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Cities: Skylines II

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Re: Cities: Skylines II

#81

Post by swatcoder »

somethoughts wrote: post #29
toasteros wrote: post #20

I have a hard time with freeform city builders like Skylines or SimCity. The amount of unrestrained freedom makes me question why I'm even playing. I have the same issue with The Sims or something like Planet Zoo. That and Skylines giving me a blank canvas paralyses me. How does one plan a city? Where do the roads go? It's the sort of game I want to love, but I just get so overwhelmed by the sheer number of options a…

I think it correlates to how much uninterrupted blocks of free time you have. My almost middle school son loves it, but he has much more free time than I do (maybe because he hasn't discovered HN yet!). In my free time, I want to have a specific end goal or victory condition.

Nah, there are countless roads to different game style preferences. Sandbox games without constraints can be a nice escape from a life that feels especially regimented, even if you only get to play in them here and there; or they can just be a fun game style that you ran into at the right and that stays interesting through nostalgia and accessible through familiarity; etc.

Conversely, goal-oriented games can just feel like "work" to someone who feels like their life involves a countless measurements and expectations, or just like intellectual labor to someone who is learning all the time; etc

As they say, it's really very hard to account for taste. It's usually not worth trying to analyze it for anyone but yourself (and only then if it helps you to do so).

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#82

Post by KronisLV »

YesBox wrote: post #17

Well crap, I'm going to have some serious competition :D I've been developing a city builder myself over the last year (Metropolis 1998). I wanted to do a 3D version sometime in the future, but alas. Maybe people will be tired of purchasing $15 DLCs on top of a shallow base game (probably not). Time to get to work

Looked it up, here's a clickable Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998/

The graphics remind me a little bit of the ones in OpenTTD (an open source transportation tycoon game), the top down view also looks interesting, since most games just stick to one perspective. Oh, maybe the style is a little bit like the Simutans game (another transportation tycoon), but that depends on the graphics package.

I don't think that anyone has quite done city builders where you can look inside of buildings, so that sounds pretty unique - good luck with your project. I'm pretty sure that the genre is big enough for Cities: Skylines II, niche games like Urbek City Builder (voxel based city builder where building placement matters, almost like a puzzle) and plenty of other games out there, so don't feel too discouraged.

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#83

Post by satvikpendem »

I find it hilarious that EA had the concept down and just blew their opportunity with Simcity 2013 (always online (which by the way was actually not true, people cracked the online requirement within the first day or so), had to contract with other users for basic services like sewage and electricity), paving the way for competitors like Cities: Skylines to take the lead instead.

This reminds me of the same thing that happened with Stardew Valley, the creator missed the old Harvest Moon games, didn't find a suitable substitute, and just build the entirety of the game from scratch, teaching himself art and music composition too. He's made over $300 million in revenue so far and might be the first solo game dev (or even regular software dev) to hit $1 billion in the course of the game's existence.

It just goes to show that the dominant players are not always dominant forever, and that common YC startup advice of understanding what exactly users want (hint: they don't want always-online DRM-filled games that nickle and dime you with microtransactions (well, most people anyway, there are always gacha/gambling-type whale gamers)) and serving them well is still correct.

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#84

Post by satvikpendem »

legitster wrote: post #31
toasteros wrote: post #20

I have a hard time with freeform city builders like Skylines or SimCity. The amount of unrestrained freedom makes me question why I'm even playing. I have the same issue with The Sims or something like Planet Zoo. That and Skylines giving me a blank canvas paralyses me. How does one plan a city? Where do the roads go? It's the sort of game I want to love, but I just get so overwhelmed by the sheer number of options a…

I similarly get bored of Skylines as soon as the game starts handing you near-infinite money. Making something aesthetically pleasing is only so interesting to me - I want the challenge of constraints. I actually have a similar problem with the Tropico remakes. Tropico 1 was hard . You could not survive a mission without dipping into the dictator toolsets. So striking a constant balance between economics and human ri…

You could use a game trainer to limit how much money you receive. I usually do the opposite since I hate grinding in a game for virtual money or points, feels like a waste of time for me as compared to working on something cool in the real world.

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#85

Post by swatcoder »

toasteros wrote: post #20

I have a hard time with freeform city builders like Skylines or SimCity. The amount of unrestrained freedom makes me question why I'm even playing. I have the same issue with The Sims or something like Planet Zoo. That and Skylines giving me a blank canvas paralyses me. How does one plan a city? Where do the roads go? It's the sort of game I want to love, but I just get so overwhelmed by the sheer number of options a…

For me, a lot of game choice comes down to: I build/plan/learn things all day. Sometimes I want to do that in a game, but often I'm looking for something that doesn't feel like that -- either because its a game style that taps into a very different kind of experience or because its one that I internalized so long ago that engagement feels pretty chill.

Learning a new sandbox's toolbox of system parts and laying out clever designs while I stare at a screen can read a lot like what I do with most of my weekdays, but without the return in pay or reputation.

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#86

Post by satvikpendem »

FinnKuhn wrote: post #64
cwkoss wrote: post #10

Anyone able to read between the lines and see what features will be coming?

The game will have seasons and probably improved graphics as it is based on the Unreal 5 Engine instead of Unity.

Finally, ray-traced cities! I jest, but the Matrix demo on UE5 looked amazingly realistic.

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#87

Post by morsch »

YesBox wrote: post #17

Well crap, I'm going to have some serious competition :D I've been developing a city builder myself over the last year (Metropolis 1998). I wanted to do a 3D version sometime in the future, but alas. Maybe people will be tired of purchasing $15 DLCs on top of a shallow base game (probably not). Time to get to work

I wouldn't be worried, the market for modern city builders is large enough to support a few of them, assuming they're distinctive enough. I'm kind of shocked nobody made an attempt to displace C:S in the last couple of years. Meanwhile we have hundreds of variants of The Settlers and Caesar.

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#88

Post by Laaas »

satvikpendem wrote: post #83

I find it hilarious that EA had the concept down and just blew their opportunity with Simcity 2013 (always online (which by the way was actually not true, people cracked the online requirement within the first day or so), had to contract with other users for basic services like sewage and electricity), paving the way for competitors like Cities: Skylines to take the lead instead. This reminds me of the same thing tha…

Turns out, building good _anything_ is profitable.

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#89

Post by brnt »

toasteros wrote: post #20

I have a hard time with freeform city builders like Skylines or SimCity. The amount of unrestrained freedom makes me question why I'm even playing. I have the same issue with The Sims or something like Planet Zoo. That and Skylines giving me a blank canvas paralyses me. How does one plan a city? Where do the roads go? It's the sort of game I want to love, but I just get so overwhelmed by the sheer number of options a…

The 'pointlessness' is what attracts me. I dislike playing according to other peoples goals, achievements, rules. I'll make up my own, thank you very much. And I will change my mind whenever I feel like it.

How does one plan a city indeed! Why would you want the answer?

Re: Cities: Skylines II

#90

Post by guidedlight »

toasteros wrote: post #20

I have a hard time with freeform city builders like Skylines or SimCity. The amount of unrestrained freedom makes me question why I'm even playing. I have the same issue with The Sims or something like Planet Zoo. That and Skylines giving me a blank canvas paralyses me. How does one plan a city? Where do the roads go? It's the sort of game I want to love, but I just get so overwhelmed by the sheer number of options a…

This is the sentiment that caused Sid Meyer to create Civilization.

That game is Simcity with objectives.

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