The creators of Demons Revival, a 2D strategy and city-building game, shared an insightful look at one of the project's locations and unveiled how they achieve a 3D-like look in a 2D game using a parallax effect.
The buildings, which appear to have some volume despite the 2D structure of the location, consist of several layers that overlay and thus create the voluminous effect. The developer explained that they use a perspective camera. As the camera's Y stays mostly fixed, the parallax effect can be preserved. However, to hide artifacts, like floating buildings or props and odd offsets, the devs occasionally need to tweak some objects' Y positions individually.
Demons Revival is an RTS, where players need to control the demonic lands of an alternate hell and defend them against invading swarms. The developers often share footage, unveiling how the project was created:
