The possibilities for new modern city builder games

Hello everyone,

Over the years I have thought of some ideas for new modern city building games in the style of the SimCity series. In recent years I began to explore the genre more and find other games I hadn't played. I have compiled a list here of the SimCity series and related games, including the more famous ones as well as independent projects and links to various other related games.

Please feel free to mention any relevant games and link this post to other SimCity forums as I will be updating this list over time. Some of the games in the list I found in the forums here. My goal is to make a sort of archive list of any modern city builder games so if you are looking for something older, newer, different, similar, etc you can use this list as a reference. I also recommend checking out the Mobygames database - here is a list of city builder games, merchant/trade builder games and transportation network builder games. I also came across this interesting fansite Real Time Strategic Carnage, which has a list with reviews of various rts and related games.

If you are into ancient city building games I have also posted a similar topic in the Heavengames forums here and a copy of that thread here at Simtropolis, as well as a thread of linked threads in the City Builder Games forums here. The list below will contain games from any modern city building genre, as long as there is some kind of minimal amount of building involved.

There are a bunch of independent modern city builder games so there is a lot of potential for a new SimCity sequel or new type of games, whether done in a classic 2d style or 3d style, either developed by a big company or independently. One promising example of independent development is the ancient military rts game 0AD, which can be interpreted as a remake of Age of Empires but in 3d and more historically realistic. After over 10 years of work they are nearing completion and the game will be fully moddable, so it seems there are still ways that the rts and city building game genres can evolve.

Maybe creating a game engine, code, or game that could be custom modded is possible at this point after over a couple decades of various city builders. A game where people could modify the setting to include various modern urban settings such as a pre-Industrial age, early Industrial age, modern age, various post-Industrial age settings, alternate histories, scifi, alien, fantasy and alternate/"what if" past, present, and future settings would be interesting. A recent example of a futuristic scifi/fantasy city-building game is Anno 2070 which is included below.

I have added some games in this list which are not directly related to modern city building. For example the Rise of Nations and Empire Earth series are military rts games, but they feature a modern age setting either in an age-progression or standalone-age game. I also added Spore and related games and programs to this list because I can't post at the Heavengames Spore forum due to its being archived and can't register at the official Sporum for some reason. So because of that and even though it is a different game series, I felt it would be interesting to include it here as it might open up some possibilities for new game finds and ideas. As some know, the final Spore game came out to be different from the 2005 video demo, so there is still untapped potential in the genre of biological simulation and global civilization building.

Modern city building games:
SimCity series:
SimCity (1984, 1993)
SimCity 2000 (1993)
SimCity 2000 Collection (1993)
SimCity Classic (1994)
SimTown (1995)
SimCity 3000 (1999)
SimCity 3000 Unlimited (2000)
SimCity 4 (2003)
SimCity 4: Rush Hour (2003)
SimCity Societies (2007)
SimCity Societies: Destinations (2008)
Untitled possible SimCity game (?)
SimCity 5 (2013?)

Other modern city builder series:
Tropico series
Industry Giant series
Deep Sea Tycoon series
Build A Lot series
City Life series
Cities XL series
A-Train series
Constructor series
Locomotion (2004)
Tycoon City: New York (2006)
Eco Tycoon: Project Green (2009)
Cities In Motion (2011)
Anno 2070 (2011)

Other urban simulators:
CityEngine (2008)
CityScape (2008)
IBM CityOne (2010)

Independent mods and games:
Transport Tycoon (1995)
LinCity (1999)
Simutrans (1999)
Open TTD (2004)
LinCity NG (2005)
ElectroCity(2007)
City Empires (2007)
My Virtual City (2007)
City of Rauma (2007)
MyMiniCity (2007)
Micropolis (2008)
Virtual City (2009)
OpenCity (2009)
VirtuCity (2009)
SimCity Deluxe Gold (2011)
Subversion (2011?, unreleased)
Untitled project by Fritzpoll (?)
Creatopolis (?)
Cities of World (?)
Utopia Unlimited (?)
FreeTrain (?)
SimMars (?)
City Builder (?)
Synekism (?)
Urbs Urbis (?)
Simtropolis 1000 (?)
ProjectCB (?)
SimCity 5: Boomtown (?)

Other related modern age setting games:
Rise of Nations (2003)
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots (2004)
Empire Earth (2001)
Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest (2002)
Empire Earth 2 (2005)
Empire Earth 2: The Art of Supremacy (2006)

Other city builder and economic game series:
Age of Empires series
Stronghold series
Anno series
Patrician series
Settlers series
Alien Nations series
Cultures series
Port Royale series
Tropico series
SimCity series
Impressions City Builder series
Tilted Mill City Builder series
Various ancient Roman city builder games
Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand
Various merchant and trade-oriented games

Spore series and other global building games:
SimEarth: The Living Planet (1990)
SimEverything (1994, unreleased early Spore version)
Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life (1997)
L.O.L.: Lack of Love (2000)
WorldKit (2003?, unreleased)
Spore (2005, unreleased early version)
Spore (2008)
Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts Pack (2008)
Spore: Creature Creator (2008)
Spore: Galactic Adventures (2009)
Untitled independent Spore-like game (?)
Civilization series
Various biological simulation games
Various Spore-like games

Other biological simulation programs:
Avida (1993)
Various digital organism simulators
Various evolution simulation programs

Other virtual globe programs:
Celestia (2001)
Stellarium (2001)
Nasa Worldwind (2004)
Google Earth (2005)
Earthsim (2005)
3d Planet (2011)
Earthsim 2 (?)

Related websites, forums, game and mod links:
SimCity official website
Simtropolis
SimCity 4 Devotion
SimCity Forever
SimCity Central
SimCity Forum
SimCity Societies Forum at Tilted Mill
SimCity Forum at SkyscraperCity
SimCity at City Data Forum
Timeline of Sim games at Game Informer
City Builder Games Forum
Game Mod Database
Indie Game Database
City Building Games at Wikia
City Building Games at Wikipedia
Chronology of City Building Games at Wikipedia
Mobygames Videogame Database and Forum

Thanks for reading and looking forward to your thoughts and ideas. Posted Image

Edited by nuyokcity, 25 April 2012 - 02:25 AM.

I have updated the list with the recently announced SimCity 5 info. I wonder how much research the game developers have or will do into the history of the SimCity series as well as the history of the city-building videogame genre? That and listening to fans experience with previous games and new ideas might help them in making a new game that will be unique and balanced.

The "green" focus of SimCity 5 is remincient of the recent Anno 2070, and it would be great if SimCity 5 gave us full modding and scenario design options so players could construct their own version of what cities could look like. So with modding and editing, you could make a traditional modern industrial city or a more ecologically conscious one, or any combination between and beyond.

It would also be interesting to see cities go through various phases - small beginnings, sprawl, construction booms and then collapse and decay, buildings turning into ruins overgrown by plants with the citizens trying to adjust to a new post-industrial cityscape which could morph into something new and unique.

Edited by nuyokcity, 16 April 2012 - 05:16 PM.