So, here is a bit of backstory. Back in 2018, I tried to make a 3D platformer in unreal, but after losing faith in it, I then decided to make a first person platformer. I got the idea from playing Team Fortress 2 and looking past the gate in ctf SawMill. I’ve been trying for years, until the beginning of this year, where I broke down and made a 2.5D game. At first, I thought it was going great. Though, the more I developed the game, the more I became unsatisfied with it. I’ve always wanted to make a 3D platformer, first or third person, but I also don’t want the work I put into the 2.5D platformer to go to waste. Plus I have friends that saw my work, and they liked it. I had an idea where I would work on both, but I know I will burn myself out. I’m not enjoying game development in this specific case. I don’t know anymore.
every creative person dislikes their own work. even the “masters”. just keep going. once you get it in other peoples hands and see them have fun with it you wont want to quit.
if you give to other people and they are not having fun then the mission is just to figure out why. trial and error.
Do you think it would be a good idea to make both a 2D and 3D platformer? It’s nothing complicated, honestly. In my mind, I’m thinking it centers around raw platforming. Maybe with a punch or two.
I’d just do one. There is no way I could ever focus on two games at the same time. Try to accomplish just a single fun mechanic, get it all wrapped up into a finished game.
in unreal you’ll have a much easier time doing 3d. its not really designed around 2d. 3d is only “harder” if you were writing an engine from scratch. but you’ll have easiest time if you play to the strengths of the tool you’re using.
if you try to make a 2d game in unreal you’ll have more technical hijinks to work through compared to if you did 3d.
Just like if you try to hammer with a saw it will take longer and be annoying.
Unreal has some 2d tools but that are not mature and robust like the 3d part of the engine, so you’d be required to do more technical work on your own. Comapred to if you do 3d you can probably get 99% of the way finished just using the available toolset without any major issues.
there are of course 2d games made wtih unreal and it is not impossible but if you are a beginner it would likely require you to have more advanced skills as you’ll sooner hit the zone where you can’t easily find tutorials or forums threads for help.
if you like the aesthetic of 2d games and the simplicity of side scrollers of course you can just use orthographic cam in 3d and its basically going to work the same. You’ll just disregard movement in one axis. With some shader work and lighting tricks you can make 3d look pretty convincingly like 2d.
just my guess but I think in general it will be easier to make convincing art for 3d and find more customers, compared to 2d. Of course it depends on your current skillsets.
