Design Inspiration for citybuilder game

G

GillesM

Guest
Hallo,

I am working on a game and I want to make a city builder. I have already programmed the basics (road system, building placement etc) but now I have to make a critical disign choice. To make this choice I wanted some feedback from other gamers and gamedevolopers who are familiar (or not familiar) with this genre and hear what they havent seen in this genre and would really want to see happen in a city builder game.

For the moment the only thing that is certain is that the game will be a 2D isometric game (like the old school simcity but modernised). This is a screenshot of the current game, art is temporary and will change.upload_2018-12-11_9-26-7.png
I also would like to have some PvE elements like 'RimWorld' or 'They are billions'.

If you have any suggestion please leave a comment or write something on the discord of the game (https://discord.gg/8NBTUkn).

Ps if you want to by join my project just leave a message on the discord.
 

Simon Gust

Member
I have played Simcity 3000, Simcity 4, Simcity Societies, Simcity Creators ds and Simcity 2013.
I am very much a fan of the isometric view and the griddy design. I have not played rimworld but PvE sounds interesting.
What I liked about the (good) simcity titles is progression, like unlocking buildings. You could go the extreme and do it like creators did: Whole timelines with a hard progression system.
 

Psycho_666

Member
What I liked about the (good) simcity titles is progression, like unlocking buildings.
Cities Skylines does that well. You start with the most basic needs and slowly unlock more and more services and buildings and stuff.
What I want from a proper city builder is a good transportation systems. Proper traffic management and options for public transport and limiting industry traffic in residential areas ...
Basically I want to be able to do something about traffic jams and when there is a traffic jam I want there to be a reason other than "the AI just brainfarted".
 

Smiechu

Member
So, at the moment your prototype looks more similar to transport tycoon than simcity... If you don't know the game, look for openTTD - a constantly developed fan version of this great game.
Basically you could aim in caching the TTD feel and atmosphere but instead of focusing on transport get more into city planning and so on. I find super how the terrain is build in TTD. The 45deg slopes in simcity2000 ware alway extremaly strange for me.
I would certainly try out city building game with TTD feel.
 

woodsmoke

Member
Catastrophic events would be cool.

I think choosing a specific time zone (1700, 1910, 2090, ...) would really help the game stand out.
 
D

deem93

Guest
I think that setting it in a different time period would make it more interesting. Most of city builders that I am familiar with are set in modern times. Placing this kind of game in a different era could on its own inspire a lot of new game mechanics.
 

Smiechu

Member
I think that setting it in a different time period would make it more interesting. Most of city builders that I am familiar with are set in modern times. Placing this kind of game in a different era could on its own inspire a lot of new game mechanics.
You meam like the Cesar, Pharaoh, Zeus, Emperor series??
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I really like the idea about setting the game in a different time period! And I also like steampunk and cyberpunk, so let's talk about what could be interesting with a cyber-steam-punk setting.


First of all, let's take a moment to appreciate how cool this concept is.
cybersteampunk_concept.png
Done? Okay, so...
  • Since all power is from coal, pollution is a really big thing to manage.
  • Coal is a physical thing that needs to be transported to plants, so coal transports and coal storage are big factors to take into account.
  • In cyberpunk worlds everything is digitalized, so you'd need to manage digital infrastructure as well. I'd imagine it working similar to how sewage/water works, with the exception that quality degrades the longer the distance between two "do stuff" nodes are (water doesn't get less good if it goes through a 1km pipe than a 10m pipe, but data does).
  • In Steampunk there gap between rich and poor people was much bigger, this could be a gameplay mechanic: you get less punishment and less rewards from poor districts than from rich districts, so you're mechanically encouraged to make slums as slummy and dystopian as possible (e.g. put all the pollution there). Rich people could even have lower quality-of-life if they're close to slum districts (e.g. can see them).
  • Horse-drawn carriages could act as cars but have some quirks of their own, like horses getting scared and running around panicked when stuff happens (e.g. something explodes)
  • In cyberpunk a lot of stuff is usually written in japanese, so you could have bilingual coverage (japanese/english) be another thing to manage - people get unhappy if they need to open up Google Translate whenever they need to read roadsigns and the alike and want it covered in both languages.
  • The overall slower speeds of horse carriages and steam trains would allow you to simulate them in a more slow pace, letting you put more emphasis on that traffic simulation @Psycho_666 wanted.
 

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