Citybound - Catch-all

Thought it was maybe about time we had a thread for this game, now that it seems it wasn't just a 'nice idea' and is actually taking shape.

The official DevBlog can be found here. There are newer dev videos on the main site, but I think this one shows where the developer is heading most, so far:

I still remain skeptical of this endeavor but I'm still happy there's more city builders being made.

I think it depends on how he approaches it. If he lets 'the community' make graphics/mods for it, and just produces the engine/base for the roads/zones/interactions etc, then I think it could have legs. He wouldn't need to worry all that much about making it look nice, as there are always an abundance of willing people to do that, we see it time and again. The latest video offers me hope because it's not taken all that long for him to revamp the road constructor to do dealing with lanes, rather than full roads, which I think is a fantastic idea. Obviously it remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful this will come to a useful conclusion, and hopefully one that can be expanded upon by those with teh skillz.

Yeah, that approach would be perfect. Give us a solid and comprehensive base engine, and the community will gladly generate all the fancy graphics (remember how much work the community put into graphics for SimCity 4).

I'm skeptical but hope that the final product is the city-builder we've been waiting for.

I really liked what I saw in the latest video that omni posted in the Upcoming Indie Games thread that featured curved roads and adding lanes to existing roads. For those who haven't seen it, I'll post it here.

And I fully agree with omni, that all this guy really needs to do is deliver a solid engine and game mechanics, and then let artists provide the art for the game. As Farscry mentioned, there were tons of people who made art for SC4 (and still do), so I'm sure this dev would not have trouble finding someone willing to make art for Citybound.

Oh man, roads are connecting way better than any other city builder. I HATE when a game tells me I can't connect roads.

Another road update:

I'm really liking the progress being made with the road tool.

That's a nice clean model. I wonder how well it will integrate into the messiness of simulating buildings, though?

We can only hope. Looks like it could be a very ergonomically created city that evolves. It will challenge my usually overwhelming desire for neat lines and no wasted space.

Malor wrote:

That's a nice clean model. I wonder how well it will integrate into the messiness of simulating buildings, though?

He'll have to keep the building models similarly clean. "First, assume all buildings are cubes..."

Only chat this week.

Robear wrote:
Malor wrote:

That's a nice clean model. I wonder how well it will integrate into the messiness of simulating buildings, though?

He'll have to keep the building models similarly clean. "First, assume all buildings are cubes..." :-)

Well, that actually wouldn't be hard to model. Treat all plots as tall cuboids, but within the cuboid the 3d artwork can take any form desired and the remainder of the space can be open air.

This week's update.

Stylin

Improvements in near-road zoning to make things much neater.

So, there was a live stream the other night of various aspects of emerging gameplay. He was also having issues with his PC stability. Due to that, he has opened up to donations, in order to buy a new PC.

More info here. You can also watch the full livestream recording.

Also to note is that, for a donation of $6 or more, you will get:

CityBound wrote:

(Donating more than $6 will get the first alpha version of Citybound, when it comes out + all the following updates)

The stream was yesterday, and I watched it live for the first hour or two. It was rather interesting, and he was very gracious with answering questions from the chat.

I saw the latest email newsletter and already sent him a donation.

Nice. I sadly didn't get a chance to watch much of the stream because we have relatives staying with us, but throughout all of his videos he does come across very well, imo.

Another update, more road works. Really giving quite a lot of control over road building.

It shows how big this kind of project is... he's doing what sure looks like brilliant work on roads, but it also looks like it's mostly tied him up for three months.

Now, that's how long that kind of solution takes, but if he's working by himself, it's going to be a loooong time before it's playable.

Malor wrote:

It shows how big this kind of project is... he's doing what sure looks like brilliant work on roads, but it also looks like it's mostly tied him up for three months.

Now, that's how long that kind of solution takes, but if he's working by himself, it's going to be a loooong time before it's playable.

Yeah, I'm very interested in a good city builder but I'm not going beyond "casual observer" for a long time. The only city builders I've enjoyed in the past ten years are Dawn of Discovery and SimCity 4. I paid full price for the new SimCity because my desire for it to be a solid sequel outweighed my judgment even after reading reviews.

I think progress up to this point has been slower because he's been finishing his University course, which, as far as I can work out, has now completed so he is able to concentrate more on Citybound. As with any small-dev game, it's a 'watch with interest' for me, even if I do through in some coins to help them along the way.

Week 26 and 27 updates.

After some tiny updates, moving country and getting things set back up, there's a new video out with an announcement of the 'team' expanding to 2!

SELLING OUT!