TileGen : Procedurally generate 2.5D tilesets for Rotorz and similar

Hi All,

I've been working on a Unity + Rotorz extension (since I'm no graphic designer) to proceduraly generate 2.5D oriented brushes/tiles. It's not quite ready yet since I want to add a few more features but it's already quite usable for prototyping at minimum although I've created a few scenes which don't look bad at all with what's there already.

I've created a short video showing it's use if anyone's interested.

 

Just wondering what is happening with this tool? I also had a question regarding "diagonal" tiles. Does it create 'ramps' (45 degree slopes) or more like stairs?

Thanks!
Jos

 

i also had a question about this. Are you able to make custom degree slopes or ramps or whatever you want to call them with this system? I assume you could just rotate the blocks, but does it have any ability to just make a custom made slant and import that into the map just like you would with any other tile system?

 

Hi guys,

The design of TileGen is such that I can add generators to it as it matures. There will be multiple generators/styles of tile creation.

The first release was going to have simply hard/flat surface generation. Since there's obvious interest, I'll include a simple ramp generator with the first release, which is getting very near being ready.

Future updates will include curved surfaces and others.

This editor extension looks/feels completely different now from that initial video.

Here's a taste of what's coming:

 

I'd love to buy this add on, any update on a V1 release?

 

Hi ChaneDev,

As I type this I'm working on some last stability and optimization issues. I now consider it "feature complete" however there are one or two bugs found during the beta and my own testing and I'm unhappy about how long it takes under certain conditions.

The first, v1 release, is probably a week or two away.

 

Great! Thanks for the reply I didn't see much activity and the initial results looked super cool. Let me know if need some additional beta testing.

 

That can be extremly interesting, even just for level designing/blocking out levels!

 

Hi,

Yes my goals with this project had three distinct use cases or customer types:

a) Those who are happy with the quality it's able to produce out of the box (probably mobile centric) - for this reason it's default behaviour is to automatically create an atlas for all the textures you select, targeting that on multiple fronts.

b) Those who wish to prototype but more closely to their own "final vision".

c) Closely related to (b) those who wish to create outlines, or templates, to provide to graphic artists either as examples or as a base on which to improve - for this reason each possible tile is stored as a separate mesh which can be exported and provided to modellers to tweak or enhance without them having to figure out every possible tile orientation themselves with the correct dimensions and the full collection out-of-the-box.

 

Hey I was just checking see if you're closer to submitting a V1? I'm looking forward to playing with the tech.

Cheers,
~C

 

This product is making good progress. It is of course my primary concern that, like my other assets, quality is delivered. I've had one or two issues which I've now mostly corrected.

I'm at the point where I'm starting to prepare final packages and create examples rather than working on the core itself.

It feels to me like there are two very different products here:

1) Top down (Dungeon like) tile generation
2) Side View (Platformer like) tile generation

I'm thinking about splitting this product down the middle into two slightly smaller packages that provide various styles of tileset for these two very different types of games.

The entire extension is written in a manner that'll allow me to extend and add with various surface and tile types over time. For example: Square-Cube style platform versus a Curved Platform - each of which can be generated separately as tilesets either with the same themes of textures and materials or differently for each and each usable with each other within the same level as well.

It feels to me that two, cheaper, packs, one for generation of top-down styled tile-sets and one for side-view / platformer sets might be preferable to one large package capable of generation of all tile styles.

I'm not yet sure about this split or even if I should do it at all, so if anyone has thoughts on this I'd love your feedback on this.

 

Since the Rotorz system allows for both I would suggest keeping it as one package. I'm working on a metroid-einhander inspired shooter, which essentially has sections that are side scrolling and top down.

Maintaining two packages is also a bit more of a pain, both for releases, testing, and support. You also have asset store sales to get your price point a little lower for periods of time to get the package out to more people.

I'd easily give you between 25 50 bucks for the package assuming that you have a roadmap to continue development and that generation of tiles is easy to work with.

.02,
~C

 

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback. I have a large roadmap in place with expansion intended (over time) in many areas of tile generation, mostly around themed styles of resultant tilesets. The first release focusing on quick prototyping or "mobile game quality" with additional generation styles being added as time passes with more focus on detail and quality.

After a lot of thought, and taking your feedback into consideration, I've decided that one package is the way to go, however I will in subsequent releases to the first focus either in one realm (updates to sideways tile styles) or the other (top-down updates) so the package can grow in areas of focus.

The first release will allow you to define "skins" by selecting textures which get used and placed how you wish across the tiles and get built into a single atlas. A subsequent update will allow you to select whether you would like atlas/skins or to choose between any materials (multiple or single) within each mesh -- which more high quality games may require for desktop distribution.

One really great advantage of the above is the ability to rebuild your entire world based on predefined quality settings.

I'm sorry that it's taken so long to get Tile Generator ready, but it's incredibly important to me that I have a very stable core on which I can easily expand later with zero impact on those using Tile Generator at the time subsequent updates occur.

I'm will post an update soon with an exact indication on how long it will be before you can see it on the asset store.

 

A teaser image of what it looks like post-generation of a basic dungeon built tileset:

 

Super cool, looking forward to it. Better to release when you feel it's ready than release something too buggy.