Is isometric 2D? If so can you make isometric games in Love?

[Eamonn]

Hi! I have heard about the isometric game camera view and I was wondering is it 2D or 3D? I was looking on the internet and some people say it's 3D and some say it's 2D, so I was wondering if someone here could give me a definite answer. I know that Pokémon games for the DS had isometric, so that will give you an idea of what isometric is if you've never heard of it before.

Assuming that my instincts were right and the isometric camera view is 2D then can Love2d program isometric camera view? Would it be hard, on a scale of 1 to 10; 1 being the usual for a game and 10 being near impossible.

Another small side question that I was thinking about: What is the point of programming a game when you can use a game maker? Could I program as a hobby? Can I use my knowledge of programming for maybe getting a job using a game creator? I was doing some research and saw that 100% programming for games was not a job, but I think you'd need programming skills to get a job at a company that use GameMaker or UDK or something. Is this true?

Thank you for reading! Any help is welcome and appreciated!

[Davidobot]

Here's a post from the wiki: http://www.love2d.org/wiki/Tutorial:Isometric_Graphics

[Eamonn]

Thank's DavidBot! I'll check out the post! I was really worried my question would get taken down for not being constructive like on Stack Exchange, or if my account was going to get banned for asking a question like on Yahoo! Answers. Again, thanks for the help. Hopefully this will also help someone else wondering the same thing as me.

[veethree]

other small side question that I was thinking about: What is the point of programming a game when you can use a game maker? Could I program as a hobby? Can I use my knowledge of programming for maybe getting a job using a game creator? I was doing some research and saw that 100% programming for games was not a job, but I think you'd need programming skills to get a job at a company that use GameMaker or UDK or something. Is this true?

Thank you for reading! Any help is welcome and appreciated!

1. I think programming a game gives you more freedom and control over how your game works.

2. Yes. Programming has been a hobby of mine for a couple years now.

3. Not sure about the whole job thing as i'm just a hobby programmer, So i haven't bothered looking into that.

[T-Bone]

I think getting a job as a game programmer is pretty difficult. There are people who succeed, but for every Notch there is hundreds or thousands developers that try, fail and give up. It's probably a combination of luck and skill. Or knowing somebody who works at a game company

That said, having game programming as a hobby can be useful for getting other programming jobs. That happened to me for example.

[micha]

Hi! I have heard about the isometric game camera view and I was wondering is it 2D or 3D? I was looking on the internet and some people say it's 3D and some say it's 2D, so I was wondering if someone here could give me a definite answer. I know that Pokémon games for the DS had isometric, so that will give you an idea of what isometric is if you've never heard of it before.

I'd put it that way: An isometric view is a method for displaying 3d objects with 2d techniques. So the display is kind of 2d. Objects further away from the camera do not get smaller (as it would be in proper 3d). But still the content is 3d.

Assuming that my instincts were right and the isometric camera view is 2D then can Love2d program isometric camera view? Would it be hard, on a scale of 1 to 10; 1 being the usual for a game and 10 being near impossible.

Displaying things with an isometric camera is not difficult. The only thing you need to understand is how to calculate the screen coordinates of an object, if you have its world coordinates (in 3d).
The more difficult part for isometric games is the game mechanics in the background as these are often 3d (if you have something gridlocked, it won't be too difficult).

[Eamonn]

In reply to Micha; I really appreciate the help! So just to be 200% sure, I can make a game in Love2d using Isometric? If I can't ill just settle for making either a 2d platformer or a birds eye view game.

In reply to T-Bone: I am 13. I was just asking for when it comes time for getting a job. I'd like to be a programmer of some description or some sort of job relating to computers. Our teacher was gonna send us back to class because the computers didn't work, but I fixed them. I was 5 then lol

In reply to veethree:

1) I was thinking that you'd get more freedom over your game, but I got majorly discouraged by people saying that programming is dying and that I should use a game maker because it'll save time. My game won't have super duper HD graphics, it's gonna be a pixel game.

2) Happy days! I really enjoy programming and that's the whole reason I decided to make a game; because I have such a strong passion for coding. In school If we get to do anything on the computers most people go on games. Me and my friends code a test website or go onto a site and code Lua because we both love coding.

3) Well I don't really have to get a job programming, like you I could do it as a hobby! It sure is dang fun and it passes SO MUCH TIME! Debugging really makes me angry sometimes though but it's such a good feeling fixing them, as well as running your code with no errors the first time round, That's an amazing feeling!

Thank you everyone for your replys and help! I guess it's not a bad thing that I want to code a game. I thought it would be stupid to code a game and that it was a waste of time, but I guess it's still quite popular. As long as it's not a bad thing to code a game and that isometric is defiantly possible with Love2d I'm gonna have so much fun making my game!

I don't expect this game to become the next Minecraft, all that matters is that I have fun making it! There's 11 people in my team and 4 of them are doing code, so we're all gonna be nerds/geeks Anyone reading this wanting to code a game: Go for it! Anyone reading this making a game with code or not: Good luck! All the best to you all!

[micha]

In reply to Micha; I really appreciate the help! So just to be 200% sure, I can make a game in Love2d using Isometric? If I can't ill just settle for making either a 2d platformer or a birds eye view game.

Yes you can.

Here are examples:
Isömap
A 2,5d platformer
A prototype of myself
And there are a couple more projects in this forum.
(As a side note: If this is your first game, I suggest you postpone the isometric game and do a really simple one first.)

[Plu]

1) I was thinking that you'd get more freedom over your game, but I got majorly discouraged by people saying that programming is dying and that I should use a game maker because it'll save time. My game won't have super duper HD graphics, it's gonna be a pixel game.

People don't know what they're talking about. Programming will never die. For some projects, a gamemaker might be better, but even those require programming. Hell, the only Gamemaker game I've made to date for a Gamejam only used the graphic hud to draw the maps and organise the scripts, it was almost all GML.

[Eamonn]

In reply to Plu: That's really reassuring! I totally agree with you. Some projects(maybe a game with high graphics like CoD or something(I think CoD has HD graphics, I've only seen screenshots)) could use a game maker but a game like my one with lower graphics could maybe be done with code.

In reply to Micha: Thank's for the links to the isometric games. I am planning on making a few small game projects first anyway(I'm making 2 other platformers), so after I get practice with the basic stuff I'll move onto something bigger like isometric, and maybe even one day I'll make a 3D game(Not using Love2d, of couse )

Thank you all for your help. I've gotten a lot of great advice here