Building an HD-2D Town Around the Camera in Unity.
by Vicente C.
Published |
12
Ahmed, who posts as Carthagea, is building an HD-2D game in Unity. In the latest version of the town, the streets climb from a harbor through three terraces toward a castle and temple on the ridge.
Ahmed chose the camera angle before placing the buildings. The camera faces north, looking down at about 30 degrees through a narrow lens. It gives the town a small diorama feel, but it also means a badly placed roof could hide the street ahead.
Ahmed calls the main layout rule “flow up.” From each terrace, players can see part of the next one near the top of the screen. The streets zigzag between staircases, giving them a new view of the climb at every turn.
The walking paths sit along the camera-facing edge of each terrace, with the houses farther back. Ahmed tested those heights and sightlines with rough terrain and ProBuilder boxes before building the detailed streets. If a roof blocked the player or the next staircase, it was easier to fix at that stage.
To make the terrain, Ahmed built Strata. The town needs flat terraces, vertical walls and stairs, so a conventional heightmap was a poor fit. The tool lets him shape the levels, paint the ground and connect different heights with stairs.
The ground helps guide players too. Cobbles follow the main route through town, gravel leads toward the temple, and marble is saved for the top. Strata’s painter keeps the materials on a consistent pixel grid while its shader handles the edges where they meet.
Once the layout works from the game camera, Ahmed adds modular houses and trees made from layered, flat shapes. Lighting, fog and tilt-shift help bring out the HD-2D look, but the streets and landmarks have to be readable first.
You can explore the town and try the tool here:
- Tool: Strata on GitHub
- Scene: HD-2D Plaza revisited
- Terrain painting: Carthagea’s Unity showcase
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