Hire Hare, the only new isometric game for the CPC since 1995

[cwpab]

It's strange that barely any isometric game is programmed. Are they too difficult or is the isometric view not useful anymore because that was our "whoa" moment for 3D graphics back in the day and there is no reason for it anymore?

Aside from Hire Hare (2016), there's also a recent strategy game for the GX4000 (not CPC!), the Ant Atack port and a very simple puzzle game with a monochrome ball and some squares.

Do you think homebrew developers should consider this genre much more?

[reidrac]

CNG has released other isometric games: Justin in 2005 and Dire Mare in 2022.

I don't know if I like the "isometric" seen as a genre. I prefer when the game has mechanics and happens to be isometric. For example, Black Land (1995) is an RPG with iso graphics.

I guess isometric graphics have a few technical (and gameplay) challenges. People wanting pseudo 3D can opt for top-down graphics that work well without those, for example the fantastic Legend Of Steel (2018).

[andycadley]

Isometric is definitely harder to program, it also has issues where you really need good game and graphics design to get around the fact your eyes can misinterpret depth at points. And, as mentioned, you can often "get away" with a kind of fake overhead view like the 2D Zelda games do.

[kawickboy]

Cadaver was a great tribute to this glory 8 bits-style game.
Ocean planned on amiga/st Universal Monsters, but was never released. This should be a great title too. 

Justin uses an efficient engine. I remember that CNG told he could share it if needed. 

[Anthony Flack]

When Jon Ritman explained how his engine worked it sounded quite straightforward. You need to be able to clip your sprites to any sized window. You mark off the dirty rectangles around anything that's moved, and then you draw the whole scene from back to front, clipping inside those rectangles.

Which was mentioned as part of a longer discussion about isometric engines here: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/programming/screen-construction-in-isometric-games/

[Anthony Flack]

The best iso engines I've seen on the CPC are in Get Dexter and Inside Outing. Being able to deal with objects of arbitrary dimensions, as well as objects with legs you can slide things under. Going up to a stack of plates and being able to pick them all up individually was so cool. Inside Outing even included boxes with removable lids that you can put things inside.

I'd like to see an adventure-style game made with an engine like that. 

[Jean-Marie]

On CPCRulez, you can find the sources of Nosferatu and Nexor from Graham Stafford, for those who might be interested. Not many comments inside though...