Create an Isometric map with tiles?

Hi!

I'm creating a 2D Tower Defense game and I want it to be isometric. I'm creating it on the XZ plane in Unity(3D mode). I need the map to be based on tiles so I can seperate the monsters' path and the tiles where the player will build the towers on because they will have different scripts attached to 'em. My game will just need one map so I dont need any functionalty like randomizing tiles etc. I've tried using Tiled however, the Tiled2Unity converter doesn't support Isometric maps.

With that said, how do I create a isometric map? Is there any program other than Tiled? Is there any guides or scripts that explain how to create one with different tiles etc, so I can create a path. I've tried looking for something that works but with no results/I dont understand what do do.

This is basicly the look(the angle/path) I want to achieve:

 

I have no idea how to help you. Just wanted to say that art looks really good :]

 

Really, creating an isometric tilemap is the same as creating any tilemap, but with slightly different math involved.

I have a lot of experience with isometric gamedev, but I don't recall anything off the top of my head that could simply explain it simply, or specifically for Unity.

I will do what I can to post some info, but any links I give- well, I didn't check them very thoroughly. (Trying to post this quickly).

It will seem like a lot to handle at first if you're new to gamedev / game programming, but once you learn all this stuff- you come to a few realizations.

One of those realizations is that all tilemaps are basically the same, isometric or square. It's all still just 2D tile maps, which are represented by 2D data. There is more involved in isometric, but when it comes down to it- you create all the same solutions to the same problems. So a good start is to learn how to make a square tilemap tower defense game. How to set that up.

This way, you learn about tilemaps in general, and anything dealing with tilemaps (pathfinding, tower defense game logic, etc.)

Once you know how to make a 2D tower defense game using a square tilemap, it's very simple to turn that square into an isometric tilemap. Still, you will have to learn about isometric tilemaps. And all the problems which occur (and must be solved), etc. Although some of those problems can be handled easily with Unity's API instead (ex. Tile Picking can be pretty simple with Unity's API which detects mouse input over gameobjects, raycasting, etc. whatever).

If you don't want to learn to make a square tilemap game first, just reverse the order of subjects to learn. (Learn the differences between Isometric Tilemaps & Square Tilemaps, and THEN learn how to make the components of the game. Even if using a square example, it is only a matter of changing a few things to make that square, isometric.)

In gamedev, you really have to end up studying each component you want to add in to your game. Stuff like 2D tower defense is pretty well documented, even if not within Unity. It usually gets to be multitudes more difficult for most users when they are trying something new/different or something which isn't well documented online.

There's some useful tutorials about the logic behind all of it here, although it's for XNA. If you don't want to learn how it all works, you may just want to look into the Asset Store or for Tutorials for Unity. I honestly don't know if you even need to know all the details to do this stuff in Unity. I tried using Unity to make an isometric game, but it led me down a path to learn about all the details using my own engine.


Sorry I can't be of any real help. It took me quite a lot of work and a lot of time to learn all this stuff. I went through entire books to learn isometric tile based logic. So I don't really know what to say to a newbie besides what I went through learning this stuff.

I strongly suggest just trying to figure out the basic components of a 2D tower defense game first. Or just a 2D game in general. Worry about the isometric part later. Although a lot of tutorials I looked through seem to be for 3D tower defense games. I did see this in the asset store though.