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Cities: Skylines

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Cities: Skylines
Cities: Skylines cover art
Developer(s)Colossal Order
Publisher(s)Paradox Interactive
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
OS X
Linux
Release10 March 2015[1]
Genre(s)City-building, construction and management simulation
Mode(s)Single-player

Cities: Skylines is a city-building game by the Finnish game developer Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive.[2][3][4] Video game journalists perceived it as a competitor to 2013 city-building game SimCity.[3][4][5][6] On 10 March 2015, Skylines was released on digital distribution service Steam for Windows, OS X, and Linux.[2][7]

Gameplay

Cities: Skylines is a single player open-ended city-building simulation. Players engage in urban planning by controlling zoning, road placement, taxation, public services, and public transportation of an area, working to maintain the city's budget, population, health, happiness, and employment, air, water, and noise pollution, traffic flow, and other factors.

Cities: Skylines allows for construction of cities without an underlying grid structure, and a variety of transportation options.

Players start with a plot of land - equivalent to a 2 km x 2 km area[8] - along with an interchange exit from a nearby freeway, as well as a starting amount of in-game money. The player proceeds to add roads and residential, industrial, and commercial zones and basic services like power, water, and sewage as to encourage residents to move in and supply them with jobs. As the city grows beyond certain population tiers, the player will unlock new city improvements including schools, fire stations, police stations, health care facilities and waste management systems, tax and governing edicts, and other features to manage the city. One such feature enables the player to designate parts of their city as districts. Each district can be configured by the player to restrict the types of developments or enforce specific regulations within the district's bounds, such as only allowing for agricultural industrial sectors, offering free public transportation to residents in the district to reduce traffic, or increased tax levels for high commercialized areas.[5] Buildings in the city have various development levels that are met by improving the local area, with higher levels providing more benefits to the city. For example, a commercial store will increase in level if nearby residents are more educated, which in turn will be able to allow more employees to be hired and increase tax revenue for the city. When the player has accumulated enough residents and money, they can purchase neighboring plots of land, allowing them to build up 8 additional parcels out of 25 within a 10 km x 10 km area.[8] The parcel limitation is to allow the game to run across the widest range of personal computers, but players can use Steam Workshop modifications to open all 25 parcels if their computer can handle this size.[9]

The game is rendered using tilt shift effects to give an impression of scope for the simulation.

The game also features a robust transportation system based on Colossal Order's previous Cities in Motion, allowing the player to plan out effective public transportation for the city to reduce traffic.[8] Roads can be built straight or free-form and the grid used for zoning adapts to road shape; cities need not follow a grid plan. Roads of varying widths (up to major freeways) accommodate different traffic volumes, and variant road types (for example roads lined with trees) offer reduced noise pollution or increased property values in the surrounding area at an increased cost to the player.[10]

Modding, via the addition of user-generated content such as buildings or vehicles, is supported in Skylines through the Steam Workshop. The creation of an active content-generating community was stated as an explicit design goal.[5][11] The game includes several premade terrains to build on, and also includes a map editor to allow users to create their own maps, including the use of real world geographic features. Mods are also available to affect gameplay; prepackaged mods include the ability to bypass the aforementioned population tier unlock system, unlimited funds, and a higher difficulty setting.

Development and marketing

Finnish developer Colossal Order, a thirteen-person studio,[12] had wanted to create a game with a broader scope than its transportation-focused Cities in Motion games for some time, but could not initially secure funding from publisher Paradox Interactive.[5] While Colossal Order had the idea and technical capability to build out Cities: Skyline since 2009, it did not actively develop the title, as Paradox feared that the market for city simulations was dominated by the SimCity franchise. The 2013 version of SimCity was critically panned due to several issues, and its failure led Paradox to green-light the development of Cities: Skylines.[13]

