I’m not sure i’d classify Chris as a longterm designer, he did design from 2008-2012. Considering the original two, me and henrik is still around since we started in 98 & 00, and we have not had any other lead designers than me or henrik since joakim left in 2004…
I’m still lead designer of eu, while we have a new designer for hoi in dan lind.
Blog post regarding zoning:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/content.php?2004-Cities-Skylines-Dev-Diary-2-Zoning&
After Cities XL and Sim City, I feel like I might be punishing myself if i get excited over this… even if I want to.
RPS article detailing some aspects of the game:
The playing area looks small. It’s two kilometres square and a single, atrophied junction connects it to a huge highway that runs straight and true across one edge of the map.
For a start, city growth is gated. Hallikainen explains that the development team didn’t want to present players with a tutorial that developed a city they’d then never see again. Instead, they wanted players to progress naturally through city development, gradually being introduced to new concepts one after another. Reaching certain straightforward milestones unlocks larger playing areas, new utilities and also higher density zoning. It’s more like a gradual take off, rather than a rude nudge out of the nest.
With the same ease that she daubed industrial zones onto the map, Hallikainen divides up one burgeoning town into different districts, each of which can have particular laws, rules or restrictions governing it. A tiny voice in the back of my mind tells me that this is the route to gerrymandering, that most amusingly-named of crimes, but this is both a practical act and also one of personalisation. Districts can be given tax relief, traffic limits, even a ban on high-rise buildings.
There is a hard limit on the number of virtual citizens in a city. One million.
March 10th launch date announced.
This looks awesome and I hope it turns out ok. I’m weary of destruction themed games.
So many hopes and dreams of mine rest upon this…
I’ve watched the production videos that they’ve been doing and the game looks gorgeous. The designers seem to really understand what people didn’t like about SimCity and built around that.
I’m really hoping this is good.
I hope this is better than both Cities in Motion. Those games make me nervous about this one.
Man, I never pre-order games and almost always wait for sales, but something about this one makes me waaaaaaaaaaaaaant it now.
I love these type games. It does look gorgeous. So many of the recent city builders, though, have been so disappointing, including Cities in Motion 1 & 2 by this same developer, that I’m hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Reality will probably be somewhere in the middle.
I feel much like you do because I also do not particularly enjoy CIM 1 or 2. I found them dull, confusing and uninspired. They are games that I really want to like but never found any enjoyment in.
But note that CIM and CIM2 are not city builders. They are transportation network builders which is a different type of game. I do not get the feeling of creation in those games but a feeling that I am trying to “bolt on” to something that is already there whereas Transport Tycoon gives me the feeling of really creating the map. So I am not that concerned in that regard and from all the preview materials I have seen - and there is a large amount - the developers have their focus in the correct place. The city evolves, grows, changes and gives the player the real feeling of creation.
Well it probably can’t be any worse than Cities XXL or SimCity, at least.
Same here, in spades. And I think the designers also seem to understand what players DID like about earlier SimCity games and seem to have built around that too. I’m optimistic. It’s cautious optimism because of the bad burn that I got from SC4, but optimism nonetheless.
Preorder is on Steam now. $29.99
Five in-game custom items:
◾A Carousel
◾Dog Park
◾Bouncy Castle
◾Basketball court
◾Botanical Garden.
Uh… Okay.
Deluxe Edition offer: $39.99
Five in-game items include:
Statue of Liberty
Eiffel Tower
Brandenburg Gate
Arc de Triomphe
Grand central terminal
Umm… Whatever.
I don’t mind getting a few little extra buildables for pre-ordering, people into that sort of thing were probably going to pre-order anyway. $10 more for the deluxe edition looks like a pretty raw deal though. Is that all there is to that edition, some popular tourist buildings?
Edit - Ah, you also get the sound track and a digital art book. That’s not terrible for $10, I guess, but no thanks.
I find it weird to prepurchase a soundtrack I’ve never heard. Sometimes I’m down for it, but I need at least a sample somewhere.
I’m sorry to say this, but I think I have a hundred game soundtracks on Steam from various purchases, and maybe a handful I would listen to outside of the game.
Also as an aside, the Brandenburg Gate is the boring famous landmark ever.
Truth
