Game Development Community

Best Advice for Creating Map-based Strategy Games

by Steve Way · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 03/21/2010 (10:14 pm) · 5 replies

This is a question I'm curious about for a turn-based strategy game I've been designing but have not yet started programming. If designing a game that utilizes a Risk or Axis & Allies type board, is it better to program the playing area (ie. all the countries) as one image or several images pieced together? Similarly, should the game use raster images or vector-based images for countries and/or their outlines?

Lastly, are there any advantages/disadvantages to doing this project in T2D vs. T3D?

Any tips would be appreciated.
NextNext Thread
PrevPrevious Thread
More from Game Design and Creative Issues


Torque Owner Brandon Baker
World Core Studios
#1
03/21/2010 (11:59 pm)
T2D is easier because its just textures. 3d you have to make 3d objects and then make the textures for them and animate that character if you got no clue how to make anything in 3d it will be that much harder and if you don't know both then 3d will be real hard.

Its up to you though what you wan't your game to be in 2d or 2d.

Torque 3D Owner Steve Way
Default Studio Name
#2
03/22/2010 (9:05 am)
I've worked in 3D before so that's not an issue... just not for a game of this genre.

Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
#3
03/22/2010 (10:41 am)
3D is err ... 3D, to point out something a bit obvious. It has like a whole extra dimension over 2D so there's more "stuff" to think about, but you could probably make more "fancy stuff" go with it, depends on your art really (animations 3D effects etc).

example: You could make your areas as 3D meshes rather than images.

I used to love Risk as a kid, great family friendly warmongering imperialist fun. Plus I found out there was a place called Kamkachta!

I've often thought of invading it in real life and setting myself as a despotic god-emperor but ... oh god I've said too much!

[/joke] ;)

Torque 3D Owner Steve Way
Default Studio Name
#4
03/22/2010 (10:52 am)
Thanks for the reply... lets ignore the 2D vs. 3D discussion for now and focus on my original question. Is it better to piece the world together by territory, or to have world represented as one asset (whether 2D or 3D)?

Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
#5
03/22/2010 (10:58 am)
Depends on size and detail ... (talking T3D here, I've no experience with TGB/T2D)


If the camera is far away from some (eg: not showing all at once) you could use SEPERATE assets and LOD the (3D) meshes making it less detailed and thus better for performance. DDS bitmaps would help LOD the texture sizes.

If it was one single mesh then as long as it's not absurdly detailed to the point of bringing your graphics card to a halt and you wanted it all on screen at once, without any zooming in --- then I think single object would be best.