isometric perspective in the game also stimulates exploration and forward planning. Landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty, are visible from afar due to the camera placement. This visibility piques players’ curiosity and encourages them to explore the environment to reach these points of interest.
While the isometric view provides many advantages, it also introduces limitations in scene visibility. Closer objects can overlap and obscure distant ones, which impacts level design in “Ocean Keeper”. To address this, the game’s level boundaries are designed with lower objects in the foreground and higher ones in the background, ensuring critical elements remain visible.
Difficulty Interacting with High-Altitude Geometry
Interacting with objects at varying heights can be challenging in an isometric view due to the lack of depth perception. In “Ocean Keeper”, this issue is evident with the flying enemy, Stinger. The enemy can’t fly high above the level because it becomes difficult for players to discern its position without depth cues.
To mitigate this, designers limit the altitude of such enemies, ensuring they remain within an interactive range that players can perceive accurately. This constraint influences enemy design and gameplay mechanics, highlighting the need for adaptations when using isometric graphics.
Non-Linear Movement on the Map
In “Ocean Keeper”, you can see the use of non-linear movement to enhance gameplay convenience. The player’s tower moves with the mouse but doesn’t rotate with the Mecha, allowing for more intuitive control. This design choice uses the isometric perspective to simplify movement mechanics.
By decoupling movement direction from character orientation, the game provides a smoother experience. Players can focus on positioning and strategy without the added challenge of managing camera angles or character facing. This approach demonstrates how isometric graphics can influence control schemes to improve accessibility and enjoyment.
Conclusion: Why It Matters for Decision-Makers
So, isometric projection is a very important aspect of modern game development that can significantly impact the visual quality and gameplay experience of any title. Producers and art directors, we recommend you discover the question of isometric video game graphics and how it affects game art, asset outsourcing, and production timelines. A full understanding of isometric principles allows you to select the most suitable visual styles for your projects, ultimately enhancing gameplay and player satisfaction. We totally believe in you!
What should you do next?
Online Courses
Explore platforms like Udemy or Coursera for courses focused on Unity or Unreal Engine that include modules on 2D and isometric game development.
Books
Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom provides insights into design patterns applicable across various game development contexts. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell offers an overview of game design principles, including visual representation techniques.
Webinars and Workshops
Attend industry conferences or webinars that focus on isometric game development trends where experts discuss the latest techniques in asset creation and design strategies.
Community Forums
Engage with communities on platforms like Reddit or Discord where developers share insights and experiences related to isometric games and asset management.
Documentation and Tutorials
Explore Unity’s official documentation for Tilemap systems and Cinemachine tools to learn how to implement effective isometric views. Don’t forget to check out tutorials on YouTube or specialized game development blogs that focus on creating isometric games using popular engines like Unity or Unreal Engine.
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