It all started as an experiment to see if I could build a game making heavy use of Deno and its SQLite driver. After sharing an early build in the „What are you working on?“ thread here, I got the encouragement I needed to polish it and make a version 1.0 for Steam.
So here it is, Microlandia, a SimCity Classic-inspired game with parameters from real-life datasets, statistics and research. It also introduces aspects that are conveniently hidden in other games (like homelessness), and my plan is to continue updating, expanding and perfecting the models for an indefinite amount of time.
Nitpick about the website, but can we ditch the trend of using multi-color emoji characters as the bullets in a bullet list, and just go back to using regular bullets?
Wasn't that excited since Caesar III.
What did you do, OP? I have a side project to launch, ain't nobody no time for that! :D
macOS and controller support. Nice!
That's what I've spent the past two years hoping for from Urbek City Builder, whose art style this immediately reminded me of. If you haven't already (which would surprise me), definitely check out Urbek. It's such a fun puzzle game, but development seems to have stalled.
Anyway, buying this right away, if only for the Microslop license.
Edit: I'm 2 hours in. Really fun vibe with a nice soundtrack. Still figuring out why my factory and farms aren't attracting more workers. And I wish I could see the buses drive around (after making public transport free). After bankrupting my first two cities, I'm finally profitable. The trick, it seems: low corporate tax, high income tax.
SimCity 2000, now with more cynicism, depression, lethargy, nihilism, and violence.
It would be a such a fun idea to let LLM be the mayor of a city and manage it :)
I'll purchase. I'm fascinated about how it transformed from the initial highway sketches, gradually developed into a final urban form.
Reading through the page, I love all the people-centric causes and effects. Really interesting design, sharing with my friends!
I purchased the game on itch.io but I didn't receive the steam key. Anyway to get that?
Purchased. Thanks for Mac support.
Bro, this is so cool... Can you allow other developers to extend the core simulation? Like add more entity types, define new relations and mappings, and more parameters?
Would be so much fun. People would be able to share their "worlds" and could download any... "dystopian", "utopian", "north korea like full dictatorship", "resource constrained", etc etc...
Will help with behavioral studies as well... plus, can open up an app economy on top.
Steam Deck compatibility?
Immediate purchase. My urban planning dwarf fortress dream.
This looks great! Will purchase.
another city builder! will give it a try. I played Sim City so much...
Humans simulated individually, trackable?
Homelessness wasn’t ignored in Sim City 2013, it was an integral part of managing housing supply and employment. Until I figured out how to balance things my parks were filled with homeless camps, inverting the land value effect of the park.
I’m deeply autistic about city builders and figure out the systems behind them and build metropolises. I’ve spent well over 35k hours playing city simulators since sim city on SNES and most of that with Sim City.
I haven’t given Cities 2 a try because they think cars should be free from a parking standpoint and while I can design around that to minimize the number of cars overall, it doesn’t feel real.
Parking is something every city builder tries to pretend isn’t real so I hope this game considers that a problem to solve by city designers, not the game designers…
This is really exciting, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.