Before purchasing...

SolNathan

I'm looking to make an isometric 2d handpainted game. Not so much a game as much a world to explore. A personal project, nothing more. 

I'm new to all of this and only really created a few assets using Photoshop/Illustrator. No programming or coding skills at all. 

My question is should I create my isometric 2d game in 2d, 2.5d or 3d? I ask this because I'm concerned about how to render shadows. Using a directional light (sun) I'm not sure how I would go about casting shadows say from one object onto an object behind it. Or for example a tree shadow cast on a player or npc. I'm assuming I wouldn't draw these shadows in Photoshop but use a shader or something to achieve the effect. 

I also am not sure how to handle slopes. Say I have an isometric building with a staircase, assuming the staircase itself is a separate object; how would I achieve depth that appears like the character is going up and down stairs on a 2d object? 

Has anyone done an isometric game with Adventure Creator using 2d assets? Would Unity and AC be  good choice for my project? An help would be great before making purchases. 

ChrisIceBox

Welcome to the community, @SolNathan.

The issue of having sprites cast shadows is shader-related, not specifically to do with AC.  AC doesn't handle any rendering or graphics, so you will need to look into other assets or techniques for that.  There are a few solutions on Unity's Asset Store that should give you what you're looking for.

In 2D, depth is handled by use of Sorting Maps, which change the order of character sprites according to their position in the scene.  This is best used when things are "face-on" as opposed to an isometric viewpoint.  This game has an isometric style, so you may want to reach out to those developers - but for a "true" depth effect I would recommend going full 3D.

AC can still make use of sprite-based characters in a 3D environment (the 2D demo's character, for example, can be used in the 3D scene), and AC's standard 3D GameCamera can be used in Orthographic projection without any issues.

SolNathan

Thank you for your input. I'm planning on staying away from 3D as I'm more a 2D artist. I was hoping to do a game along the style of Saga Frontier 2. I don't think I'll have an issue using sorting layers with AC as I draw with them in mind. I just wasn't sure if I should do the game in AC 2D relying on the isometric view in my drawings to show depth using an fixed camera but I guess I'll just mess around with the settings when the time comes