if you're looking for proof check out Alien Hominid, Viewtiful Joe, Gish, and especially RagDoll KungFu (www.ragdollkungfu.com) This game has a 3D feel to it but a lot of it is 2D i think. The graphics are very detailed and the camera moves like a 3D camera but it seems mostly 2D.

2D tends to rely a lot more on gameplay to be successful, so popular 2D games have a tendancy to be more popular for their gameplay than their graphics.

3D tends to rely a lot on EITHER gameplay OR graphics to be successful (some of both of course, but with an emphisis on one). This means there's less of a chance that a popular 3D game is going to be popular just because of it's gameplay.

I'd also argue that making a 2D game with good gameplay AND good graphics is easier than making a 3D game of similar capacities - 2D art (by which I mean paper/canvas based) has been around for ages - think cave paintings. 3D art has also been around quite awhile (in carving, either wood or marble, etc) but generally, almost all 3D game art is not carved, rather, it is modeled using computers. The animation of these can be even harder. For non computerized art, for 2D I point to anime. For 3D? There's only so much one can do with claymation...

Anyways, I digress. Personally, I'm a 2.5D fan - it dosn't require the affinity with 3D computer modeling, nor is it limited to a measly 2 dimensions. Most of my favorite games - God games (SimCity, Pharaoh), RTSes (Starcraft, WarCraft, C&C) have been traditionally 2.5D (Yes there have been 2D versions, but for the majority of their lifetimes I'd argue they've been 2.5D). I used to like a MMO called Ragnarok Online, with it's 2.5D effects - it's got some level-grinding problems, which is probably the only reason I'm not playing it this moment.

Quote:Original post by Sir Sapo

Holy crap! It's Wings of Fury! That's one of the best games I've ever played probably.

Hey guys, when you say "i am making a 2d/3d engine" what do you mean? What's a 3d and a 2d engine? I thought you just had to program the game and use some art... nothing more. Like have a main.cpp and a banch of other source and header files.. engines?

2D won't die. Never. Ever.

Proof: say we have person X; X is novice programmer. X has recently learned pascal at college, written few console programms and wants to write his first game. He won't use DirectX. He won't use OpenGL. He won't even knows what is class. Probably (0,95%) he will choose tetris, snake, tic-tac-toe, arkanoid or other similiar game.

Do I have to say that all mentioned (and other similiar games) are 2D? :-)

And because of it, virtually every future programmer (and all current ones) will know at least a little bit of 2D. And it means that 2D games will be constantly created (even if they will be simple ones). End of proof.

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Also, 2D games are much easier to write even for experienced programmers. No complicated model formats to load, no 3DSMax own format converters, no sophisticated animation algorithms that require quaternions, lack of one dimension makes it so much easier to write physics, collision detection and collision response subsystems. 2D shadows and ligthing are piece of cake. Maps are smaller. Modells are smaller (if not non-existant).
Do I have to say more? :-)

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Now sth about my project: Jump n' RotN will be combination of best elements from games like Gish, Liero and Elastomania.
It will be 2D (obviously), it will use Verlet physics (Jakobson inspired), heavily optimized quad tree (using cool technique from GPG #2, chapter 4.5) and for Gish-like lighting, probably it will use dynamic, multiple color lights that can cast soft shadows (yup, borrowed from that OrangyTang artice :-) ).

However, OrangyTang said that there's a little problem with his lighting model, when object collides with light source; if it proves to be real problem, I will need to use pixel shaders.

Probably it's not that advanced stuff, but couldn't resist temptation to mention it.