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[Dinomaniak]

I've been working on a couple of top view buildings for a game I'm working on, trying to mix several styles. After scratching a lot of attempts, it's finally gotten to the point where I could use some sincere feedback in order to decide upon a direction.



The game takes place at night, the second image is how it display at runtime.
Any feedback would be more than welcome .

[-Ross]

A - Too simple, too high contrast details. If you want to do flat shapes I would go full-resolution and definitely do the whole game with flat shapes.

B - Looks more like a sci-fi computer core than a building, but I think that's mostly because of the stripes.

C - Kinda cool. Details seem a bit of a hodge-podge. I'm not a fan of mixing totally different perspectives—in this case straight top-down for the building and an oblique projection for the windows and details. Especially with those left side windows it looks pretty weird.

D - A bit plain, but it works. Definitely the clearest.

E - Also decent and a nicer design, but the dark edges make it very hard to see.

I guess my favorite perspective is the flat one in E. D and B aren't too bad, but C looks pretty wonky to me. I think you can use the cast shadows to get a decent sense of depth with a flat top-down perspective.

Some general points:

- I would use black for the building outlines and either not use outlines for the inside details, or do them with a different, lower contrast color.
- You need more color variation and texture. Right now they're all very plain and flat, which makes them look boring and artificial. Add some things that aren't just gray. Doodle around with random colors at low opacity. Think about where dirt, grime, and rust might accumulate. Also consider repairs, random debris, etc. Even if you want a clean setting, some subtle variations can make things much more interesting.
- Think about your light direction and shadows more. You have slanting roofs, but they aren't shaded to match the light direction that is shown by your cast shadow. Also the lighting and shadows on the details don't match the shadow of the building.
- If it's night I assume the shadows are from moonlight. You could make the light blue for some nice cool-light/warm-shadow contrast. (not exactly realistic, but people don't know that.)
- I like the cast shadow of D the best, though I would make it a little bit soft at the far edges (and not weirdly rounded at the building corners of course).
- Will this game have lighting effects that allow the player to see better? If not, I wouldn't go darker than the top image, the bottom one is much too dark to see anything.

I doodled over this a bit, mostly just on D. Here's the before and after:

[-Ross]

Another option is the Zelda perspective, like so:



It looks more appealing than a straight top-down view. If you keep the buildings short you can keep the collision to the bounding box and it won't change gameplay at all. Or you can offset the collision a bit so it looks more 3D, but then you have to deal with the overlapping stuff. Just don't do the Hyper Light Drifter thing with tall structures and totally nonsensical collision shapes.

[Rarykos]

The problem with absolute top down view is that it's super boring.
That's why GTA 1,2 go with that perspective trick.

I'd suggest you go with super stylistic buildings and objects, more style than realism. Then it won't be so boring.
Lighting and hard shadows also add another layer. (teleglitch)

3/4 perspective from zelda is definitely the most interesting choice, but it's also the most work.

I love what Ross did with the buildings! Definitely A is the worst thing one of the bunch, but the rest are very serviceable! :D

[BorisTheBrave]

I don't think any of the designs work. They are decent quality, but they don't match the detailed textureness of the background. They all look unrealistically sharp. Pixel art shouldn't be mixed with textures to this extent, imho.

That's why Ross' edit of D is so effective. He thickened a few of the lines from 1px, or added extra shading and grunge, so that it's not so crisp. That's more important than the texture added (though that is also an improvement).

If you cannot produce a huge bunch of buildings at the level of detail the background has (or close to it, foreground should be a bit sharper after all), then I'd consider dialing the background back to give a more consistent feel.

[-Ross]

they don't match the detailed textureness of the background. They all look unrealistically sharp.

Ah yeah, that's a good point. I wasn't sure if the background was final art, so I didn't think about it too much.

[Dinomaniak]

Many thanks for everyone for being so kind to reply, and for your great input! @-Ross thank you for the drawing, it helps a lot.

Since my game will have 3 different factions, I've decided that I'd like them to have different building styles that are easily recognizable.
- (1) one style clean but busy with a lot of details ( previously E )
- (2) the diagonal style, to use the simple moon-like shading and semi-dirty surfaces. ( previously D )
- (3) a different "spikey" style I'm working on (nothing to show yet) .

I've made the "energy buildings" ( think C&C/Dune ) for the first two factions : Here is how they look :

I need to change the hue/saturation however I haven't entirely decided on a final palette. I've made a different file for palette experimentation.

Obviously, this is programmer art and to the trained eye, I know my quality lacks, but I'm trying. I still have about 20 buildings more to do, so any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong, or what I could improve - would be more than welcome.

they don't match the detailed textureness of the background. They all look unrealistically sharp.

Regarding the background piece, I tried making my own background and failed miserably, so I simply used a free background that I liked, made sense, and created a couple of pavements that are somewhat fitting with the background. The game has a darker atmosphere and because of the fog and lights, I believe everything will blend in.

Also another question : the next buildings on my list are : barracks, factory. I have no clue where to start or how to display what they are without going too far from the style.

[Dinomaniak]

I've made a couple of buildings based on the following ideas : They should be top view, they shouldn't be a mixture of styles, however each should have it's own particular style to follow. There's a passive light coming from the lower left. The shadows aren't displayed in this version, but they'll be there in the game.
They're supposed to be the barracks and factory for two different factions.


Any suggestions or input are more than welcome .