Should I make my top down game 2D or 3D

Hi I'm considering developing a game with a similar play style to a game called Archero:

which as you can see is a mobile game, I can't tell whether its 3D or 2D isometric. Thought I'd ask more experienced developers if they can tell and whether they'd recommend 3D or 2D for this game style.

Thanks

 

From what I've seen it's a 3d game with a skewed perspective, some parts of it are creatively used billboards with 2d sprites. The characters and coins are done in 3d. Projectiles seem to be 2d sprites. It's difficult to tell how much of the environment is 3d. There's something off about how the walls are, but I believe they are done in 3d as well.

This genre of games isn't restrictive in terms of choosing 2d vs 3d. You're the only one that can make the decision to go for either, as it only makes sense in the context of what you want and can do. For beginners grasping how to make 2d games is usually easier, but if you're not a beginner then it just boils down to your vision.

 

Unless you're getting your art assets from somewhere else, you should consider which is easier/faster for you to create a lot of acceptable assets- 2D or 3D. Like BakeMyCake mentioned, though, if you have a fixed-angle isometric perspective you can mix and match 3D and 2D assets in the same scene as long as you can make them look right.

 

The game I'm working on is sort of like this. I used true 3D because I wanted to have elevated sections. However, because of the semi-fixed angle of the camera, I can do various tricks. My projectiles, fire, explosions, shockwaves, blood... are all billboards.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone it has been very helpful.

I've no idea how to make a 2D asset look right in 3D but at least now I have something to look into.

Similar to my above reply I'll have to see how a 2D sprite can be used right in a 3D game as I currently have no idea.

I guess that in itself could be good to consider as I may want to implement it into my game design. Thanks for the information.

For anyone who reads this in the future with a similar question after posting this question I came across this playlist on recreating Archero. Its in Korean but it has English subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL45tEBs0ZUum2OfXHweD2K2Q-DSqwaVsk

 

The technique you probably want to make 2D objects look 3D is the normal map. While there are other things you can do like shader writing, most of the time it’s really that simple. All of my billboards look 3D, check out some of the videos in my thread and I’ll bet you’d be hard pressed to figure out what’s 3D and what isn’t.

An example from the AAA world is Super Mario Maker. The new super Mario bros style looks fully 3D, but they’re actually prerendered sprites with normal maps that allow it to interact with light.

 

tldr - having the 3D cam allows 2D & 3D; mix and match when you need to solve rendering|dimensionality cheaper with 3D and 2D

artists paint the illusion of dimension all the time, that is the denotation of art rendering

3D fixed allows artists to construct complex 3D structure/texture with 2D rendering technique savings; Use case of 3D is to save time/computing/team agility when objects must appear with perspective shifts that otherwise are too costly with 2D technique. I do not advise strict orthographic (2D) authoring unless a team specifically needs infinite blueprint immersion. However a fixed 3D cam with FOV < 2 suffices and still offers use of depth at the service of gameplay

 

Which thread are you referring to/ where can I find it?​

Thanks again for the replies do either of you or anyone else have any specific terms I can search for or tutorials to follow on how to use 2D sprites to look 3D as I'm quite new to game dev and have been primarily focusing on coding.

and have very little experience with graphics other than using basic 3D models and 2D sprites with animations that have already been developed following unity tutorials. Which has made your explanations look alien to me like when I was reading code for the first time I don't even understand it enough to know what to go off and start learning if that makes sense?

Also what's the main advantages and disadvantages of using 2D models in a 3D game and vice versa.

 

So far we've been talking about a fixed angle isometric view, so (perspective wise) you don't need to do anything technical to make your 2D sprite look 3D. Your 2D sprites and your 3D models will both look 2D. As far as lighting goes, newjerseyrunner already explained what to do there. I just googled normal maps for sprites and pulled-up several articles describing how to do it. Even this is not necessary, though, unless you need to have realistic lighting and can't draw it yourself. Alternatively you can just make a 3D model and it will be lit properly.

Well, there may be performance advantage to using a 2D sprite in place of a very-complex 3D object, but it's mostly down to choosing whichever is easier to create.

• If you're good at 3D modeling and animating you could create a 3D character and animate the character walking, and then you could automatically have the character walk 8 directions without having to draw tons of frames of animation.
  
• On the other hand, if you're good at drawing and don't want to 3D model, you can hand-draw the animation too.
  
• If you're good at both drawing and modeling, you might choose one or the other based on whether you want a realistic look or a hand-drawn look.
• If you have an object that never moves, it might be easier to simply draw a picture or use a stock image instead of going through all of the trouble to model it.
• If you have an object that is seen from multiple angles it might be easier to 3D model it to save you from having to multiple sprites.

And so on.

 

This is my version of a topdown shooter in 3D: https://forum.unity.com/threads/mittens-adventure-top-down-shooter-multiplayer.532078/

The models are all 3D, but almost all of the effects, explosions, blood... are all flat sprites

The main advantage to using 2D objects in a 3D game is resources, I have a lot of stuff happening during deathmatches and I couldn't possible hope to have all of it run on a limited gpu at 30fps. Similar to how the real 3d mario engine couldn't hope to render some of the enemy spam levels people have created for mario maker. The point of real 3d in 2d games is to give specific characters greater range of motion and allow them to seamlessly trasition between states at any time. For example, in Mario Maker, mario himself is a fully 3d model.

 

I'll try it out I didn't think a sprite would look 3D in a 3D environment by default even if its isometric.

I'm finding useful tutorials around it now thanks.

Thanks for sharing your game it looks good and yeah everything does look 3D. Now I have a basic idea of what normal maps are I'll look into using that.

 

It's like an old movie from the 40s. There's usually a big long-shot with mountains and beautiful scenery in the background, but it's fake. It's really just a painting on glass that someone put into the frame. You can't really tell the difference, though, because the camera never changes angles.

 

I was also wondering the same thing, if Archero is a 2D game that looks 3D, or if it's actually pure 3D.

Drumroll.....

Archero is a mix of both.
Basically everything in the game is a pre-rendered 2D sprite, but the actual characters (Heros, Enemies, Bosses) are all 3D assets.

The maps are all 2D sprites.
The reward chests are 2D sprites.
Even the projectiles are 2D sprites.

You can see what I'm talking about in the screenshot. :-D

I hope this will answer your question.
It certainly answered mine.