i think my biggest issue with reasoning out the design for this dream game of mine is that in the sci-fi version you cant really have sci-fi cities without height and adding a height axis is too much scope/complexity and i've never quite figured out how to reconcile that
meanwhile fantasy works quite well on a single plane
Is this mainly a technical challenge or a world design challenge? If it's just technical, you could totally make a 2D top down game where the world has a lot of height: tall buildings in the top-down Pokémon games have each floor as a separate room and stairs are "doors" between floors. Also instead of dirt paths surrounded by trees in the "overworld" you can have bridge networks surrounded by open air
I think it could totally work
@mort i mean there are definitely workarounds but those hide their own complexity. if going into buildings and up/down floors are all their own zones, how do you track sky bridge connections and the like?
@eniko Manually! Have an overworld area for bridge network @ floor 1, floor 5 and floor 10, outside-facing doors in all skyscrapers on level 1 go to corresponding doors on overworld bridge network are @ floor 5, etc
The game engine wouldn't know about floors or height, but you design the connections between areas to give the illusion of height
@eniko An unfortunate rarely challenged game genre backdrop orientation for games/rpgs, despite being Real in books/P&P. You compromise nothing and have fantasy give way and/or intermingle with sci-fi/high tech doings on a planetary/universe scale. Hard to say what the most prominent would even be games wise...I suppose Star Ocean in a sense.
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