Question about shadows in a topdown 2d game

Hi guys,

So im basically a newb when it comes to game development and ive been looking at some old games and I started to wonder about something



as you can see this is quite an old game. Chrono trigger i believe, And when you look at the trees they all seem to be casting a shadow.

how do you think this was done?

Did they manually do this by drawing out the exact spritesets needed to recreate something like this? or were they possibly using shaders?

What is the best way you think to clone this effect in the unity engine (free) ofcourse.

Thanks in advance guys. I am really curious about this as i have recently tried to get into Spriting.

 

I doubt a game like Chrono trigger used shaders for shadows. It would be drawn with the sprites, the player shadow will be different from the other art as it needs to be on the ground when the player jumps or gets knocked back, so it would be something that "follows" the player around.

Find some free sprites that you can work with or a good artist friend that is willing to help.

 

Thanks a lot chris.

I appreciate your help a lot