That's an interesting design. Here's another shot of it with a door frame shown:



Who else thinks this could work for a straight on zelda cam perspective? I'm opposed to using an isometric view for my game as I just feel like it's been done to death in terms of RPGs.

I'm wondering what it would look like with just a door frame floating there in the middle of the room...

Anyone else have any other games that use different methods? I know that the Zelda wall style seems to be the clear winner here, but I'm really trying to avoid breaking perspective. I'd like to keep everything in proper perspective which means there's going to have to be some fade away walls or cut away walls.

edit: On a side note, a game Pokemon does away with bottom walls entirely, much like Mr Robot, however they don't use door frames or anything, they merely mark a door by having a rug in front of it. Would proper visual cues such as rugs or light sources be enough to show where the entry/exit points are? I figure once you've exited a door like this once, you'll notice them whenever you're inside.

If you look at the 3rd snapshot down (Harvest Moon), it would work sort of like that. There isn't any overlapping walls, the walls just don't exist. So in fact, the character is seeing everything they can see on the ground, they just don't see the bottom wall.

Here's a good shot of LBA's interior walls;


Personally, I detest the Zelda approach because it breaks perspective, and it looks horrible when you have scrolling transitions between rooms that are vertically adjacent.

I like there to be an indication of a wall, and I think that door frames are not absolutely necessary, as long as there are clear visual clues showing where the doors are.

Remember that if there is going to be combat (or a visual puzzle) in a room, then it is important to have a very good view of the space, so if you are using doorframes, they should be off to the side where they will not obstruct the view.

The good thing with the isometric type like that, is it's easier for you also. You have just to draw one wall, and that's it. You flip it for the other side.

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Original post by Daivuk The good thing with the isometric type like that, is it's easier for you also. You have just to draw one wall, and that's it. You flip it for the other side.

Well technically if you go with the Secret of Mana style, and don't have wall borders running around the edges, you only need to draw the upper wall, you don't even need to flip anything. There are no visible side walls or bottom wall.

Again, I don't plan on going isometric as I have my own personal issues with that style. (control is weird unless you implement 8 directions, along with the fact that 90% of 2D mmorpgs seem to use isometric style and end up all looking the same)

Earthbound used a legend of zelda like style on the north, west and east walls but cut away the south walls so the perspective looked less messed up.

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Original post by Kaze Earthbound used a legend of zelda like style on the north, west and east walls but cut away the south walls so the perspective looked less messed up.

I think Earthbound had a perspective that doesn't exist in the universe. =P Very odd game, heheh.

I do not like Zelda style too much. You see the wall in all directions, but tables, chairs, and other doodads are all drawn so you only see their front face. When you have one close to the bottom wall, it really looks weird. Also, the windows on the walls are drawn at straight angles while they should be a bit skewed towards a direction to match the wall's perspective. All in all, I think it looks bad.

Now, it is not because it looks wrong that it is not the best choice. If you need to put important things on bottom walls, you need to display it properly. Zelda has cracks in walls so it is important that you see all walls. If you want to use it though, perhaps you could do like Illusion of Gaia and have the bottom walls shorter so, at least, the doodads showing only the front face do not look so out of place with bottom walls. It will still look weird if it is close to that wall though. In case you have not played that game, that is what I mean:



Bottom wall is just one tile, the upper one is three. (The picture does not show the upper wall completely.)

Personally, I use option 1. Option 3 is just an improvement over 1. Isometric tiles are probably the best choice overall, though, as it allows you to show two walls instead of one, and illusion of 3D is easier. (If you climb stairs in isometric, your character's trajectory changes to 30 to about 45 degrees. In a top-down view, the vertical stairs have no such feedback.)

The main advantage to Zelda-style is that it doesn't obscure things -- most importantly it doesn't obscure enemies, which you fight in real time. Without this real-time battle constraint, other options are viable.

So the first question to ask yourself is whether important, changing things will be obscured by the near walls.

Another option for 3/4ths overhead and isometric systems are to have the near walls be partially transparent (or cut-away).

The one reason I dislike Zelda-style graphics are that the walls are drawn from a fixed overhead position, while all the props and actors are drawn in 3/4ths perspective -- it just looks a little disjoint.

Also, from personal experience, drawing zelda-style tiles becomes complicated when you're drawing things which don't match up at nice 90/45 degree angles. Irregular map geometry is especially difficult to get right. I imagine the same is also true of isometric art.