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[Randy]

Hello TIGForum people.

It's been a while since I spoke up around here.  Last time it was mostly regarding a Game Maker game for my wife as an anniversary gift.  It was my first game and the support I received here was fantastic!  Recently, I've been bitten by the game making bug again.  This time I'd like to try making an isometric game similar to Altered Space on GB or Solstice on the NES.  I've been hunting around for tutorials on how to get a project like this going in Game Maker, but I haven't had any luck.  Things seem quite advanced for my current skill level.  So I've decided to come back here and ask for help on basic things like moving a character around on an iso grid and such.

The ironic thing is about this is I currently work in the games industry.  I'm a 2D artist and animator, so doing the art isn't an issue, but I really struggle with the programming side of things, but I really do want to learn.  Any help at all would be most welcome.

[Wilson Saunders]

Drawing the tiles in a grid pattern is no that hard, the real difficulty comes in handling draw order so that the sprites overlap each other in a meaningful way. I don't know how to do this in Game Maker since I have never used it.

If I wanted to make an isometric game I would use Unity. Its camera has an Isometric option, and since it is a 3d engine the draw order is already handled for you. If you are going for sprite art you can face all your characters at the camera with the transform.LookAt() command.

Here is an example of something I made with unity:
http://www.monkeydev.com/unity/flatearth/index.html

There may be better isometric tools out there, this is just the one I would use since I have the most experience with it.

[Impmaster]

If you can read XML with Game maker, maybe try using Tiled? http://www.mapeditor.org/ It's a map editor that allows isometric view.

[Derek]

Please, ask for help in the appropriate thread. Only start a new thread if you are offering a tutorial.