I took a look around and didn't see a thread devoted to city-building games, so I thought I'd start one. I've played these games all the way back to the original SimCity on my Amiga 500.
There have been a few new entries over the past few years. Some hits, some misses.
But my re-obsession with Banished, and my anticipation for Cities Skylines have reinvigorated my joy of the genre.
So I thought it would be nice to have a one-stop-shop for all things city-building-related. If you have information or thoughts about games, new or old, please share. And "city-building" is a general term, so anything remotely applicable is welcome.
A couple I'm anticipating to get us started:
The aforementioned Cities Skylines
Project Aura
But my re-obsession with Banished, and my anticipation for Cities Skylines have reinvigorated my joy of the genre.
My thoughts exactly. 
As I've mentioned in the GOTY thread and the Banished Catch-all, the addition of Steam Workshop has added even more value to Banished. I highly recommend the Colonial Charter mod. The Maple Harpoon version is the one I've played, and it's good IMO. I see that the mod team has just released a newer version of the CC mod, called Iron Curtain, which I have not played.
Also, Cities Skylines is my most anticipated game of 2015. [size=8]Please be good. Please be good. Please be good.[/size]
BTW, Project Aura is out on Steam Early Access as of today. So far, the comments are positive.
But my re-obsession with Banished, and my anticipation for Cities Skylines have reinvigorated my joy of the genre.My thoughts exactly.
As I've mentioned in the GOTY thread and the Banished Catch-all, the addition of Steam Workshop has added even more value to Banished. I highly recommend the Colonial Charter mod. The Maple Harpoon version is the one I've played, and it's good IMO. I see that the mod team has just released a newer version of the CC mod, called Iron Curtain, which I have not played.
Also, Cities Skylines is my most anticipated game of 2015. [size=8]Please be good. Please be good. Please be good.[/size]
Yes, I'm anxious to look at these and some of the other Banished mods. I'm in a marathon game with the most prosperous city I've built, so after I've run that out, I'm going to look into them.
I just stumbled upon this thread, and man. I had no idea about Cities Skylines! It looks like the mother of all city builders!!! Looking forward to it so much. I looked it up last night, they just added a map editor, which is a must, and it looks robust, complex but in a good way. Only thing I'm not a fan of, is only being able to build upon 9 tiles out of 25, but I understand it's a limitation for machines.
I'm sure modders will figure out a way. Incredibly excited for it.
I'm anxious to hear more about Project Aura. I looked it up after seeing this week's releases on the front page and at a glance it looked interesting.
Yay! More city-building love! Glad to see some more participation and excitement. I'm hoping this thread will be around for a while. I'm optimistic with the new titles on the horizon.
Anybody currently building any cities? As I mentioned above, I've been playing Banished recently. I've had the most successful build yet. I'm up to 400+ on Hard difficulty. I watched Pinstar's Strategies and Tactics (49 ep. playlist here) and it was MOST helpful. Highly recommended.
Key element--The Crossroads Build:
I had a decent sized game going from hard that I hadn't touched in awhile. With Iron Curtain out now, I'm restarting as we speak. I've rather forgotten how to play already, so I expect epic failures. I could rewatch strategy videos ... but some of the fun for me is figuring out how to get started on my own.
I had a decent sized game going from hard that I hadn't touched in awhile. With Iron Curtain out now, I'm restarting as we speak. I've rather forgotten how to play already, so I expect epic failures. I could rewatch strategy videos ... but some of the fun for me is figuring out how to get started on my own.
Even on the hard starting conditions, if you've played before and know the general necessities for your citizens (e.g. build order), making it through the first winter is really the only big hurdle to cross, especially if you have disasters off.
Since I recently played a town using the Maple Harpoon version of the CC mod, I'm going to play Endless Legend more before I go back to Banished, but I'm definitely curious to hear opinions of Iron Curtain if anyone is playing it. And of course, it would be more appropriate to put those impressions/opinions in the Banished thread.
Some new videos of interest:
Skye Storm has started a couple of new series. The first expands on the Dev Diaries for Cities Skylines:
The second is an LP series on the Colonial Charters mod for Banished:
And finally, from Paradox, a nice video about their passion for city-building:
Has anyone else heard any news or other new games coming soon?
I always meant to get back into Banished once modding support became available, and maybe create my own mods, but I never did.
More on target, this one guy is making his own city sim by hand, mostly as a personal project for himself, no date or anything like that. He updates his development blog with cool info regularly though.
More on target, this one guy is making his own city sim by hand, mostly as a personal project for himself, no date or anything like that. He updates his development blog with cool info regularly though.
There's a thread for that game, too. 
Cities XXL is up for preorder. Normal price is $40, but 50% off for those of us with the earlier games, 20% off for everyone else who preorders.
Game out Jan 29th.
Edit: Btw, the game looks exactly the same to me, but addition of multi core support and Steam workshop is nice.
The discount is tempting, but as I recall the company did some skeezy things to their customers in the past. I have XL but really didn't play that much.
I think I'll hold out for reviews, and more likely, Cities: Skylines.
The discount is tempting, but as I recall the company did some skeezy things to their customers in the past. I have XL but really didn't play that much.
Yeah this is par for the course for that publisher: release a "new version" of the same old game and give existing customers a discount, ignoring the glaring technical issues the game has. Allegedly, this "new version" will fix those technical issues, but long ago I decided to never give them my money again.
I think I'll hold out for reviews, and more likely, Cities: Skylines.
My advice: forget you ever heard of Cities XXL and wait for Cities: Skylines. I have infinitely more confidence in Paradox than I do in Focus Home Interactive.
