Isometric Building Sprites

Overview

Buildings are large multi-tile sprites. They need a clear footprint (how many tiles they occupy), a consistent height-to-base ratio, and a known anchor so characters can walk in front of and behind them.

When to Use

• You need houses, barns, shops, towers, or other structures.
• Buildings overlap tiles incorrectly or float.
• Characters draw in front of buildings they should be behind.

Process

1. Lock art direction and the tile base size first.
2. Decide each building footprint in tiles (e.g. 2x2) BEFORE generating.
3. Prompt one building, isolated on a plain background, sitting on a visible diamond footprint with a soft contact shadow.
4. Keep settings + seed fixed so all buildings share one style and light.
5. Clean alpha with transparent-cutout-cleanup.
6. Set the anchor at the front-bottom tile of the footprint for depth sorting.
7. Place a character next to and behind the building to verify occlusion (see depth-sorting-occlusion).

Rationalizations (Stop Lying to Yourself)

Excuse	Reality
"Footprint does not matter, I will eyeball placement"	Eyeballed footprints break collision and sorting. Decide tiles first.
"Buildings can be a slightly different style"	The biggest objects on screen must match hardest. Fix style + seed.

Red Flags - STOP if you catch yourself:

• No defined tile footprint per building.
• Building height/scale varies wildly across the set.
• Characters render in front of tall buildings.

Verification

You are NOT done until every box is checked:

• Each building has a documented tile footprint and anchor.
• All buildings share one style, light, and scale.
• Character occlusion in front of and behind each building is correct.