Help with "top-down" building

[Karies]

Hi there!
I'm a newbie on this but I want to make an effort and try to draw some buildings for a game.  I would like to know what kind of things add to this for make it look more realistic.  Thx!

[Corinthian Baby]

Very hard to tell what I'm looking at here. Orange and grey squares. I mean I guess you are trying to make top down buildings. Well it depends on what you mean by this. You can do like a 3/4 top view like most rpgs, or true top down would be like gta 1. I would say if that's the style you are trying to do then to reference it pretty heavily.

[crab2selout.png]

I would try adding a shadow onto the road and on the roof where the raised roof parts would cause a shadow to appear. There's no sidewalk around the building either.

[EyeCraft]

Yeah shadow is your best best for adding depth with something like this. Also reflected light from lit walls onto the floor, like what happens with radiosity.

Keep in mind the building should follow some logical structure, also. Parts should only be present if it makes sense for them to be there. This also will help people to recognise the piece as a building.

[Red_Mist]

you could try to mimic sim city style:

I chose a screenshot from the snes version because of the countless simcity's out there, this once seems to have a fairly polished feel and stays close to the top down style your after.