Zanpo Virtual City: What Makes a Good Building?


In order to help you make a block that has a good chance of making it into the city, we've compiled a few pointers to aid you in the construction process. Your building should look like a building. The city's fabric is dense and complex, and sometimes hard to navigate. In order for the city to continue to look like a real city, we only add buildings that look like they could be buildings. They don't necessarily have to look like buildings you've seen, but they should at least have some building-like qualities. The block palette is designed to assist you in making walls, rooves, facades, platforms, and other architectural structures. Your building should not fill up the entire block. Remember, the edges of your block butt up against your neighbor's block, so give her some breathing room! We've allowed you to build to the edges and top of your block, but this doesn't mean you have to fill up the whole thing. Bigger isn't always better. In fact, a smaller, well-designed block has a better chance of making it into the city than a bohemoth mega-fortress. Your building should mind the city grid. The roads in the template connect to the roads in your neighbor's block. If they are moved, they don't connect, so they don't look right. Make sure that they aren't moved. If you need to move them, make sure that they at least match up along the borders of your block. Your building shouldn't contain dead gems. Gems link to live content on the web. If you place a gem in your building for decoration, and don't link it to anything, visitors who come to your building will click on it, and get a blank window. Pretty soon, visitors will stop clicking on gems altogether. Dead gems will always be removed from buildings. A building with a gem that links to good content has a much better chance of making it into the city. Your building should be clean and cohesive. Buildings that appear fragmented, disjointed, sloppy, or incomplete will not be admitted into the city. If you really want your block to be added, take a few extra moments and make sure all of the edges meet, and you don't have any extraneous or leftover blocks lying around.
In the City of Zanpo, we encourage creativity and originality. We enjoy seeing wild, clever, and innovative new buildings every day. All of the buildings that are submitted are featured for a time in our 'Community' section. However, only a small percentage of these blocks will win a permanent place in the city. If you follow these simple rules, you have a very good chance of being accepted into the city. You may think we are being strict, but we want Zanpo to be as good as it can be, and we want you to have good neighbors!
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In order to help you make a block that has a good chance of making it into the city, we've compiled a few pointers to aid you in the construction process.

Your building should look like a building. The city's fabric is dense and complex, and sometimes hard to navigate. In order for the city to continue to look like a real city, we only add buildings that look like they could be buildings. They don't necessarily have to look like buildings you've seen, but they should at least have some building-like qualities. The block palette is designed to assist you in making walls, rooves, facades, platforms, and other architectural structures.
Your building should not fill up the entire block. Remember, the edges of your block butt up against your neighbor's block, so give her some breathing room! We've allowed you to build to the edges and top of your block, but this doesn't mean you have to fill up the whole thing. Bigger isn't always better. In fact, a smaller, well-designed block has a better chance of making it into the city than a bohemoth mega-fortress.
Your building should mind the city grid. The roads in the template connect to the roads in your neighbor's block. If they are moved, they don't connect, so they don't look right. Make sure that they aren't moved. If you need to move them, make sure that they at least match up along the borders of your block.
Your building shouldn't contain dead gems. Gems link to live content on the web. If you place a gem in your building for decoration, and don't link it to anything, visitors who come to your building will click on it, and get a blank window. Pretty soon, visitors will stop clicking on gems altogether. Dead gems will always be removed from buildings. A building with a gem that links to good content has a much better chance of making it into the city.
Your building should be clean and cohesive. Buildings that appear fragmented, disjointed, sloppy, or incomplete will not be admitted into the city. If you really want your block to be added, take a few extra moments and make sure all of the edges meet, and you don't have any extraneous or leftover blocks lying around.

In the City of Zanpo, we encourage creativity and originality. We enjoy seeing wild, clever, and innovative new buildings every day. All of the buildings that are submitted are featured for a time in our 'Community' section. However, only a small percentage of these blocks will win a permanent place in the city.

If you follow these simple rules, you have a very good chance of being accepted into the city. You may think we are being strict, but we want Zanpo to be as good as it can be, and we want you to have good neighbors!