My role in making the game was more focused on the creative side of the game. I created 5 city maps that can be found in the game, taking inspiration from other RPG 2D games and preview shots from the actual bundle in which we bought at the Unity asset store.
It was my job to be able to produce high quality maps that could be used for the game and also allow for early testing by incorporating many new ideas and concepts into the game with the items present in the maps.
For this game, the primary engine being used is Unity, which means that all of the maps had to be produced using already existing Unity functions. Luckily Unity has an easy to use process for creating 2D tile maps and other types of game scenes. For this game, I had to learn how to use Unity’s 2D tile map feature. This feature contained a lot of small technical procedures that needed to be fully understood in order to use the 2D tile map function to its full capability.
Specifically, the layering feature and the rigidbody colliders. Layers are an essential part of making a 2D map and making it accessible for RPG play. They allow for elements to overlay without any awkward and odd cuts in the pixels and overall aid the visuals of the map by not forcing every element to be oddly placed and space from one another.
Layers are also the base for rigidbody colliders and tilemap colliders which is what makes sure that 2D maps are playable and are not just exploitable. Layers allow for specific visual elements to be isolated into one folder which can be affected by colliders. Colliders are a feature that can be added to layers that make the elements in that specific layer a barrier for the player. In this specific case, it blocks the player from being able to leave the area by adding colliders for all the trees and rocks which encase the playable area.
There were many different challenges that I came across while producing these maps as I had almost zero experience working with Unity’s 2d tilemap function prior to this moment. I had to learn to overcome these problems and understand what caused these problems and how I could avoid them in the future.
As an example, one of the biggest problems that I was constantly facing was knowing how to separate the different elements based on layers. I hadn’t thought about what elements in the map would need to have a collider added onto it later on and didn’t separate those elements into separate layers which made it harder for me later on as I had to move all the elements onto a separate layer to be able to add collider without messing with the rest of the map. From this I learned that it is easier to plan out the layers prior to beginning the creation of the map as it prevents situations like this from happening again but also allows for more creative freedom as I will have the constant knowledge of what other elements would be incorporated and think about how I could use this to my advantage.
Another problem I faced was knowing how to order the layer correctly. The ordering of layers decides which layers’ elements will come out on the very top layer and have top priority and which layers’ elements will come out on the very bottom layer and act as a main background for the map. I had trouble figuring out how I wanted the layering to work and how each element group should be categorized to match the layers and overlaps of specific elements. When I first started out I had a lot of trouble figuring out how the layering was gonna work, but I just came to the conclusion that every element group should have a separate layer, such as trees, water, bridges, fences, etc. But I would group up the other smaller details into one layer because they are meant for extra detail and not supposed to have any significance in the actual map.
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