The interest in research on inorganic colloidal nanoparticles has moved to more complex structures, such as anisotropically shaped particles and branched objects. Recently, schemes for the synthesis of heterostructures have also been presented. In this article we discuss the synthesis conditions for spherical and branched nanoparticles. The influence of parameters as temperature and composition of the mixture of surfactants on the shape of the growing particles is discussed. Also, an overview on different approaches for the formation of heterostructures is presented briefly.