I have infinitely more confidence in Paradox than I do in Focus Home Interactive.
Wow things sure are different these days!
So, I'm finally giving serious consideration to Simcity 5. I was so stoked for it prior to release that I'm only now getting the foul taste of how EA twisted the game into a shadow of it's potential self.
What is the consensus with you folks of what the game is now? I read the last year's posts in the Catch-All but it's been very quiet over there. Obviously the addition of single-player is a plus, but it sounds like the small regions are still a factor. I'm not sure if that will bother me too much. A multi-region system that I entirely control could be fun too.
As long as the major systems (e.g., water, sewer, money) are solid I think I could enjoy it.
But then, my brain keeps telling me to just wait for Skylines and to not fixate on the Simcity name. Also, it seems to currently be $30 pretty much everywhere. Think it's worth that much at this point?
I answered in the SC5 thread. Glad there is this catch-all though. Added to fav's
SC5 just had poor design decisions that killed the game for me. The technical side has been great/fine for a while and I get the same "oh this is amazing" every time I start up a city, but then it devolves into the same boring "I've run out of room, what do I tear down" mess.
I can't stand that all of my cities basically take up every ounce of space just to function. Yes, the idea is to have connected, smaller cities who unload, say, waste to the one city while another helps with police and you house the higher education, but in practice it feels a bit like busy work. Why should I have to setup three different cities to get them to function? I could've done this on one MEDIUM map, if they existed!
Cities XL, with its huge glaring flaws, continues to be a better game for me because I can setup farm land in one corner while housing my "real" city in the other corner. Basically, it's more flexible.
SC5 forces me to play the game their way and for what's there it can be a really fun game, great even, but then I hit a wall, literally, and I don't like it.
I think I was a little inspired by the aesthetic of Simcity Buildit on my Android tablet. It's not a bad little game other than the typical FTP BS so rampant on mobile games.
Is there anything out there to buy on Android that isn't a FTP mess? A city builder that you can just sit down and play without having to wait 20 minutes for your planks to finish would be awesome on the commute.
My wife's been playing Buildit on her phone and is becoming frustrated because she's past the honeymoon period and the cost of everything is spiking to the point where EA decided you were hooked enough to make IAP's. I told her that's why these games don't last for me. I'd rather pay $10 for a game I can play as much as I want, than these frustrating time/energy based cash cows.
1849 at least doesn't have IAP, but it's not the same type of city builder as a SimCity, more like an Anno game. BuildIt is, sadly, the best city builder on Android, imho.
Skylines looks pretty good, but I'm a little worried about that dev; I really get the feeling that their reach exceeds their grasp a bit. Cities in Motion 1 was decent, and I had a good time with it, but CIM2 struck me as pretty broken. A lot of the stuff just didn't work very well, like they couldn't nail the code down properly to do what they wanted. It felt like it needed a lot more work.
So I'm very interested in Skylines, but I'm definitely going to be waiting a bit to make sure they nailed it. It's okay if it has some problems, I don't demand absolute perfection, but CIM2 ended up being pretty much a bust for me, and I'd rather not repeat that.
Is there anything out there for purchase that isn't a FTP mess? A city builder that you can just sit down and play without having to wait 20 minutes for your planks to finish would be awesome on the commute.
I liked 1849 (Android, iOS), which was made by a GWJ community member. (Sorry, I forgot the person's username and couldn't find it using the search.) I don't know how well it plays on a phone, but I enjoyed it on my tablet.
[edit]
garrionhausered!
I tried 1849 and enjoyed it briefly. It was too mission-based for my taste. But as I write this, I think they may have added a sandbox mode I never tried.
*TO THE PLAY STORE!*
1849 looks like my kind of game, but it says not compatible with my LG G3. Intended for tablets, I guess, not even phablets. Well, I still think my phone is phabulous.
Skylines looks pretty good, but I'm a little worried about that dev; I really get the feeling that their reach exceeds their grasp a bit. Cities in Motion 1 was decent, and I had a good time with it, but CIM2 struck me as pretty broken. A lot of the stuff just didn't work very well, like they couldn't nail the code down properly to do what they wanted. It felt like it needed a lot more work.
So I'm very interested in Skylines, but I'm definitely going to be waiting a bit to make sure they nailed it. It's okay if it has some problems, I don't demand absolute perfection, but CIM2 ended up being pretty much a bust for me, and I'd rather not repeat that.
I'm with ya on this. To me, it looks amazing, and I can't wait, but the more I'm seeing on the dev diaries, the more I'm seeing that it might get a bit too complex for their first intention. Perhaps some added DLC or (confirmed)mod support will quench my thirst for what wont initially be there. Saying that, I think I'll have to wait for a couple reviews, mainly stating what works and what doesn't, and then go from there. I like paying full price, to encourage this type of games, but I want to wait for the game to be as awesome as it can be. And to be honest, it's already looking like it is. Just wanna make sure.
Not much to go on other than "an old school 2D city builder set in the Victorian Steampunk world of Lethis."
That reminds me of another Early Access Steampunky/Lovecraftian city builder: Clockwork Empires.
Ohhhh, thanks for this thread. Love city builders (Zeus being my fave).
I've been following Clockwork Empires somewhat, but I hadn't heard about Lethis - Path of Progress. Very cool. Thanks for sharing!
Ohhhh, thanks for this thread. Love city builders (Zeus being my fave).
You know these are almost exclusively NOT space cities, right?
I guess you could use yer 'magination.
Seriously, though, I'm a little surprised and immensely happy that you're participating in this thread. You're certainly one of the more passionate gamers on the site.
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