Build 1: Testing the isometric grid & explanation

So I managed to get some plain isometric game mechanics going.

This is just a quick tech demo, nothing extraordinary, but I plan on using the mechanics in the final game.
(which will be cross-platform btw, since I noticed there is one guy with linux viewing this blog as well. Blame Google's statistics.)

Meet L.A.G (Long Arms Guy).

It is a quick and ugly stick figure, but it's great for quick testing, since only enough effort to make things clear needs to go into the game.

LAG can move in eight directions on the grid of isometric tiles.
(The tiles themselves are isometric. I am still looking for a way to render square tiles transformed properly)

The fun thing is, if you try and control the prototype, the floor seems to move and LAG seems to stand still.
That's kind of right as well. The tiles move on screen, whereas LAG stays invariably in the center.

Now here's what's special: LAG is actually moving along a grid of square tiles, in the normal eight directions, whereas he seems to be moving along the isometric eight directions.

Here's the difference to illustrate my point:

And the grid is not even really a grid - it's merely an array of values, filled with "1"s to indicate grass:
[1][1]
[1][1]

So in fact, LAG is not moving along an isometric grid, but along indices in an array.
And still, it's displayed on the screen like it's walking through a proper (if a bit abstract) 3d world, all in less than 30 minutes of work.

As you can see, the development of the mechanics is going smooth.