The project I am currently involved in wants to make sneaking be a fairly large part of the (realtime) gameplay, and we are debating whether this will work better with an isometric (chessboard-like) world or a platformer world. So we would like to hear about different ways sneaking was implemented that you enjoyed playing, whether you think isometric or platformer is a better choice and why you think so. Thanks! [smile]

The best example I can think of for 2D stealth gameplay would have to be "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" for cell phones, one of the few mobile games I actually enjoyed playing. Take a look at

> this dodgy YouTube video to see what it's like - but suffice to say all the usual Splinter Cell gameplay elements translate very well into a 2D setting.

As for isometric, you should play an obscure Japanese freeware title called "Hakaiman" available here - many of the same gameplay features from the Metal Gear Solid series (such as decoys, security cameras and traps) have been implemented and work pretty darn well.

Edit – I would go for the isometric viewpoint as the player is presented with the whole scenario at once and has think of a cunning plan clear the entire area, rather than just taking out enemies one by one.

[Edited by - asdzxc on May 28, 2007 11:46:34 PM]

Out of the two options, sneaking to me seems more suited to a top-down viewpoint such as an isometric view. It sounds like you're going for more realistic gameplay dynamic, and that would work well with a god's eye view.

Platformers to me are more suited to abstract arcade action gameplay, with jumping and vertical movement that is not akin to sneaking; however it can work if you break some of the platformer stereotypes and make it more like Prince of Persia (the original one) rather than Mario. You'd still need to abstract away a lot of the sneaking to a purer form and explain why there needs to be a lot of vertical movement however.

It wasnt completely real time, but the sneaking in the isometric tactical game Silent Storm was pretty good. If you didnt have line of sight, you couldnt see something but if you could hear something an "ear" icon would appear in the general area of where you heard something moving. If they were very noisy you could get some extra info about who might be there (e.g on the other side of a door in a room, etc)

Quote:

Original post by Trapper Zoid Out of the two options, sneaking to me seems more suited to a top-down viewpoint such as an isometric view. It sounds like you're going for more realistic gameplay dynamic, and that would work well with a god's eye view.

No we are not considering overhead/god's eye view. The type of isometric view we would use is a side-on one like so:

...that's not isometric.

It is 1-point perspective the same as the more common type of isometric, it's just rotated 45 degrees so that a flat side of the cube is toward the viewer rather than a point of the cube. I don't know whether that means it's not technically isometric, but if it isn't what else would you call it?

Usually, what's commonly considered as isometric is the positioning of the view so the point of a cube is faced towards the viewer. If you can rotate the view however you please, when is, by your defintion, something not an isometric projection?

Also, although something quite often overlooked, an isometric view is by definition an orthographic projection, which your picture isn't either since it contains a perspective component (sometimes referred to as 'foreshortening' in layman terms).

Maybe a more accurate term would be one-point perspective?

Metal Gear and Solid Snake (Metal Gear #2) for MSX were using birds eye view. Have a look at those, because I always hated isometric views (like in Knightlore and Diablo). I consider them 'less playable'.

Especially Solid Snake (Metal Gear #2) did a pretty good job. Guards could see in 45 degree directions and there were certain types of floors that would attract their attention when you walked over them (so you would avoid those if possible).
Also knocking/punching the walls would draw their attention (this was visualized by a question mark moving above their heads and they guards would go into a 'hmm.. lets look around a bit better' mode).

The player could hide by crawling underneath trucks or into air ventilation systems.

(Splinter Cell for Cell phones is by far less superior than those old style Metal Gear games imo).