One goal of the game was to successfully simulate a city with up to 1 million residents.[12] One aspect to achieve this goal was to simulate how the citizens would behave on the city's roads and transit systems, such that the effects of road and transit congestion would be a factor in city design.[12] They developed a complex system that would determine the fastest route available for a simulated person going to and from work or other points of interest, taking into account available roads and public transit systems nearby, which the person would not swerve from the predetermined path unless the route was changed mid-transit; in this last case, the person would be teleported back to their origin point instead of reworking out a new path.[12] The means with which the user creates the city's transportation system creates a node-based graph that is used to determine these fastest paths, and identified intersections for these nodes. They then simulated the movement of these individuals on the roads and transit systems, accounting for other traffic on the road and basic physics such as speed along slopes and the need for vehicles to slow down on tight curves, so that traffic jams created by the layout and geography of the system could be incorporated.[12] The teleportation aspect was included to avoid cascading traffic problems as the player would adjust the road system.[12]

The game was built from the ground-up to be friendly to player-created modifications, incorporating with Steam Workshop. Colossal Order found that with Cities in Motion, players had quickly found ways to modify the game and expand on that. They wanted to encourage that with Cities: Skylines, realizing the modding ability was important to players and would not devalue the game. Within a month of the game's release, over 20,000 assets had been created in the Workshop, including modifications that enabled a first-person mode and a flying simulator.[14]

Cities: Skylines was announced by Paradox on August 14, 2014 at Gamescom while in the alpha stage of development. The announcement trailer emphasized that players could "build [their] dream city," "mod and share online" and "play offline"[11]—the third feature was interpreted by journalists as a jab at SimCity, which initially required an Internet connection during play.[5][6] Skylines uses an adapted Unity engine with official support for modification.[15] In early September 2014, a release between the first and second quarters of 2015 was estimated; Colossal Order expects to continue development on Skylines after its initial release.[5] On February 10, 2015, a trailer announced the release date as March 10.[7]

Reception

Pre-release

When the game was first announced, journalists perceived it as a competitor to the poorly-received, 2013 reboot of SimCity, describing it as "somewhat ... the antidote to Maxis' most recent effort with SimCity"[4] and "out to satisfy where SimCity couldn't."[5] A EuroGamer article touched upon "something of a size mismatch" between developer Colossal Order (then staffed by nine people) and Maxis, and their respective ambitions with Skylines and SimCity.[5]

Critical reception

Cities: Skylines has received critical acclaim from critics and gamers alike, currently holding a score of 86 on Metacritic and 89.08% on GameRankings.[16][17]

IGN awarded the game a score of 8.5 and said "Don’t expect exciting scenarios or random events, but do expect to be impressed by the scale and many moving parts of this city-builder."[19] Destructoid gave the game a 9 out of 10 with the reviewer stating, "Cities: Skylines not only returns to the ideals which made the city-building genre so popular, it expands them. I enjoyed every minute I played this title, and the planning, building, and nurturing of my city brought forth imagination and creativity from me like few titles ever have."[18] The Escapist gave Cities: Skylines a perfect score, noting its low price point and stated that despite a few minor flaws, it is "the finest city builder in over a decade."[22]

Much critical comparison was drawn between SimCity and Cities: Skylines, with the former seen as the benchmark of the genre by many, including the CEO of Colossal Order.[24] Generally critics considered Cities: Skylines to have superseded SimCity as the leading game of the genre,[25][26][27][28] with The Escapist comparing the two on a variety of factors and finding Cities: Skylines to be the better game in every one considered.[29] However, some critics did consider the absence of disasters and random events to be something that the game lacked in comparison to SimCity, as well as a helpful and substantial tutorial.[30]

Commercial reception

Cities: Skylines sold 250,000 copies during its first 24 hours after launch, marking a new record for Paradox Interactive.[31] Less than a week from release, on March 16, 2015, the game had sold 500,000 copies.[32][33] On April 14, 2015, approximately one month after the game's launch, the game had sold 1 million copies worldwide.[34]

