Designing isometric tileset for Tiled

Questions
1

Hello,

I am a beginner with Tiled and trying to create a map using own graphics.
This is what I managed so far:

The tiles so far are drawn in an isometric cube and each (apart from stairs) fills it fully.
So I know the basics of basics.
I’ve been also working on a 1x2 structure that I separated into two by offsetting half of it.
And I plan to export this into Unity using Tiled2Unity.

What I wanna discuss is the optimal workflow that I should be using. I believe my options are (or a combination of those):

  • Keep everything as cubic as possible.

This way there is always and overlap between the tiles and I need to clearly define with layers the height level. For example, the walls are within two layers, because otherwise, the top part from the lower height of wall would draw over the upper height.
Also, when I import this to Unity, it somehow looses some tiles in the process. This is how it looks post-import. I know this might be a bit out of scope for this forum but if you know what’s happening, please let me know.

  • Separate the walls from the top/bottom rhombuses.

I think this would call for tilesets with different tile sizes.

  • Further increase of tileset maps by creating sets for 2x1, 1x2 sizes.

I imagine the image size total might be smaller this way. Walls done this way may feel less grid-like.

I know that normally (non-isometric setting), a multiple of a base unit tile size is no problem as multiple can be selected together. Here, though, each tile has whitespace associated with it and it throws me off in my planning.

At this stage, I am not able to properly judge how each would impact the game and I do not wanna make a big mistake right from the beginning. Currently, I only plan to make interior scenes.

For the future, I want certain objects to be able to interact with and need to find a method for dynamic depth for the player character. This is not part of the question, however, I feel I need to consider this while coming up the solution for my current issue.

In summary, I am asking what is the best way you think about creating further tiles and should I somehow separate/join those I already made. It would be helpful to send a link of isometric tileset you liked working within Tiled (and/or Unity).

Thank you for reading.

2

I know this might be a bit out of scope for this forum but if you know what’s happening, please let me know.

I have not used Tiled2Unity before, but simply looking at your image, it seems like a z-sort issue. In other engines, sometimes this happens if the tile sprite has the wrong image-point (‘pivot’). But this is likely a bug or a workflow issue related to Tiled2Unity, I’m guessing.

3

Btw, I am developing an isometric game as well but using C2. I am documenting my progress and noting down technical information and the reasons for decisions I’m making. A part of that has to do with tiles sizes and resolutions. If you are using a 3d prog, like I am, I also document the process I use. https://c2isogame.wordpress.com/game-information/