Are you talking about modular designed environments for a game with an isometric view? Cause that's what the Sim's is. I'm wondering if by "tiles" you're talking about modular environment/level design.
Vassago, for my current project the base/shell of the scene was built using modular pieces. It's simple and easy really - just start with a base shell of the area you want to use pieces on, then sub-divide that giant face in to a bunch of sqaure'ish quads which will ultimately define the size of each modular piece. Once…
I have a tutorial from a little while back that covers the basic idea of modular environments. http://chrisholden.net/tutor/modular.htm In actual execution, it would be taken MUCH farther than this. Another good example, is check out miniatures for table top game environments. I'm also assembling an environment with…
yah, the trick is to think about all the combinations before starting, you should be able to make a complete bunch of combinations (and a full set of different shapes) with something like a maximum of 10 different pieces, it will usually take more time at first, but then it's like lego, just put the modular pieces together…