2D Tactical RPG Game: Like Advance Wars/ Fire Emblem, etc

Hello, I am just starting development using Unity 3D and I have been doing research on a good starting point for creating a tactical turn based RPG. RIght now, it seems like I would have to fake the 2D using textures and flat meshes over an orthographic perspective. I am a very experienced artist, but I have no professional experience with coding. Ideally I'd like to see a tutorial or foundational project that can help me get things going. If you have any suggestions/ links please let me know. Thanks in advance!

 

No.
Don't do it . Its much too complicated .

And Gossip is NOT the place to say "Hi all I want to make game X, how . Sometimes folks are nice and will point you in the right direction , but its best to start on your own , then hope over to the scripting section to ask questions on scripting .

You can buy a gird system on the asset store, but as a warning one of the gird systems comes with a bunch of unsupported things( things you'd want , like a way to control units) . After you buy the grid system the author will start making up excuses for why his crap doesn't work, and why he didn't document how its supposed to .

But this is NOT somthing you want to try for your first game( in Unity anyway) , trust me, try something easier. Make Pong , or Mario , making a little game in a week or so and is a much better way to start out then something near impossible for a beginner ...

 

Actually, I think a turn-based, Advance Wars style game would be a great game to start with. Its not overly complicated, and it covers a lot of key areas that you would want to learn. It's really just a lot of comparing of variables.

The grid isn't too difficult, especially if its just squares (2 dimensional array that stores the terrain type).

It would provide good lessons in how to unlock different units, and use classes to store their information.

Basic movement would be simple (lerp to coordinate x,y which references the terrain data from the array)

More advanced movement (some units move faster over different terrain, blocked by some terrain, etc) would be a bit trickier, using a very simplified form of pathfinding.

AI is always tricky, but this is probably one of the easiest forms of it. (Use the terrain array to find the distance to all player units. Maybe weight it a bit by saying "I prefer to attack units that I'm strong against" or "I prefer to attack units that are low on health".)

Will he complete the game? Maybe not. But he would absolutely learn a ton from developing it.

 

Its not a good place to start though .... you have a ton of things to work on , like pathfinding in itself is a whole project .

With Unity I feel you need to do at least one basic game, go though the process of finishing that , before doing something advanced

FYI Advanced Wars is one of my favorite games of all time, Great Little War Game just doesn't cut it .

 

Thank you guys! Where should I be asking something like this? I do realize that theres a ton for me to learn. Things is im faced with the reality of how I feel about what I want to do. I have no interest in making a platformer. Its not motivating for me. If all I did was make tactical RPGs for the rest of my career, I would love it.

Challenges being acknowledged, I am just looking for a good place to start. Do you know of a good grid system to start with? I'd like to start with the most free or cheap approach as I can. then go from there.

I really appreciate the help!

[UPDATE]
I found this wiki called "unifycommunity" and a script for what I think I want to do. Guess I will give this a shot:
http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=GridMove

 

Well i have also been down this route and hes right it is a shame that the Professional just don't have the patients to help you.( DOnt bash me i UNDERSTAND WHY) .
message me and see what i can give you. tutorials etc im not a ACE programmer but like they also said....
ive spent a lot of time looking and testing and seeing if they work together (sripts from asset store and Google, and myself NOW!!)...

I also want to use this knowledge to build a decent FULL complete non selling, an offer back to the community, tutorial series from this... process and maybe even a different build from the thoughts of yours and well my incite etc..

okay ive run on enough and probable dont make much sense.. But all in all i can help..

Matt/ Blindedmice / Ami Programmer.
University of Northampton