Isometric Tiled Maps in Android

Question

I was wondering how to use isometric tiled maps on android.

To create an Orthographic map you can use the Tile Map Editor and libigdx but libigdx doesn't support isometric maps.

I wanted to create the tiles like the ones they use in CityVille or tower defense game..how do you do that??

Answer 1

One option is to use ANSCA's Corona SDK in conjunction with a 3rd party tool called Lime. The jist of Corona SDK is that it abstracts away the Java (or, in the case of iOS development, the Objective-C) in favor of the lean and simple Lua scripting language and Corona's own extensive set of gaming-focused libraries. You then can choose to build to either iOS or Android, using essentially the same set of code. Lime, then, is simply a tool that works in conjunction with Corona to allow integration of Tiled maps - either orthogonal or isometric. While both formats are supported, the support for standard orthogonal maps is more thorough. Corona is free to use for internal dev and ad hoc distribution. Once you are ready to distribute and sell your app, you pay ANSCA a $200 annual fee. Lime takes a one-time fee of about $50.

A second option is to use Cocos2D for Android. It will likely give you a little more power and freedom but will also be more technical in its implementation. Being open source, Cocos2D obviously costs nothing. Ray Wenderlich has an excellent tutorial on how to make a tile-based game using Cocos2D. It assumes you're building for iOS, but it's as close to a tutorial as you're going to get on using Tiled and Cocos2D in tandem.