It's funny how you can mentally trip up over such a little incident.
This past weekend, as Joe mentioned, we got quite a bit clarified and laid out on Spirits. Now, we're getting some environment tilesets together and a question came up:
Wouldn't isometric be a cool viewpoint to employ in the game?
Okay, well, that's great. I mean, sure, it would be fantastic. While I'm not totally into the idea of an isometric viewpoint in 2D RPG games, extra definition on buildings and landscape assets can't hurt. But now comes the fun part. Having the game play in an isometric view means that the tilesets will need more work, since they're at a 45-degree angle. When it comes time to add edges and smooth out the assets we have, we won't simply be able to reuse those angled edges for everything. Not to mention - since we're using RPG Maker, our first "release" as it will, is going to be as a PC version, where the primary means of controls are UDLR arrows.
I'm not sure yet if RPG Maker has an isometric mode, but if it doesn't, that means we get to reserve half of one tile for each separate edge piece we want to produce.
Now, for the other option - proceeding with perspective design. A lot of RPGs re-create that "retro" feel by keeping the buildings and all the environments in the perspective style, where most everything is square, and facing front. I don't see any harm in doing this, mostly because it's simple to use when using a tile editor, and because I don't think much is lost, especially in the way of measuring the grandiose nature of buildings. You can still establish height and length in perspective view, but depth becomes the issue, and even then, it's really only half an issue because of ways around it - like shading.
Not only am I currently more into the idea of perspective view because of the aforementioned, but also because Spirits is our first real GAME as a team. Heck, it's our first game as individuals. No one is to say that it's a bad thing to stay simple, especially if it's suited for the project you're working on. It makes sense to flaunt your abilities, but if that flaunting is at the sake of time that can be well-spent on hammering out the remainder of an already-lengthy game creation process, maybe it's not worth it in the end. Personally, I think it's possible to have a great-looking game simply by having great artists working on assets that are suitable for the style of the game you make. This is why we're not looking to recruit a 3D modeler for our game. It's the same reason why.
Creative boundaries are frowned upon by a lot of people, because no one wants to limit the possibilities they can achieve when working on anything, games included. But sometimes creative boundaries are necessary because they prevent you from turning your great idea into something unsure of itself, a product or outcome that is a mixed bag of results. In this situation, putting our game into an isometric view produces results that will vastly change the impact made on our demographic - on the people who love RPGs and generally know what to expect when looking at RPGs. In order to not confuse them, it's important that we don't make a change that doesn't make sense. Plus, it's an uncommon thing used in RPGs - I can't remember the last isometric 2D RPG I played. I think I'd just be confused.
Moral: Breaking down the barriers for creative purposes can sometimes break down any barriers of expectation that people may have. Creating this project in that way may turn off some loyal fans of the genre, and all for a mostly unnecessary reason - to be different.