See also

References

  1. ^ Robert Purchese (11 February 2015). "Cities Skylines release date revealed". Eurogamer. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Cities: Skylines". Paradox Store. Paradox Interactive. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  3. ^ a b O'Connor, Alice (15 August 2014). "Simulated Urban Area – Cities: Skylines Announced". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Parrish, Peter (14 August 2014). "Cities: Skylines announced at Paradox fan event". IncGamers. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul Dean (14 September 2014). "Cities: Skyline is out to satisfy where SimCity couldn't". Eurogamer. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  6. ^ a b Stoneback, Robert (14 August 2014). "Cities: Skylines Revealed by Cities in Motion Creators at Gamescon". The Escapist. Defy Media. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Cities: Skylines - Release Date Reveal Trailer". Paradox Interactive. 11 February 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "How 'Cities: Skylines' aims to dethrone SimCity". Wired.com. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  9. ^ a b "Cities: Skylines". PC Gamer.
  10. ^ Haimakainen, Henri (24 September 2014). "Cities: Skylines - Dev Diary 1: Roads". Paradox Interactive Forums. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  11. ^ a b "The Sky is Not the Limit in a New City-building Simulator from Colossal Order" (Press release). Paradox Interactive. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Lehto, Antti; Morello, Damien; Korppoo, Karoliina (27 March 2015). "Game Design Deep Dive: Traffic systems in Cities: Skylines". Gamasutra. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  13. ^ Livingstone, Christopher (19 March 2015). "Cities: Skylines greenlit "after what happened to SimCity"". PC Gamer. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  14. ^ Campbell, Colin (8 April 2015). "HOW CITIES: SKYLINES TOOK A GREAT BIG SLICE OF SIMCITY". Polygon. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  15. ^ Munthe, Jacob (20 August 2014). "We are Colossal Order & Paradox Interactive, the developers and publishers of the upcoming hardcore city builder game Cities: Skylines -- AMA". Reddit. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Cities: Skylines". GameRankings. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  17. ^ a b "Cities: Skylines". Metacritic. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  18. ^ a b "Review: Cities: Skylines - Destructoid". destructoid.com. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  19. ^ a b "Cities: Skylines Review". IGN.
  20. ^ "Building Toward Something Meaningful - Cities: Skylines - PC - www.GameInformer.com". www.GameInformer.com.
  21. ^ Brett Todd. "Cities: Skylines Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  22. ^ a b "Cities: Skylines Review - Modern City Building Made Easy - Reviews - The Escapist". The Escapist.
  23. ^ Hill, Greg. "Cities: Skylines Review". GodisaGeek. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  24. ^ Livingston, Christopher. "Cities: Skylines greenlit "after what happened to SimCity"". PC Gamer. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  25. ^ Dean, Paul. "Cities: Skyline is out to satisfy where SimCity couldn't". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  26. ^ Dingman, Hayden. "Cities: Skylines is more like SimCity than SimCity". PC World. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  27. ^ Maiberg, Emanuel. "The 'SimCity' Empire Has Fallen and 'Skylines' Is Picking Up the Pieces". Motherboard. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  28. ^ Tassi, Paul. "'Cities: Skylines' Succeeds Where EA's 'SimCity' Failed". Forbes. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  29. ^ Young, Shamus. "SimCity vs. Cities: Skylines - Who Wins?". The Escapist. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  30. ^ Hargreaves, Roger. "Cities: Skylines review – the real SimCity". Metro. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  31. ^ "Cities: Skylines Sells 250,000 in First 24 Hours". IGN.
  32. ^ "Cities Skylines First Official Progress Update". Paradox Interactive.
  33. ^ Brenna Hillier (17 March 2015). "Cities: Skylines has doubled its day one sales". VG 247. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  34. ^ Futter, Mike (14 April 2015). "Paradox Builds Up 1 Million Cities: Skylines Sales". Game Informer. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
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