SimCity (Series)
SimCity is a popular city-building simulation video game series first released in 1989. Players act as mayors to design, build, and manage virtual cities by zoning land, constructing infrastructure and transportation, managing resources, taxation, and responding to disasters.
city-building
strategy
resource-management
urban-planning
SimCity: City-Building Simulation Video Game Seriess
SimCity is a popular city-building simulation video game series first released in 1989. Players act as mayors to design, build, and manage virtual cities by zoning land, constructing infrastructure and transportation, managing resources, taxation, and responding to disasters.
What is SimCity (Series)?
The SimCity series is one of the most well-known and successful city-building simulation game franchises. First released in 1989, the original SimCity tasked players with developing tracts of land into bustling metropolitan cities, balancing intricate combinations of zoning, infrastructure, taxation, transit, and public services.
Gameplay in the SimCity series revolves around modeling urban dynamics by incorporating sociological, economic, and geographical simulations. As mayor, players must manage resources, taxation rates, pollution, crime, education, health, and other aspects of urban planning to nurture their fledgling village into a thriving metropolis. Natural disasters like floods, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and monster attacks provide additional challenges.
Successive SimCity titles have built upon the foundation set by the initial entry by implementing 3D graphics, multiplayer modes, greater degrees of complexity and realism, larger city sizes, and mobile versions. The series has sold over 22 million copies collectively and influenced countless city-builder games since its debut over 30 years ago.
The accessibility combined with the emergent complexity arising from SimCity's game systems has provided enjoyment to casual gamers and academics alike. The latest title, SimCity BuildIt released in 2016, demonstrates the lasting appeal of designing, building, and managing miniature urban utopias.
SimCity (Series) Features
Features
- City building and management simulation
- Zoning and infrastructure construction
- Resource and budget management
- Disaster and crisis scenarios
- Urban planning and design
- Single player sandbox mode
Pricing
- One-time Purchase
Pros
Highly customizable sandbox experience
Engaging city builder gameplay loop
Appeals to creative problem-solving
Educational for urban planning concepts
Mod support expands gameplay possibilities
Cons
Can feel repetitive after long play sessions
Difficult learning curve for new players
Limited tutorial/guidance for new players
Requires powerful hardware for newer titles
Always-online DRM controversies for latest titles
Official Links
The Best SimCity (Series) Alternatives
Top Games and Simulation and other similar apps like SimCity (Series)
Here are some alternatives to SimCity (Series):
Suggest an alternative ❐
Cities: Skylines
Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation genre that has been around for over two decades. The game was developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive in 2015. It allows players to design and manage the various aspects of a living, growing city.In the...
SimCity BuildIt
SimCity BuildIt is a mobile city-building game developed by TrackTwenty and published by Electronic Arts in 2014. As the mayor, players are tasked with designing, building, and managing their own custom metropolis.In SimCity BuildIt, players zone residential, commercial, and industrial areas to attract Sim citizens. As the population grows, players...
CityVille
CityVille is an online social network game developed and published by Zynga in 2010. It is a city-building simulation in which the player takes on the role of mayor to develop a city from scratch. The core gameplay revolves around constructing buildings, producing goods, earning income, and keeping citizens happy.When...
Citytopia
Citytopia is a city-building and management simulation game. Players take on the role of mayor of a small town and are tasked with turning it into a thriving metropolis. Gameplay involves zoning land for different purposes, building critical infrastructure, providing services like power and water, setting tax rates and budgets,...
OpenCity
OpenCity is a free and open source software for modeling 3D city landscapes and buildings. It provides a user-friendly interface for constructing realistic urban environments suitable for urban planning, architecture, simulations, games, and visualizations.With OpenCity, users can quickly generate complex cityscapes containing buildings, roads, parks, street furniture, vehicles, and people....
GoCity
GoCity is an innovative online travel booking platform launched in 2018 that aims to provide a seamless, efficient travel planning and booking experience all in one place. Its interface allows users to research destinations, compare flight options, find hotels and vacation rentals, book rental cars, reserve airport parking, purchase tickets...
Pocket City
Pocket City is a mobile city-building simulation game developed and published by Codebrew Games. As the mayor of a growing metropolis, players are tasked with city planning and management.In Pocket City, you can place residential, commercial, industrial, and utility buildings to meet the needs of your citizens. As your city...
Micropolis
Micropolis is an open source city-building and urban planning computer game, originally released in 2008. It is inspired by the popular SimCity game series, allowing players to design, build, and manage a simulated city.In Micropolis, the player takes on the role of a city mayor or planner and must make...
3d.city
3d.city is a cloud-based 3D modeling and visualization platform designed specifically for architects, urban planners, civil engineers, and spatial design professionals to model cities, buildings, and infrastructure projects in rich 3D detail. The software allows users to import 2D CAD drawings, GIS maps, satellite/aerial imagery to create highly accurate 3D...
Designer City
Designer City is a powerful yet easy-to-use 3D modeling and design application that runs directly in the browser. With an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, Designer City makes it simple for architects, urban planners, designers, and hobbyists to construct detailed 3D models of buildings, landscaping, cityscapes, and more.Some key features of Designer...
Cities XL (Series)
Cities XL is a long-running city-building video game series developed and published by French studio Monte Cristo. The series launched in 2009 with Cities XL, offering players the ability to create large-scale simulated cities with a greater level of realism and customization compared to other city builders at the time.A...
Megapolis
Megapolis is a popular city-building and management simulation game. Players take on the role of a mayor and are tasked with developing a small town into a sprawling metropolitan city.The core gameplay revolves around strategic placement of residential, commercial, industrial, and utility structures. As the city grows, players must manage...
Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow
Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow is a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android based on the popular Futurama animated comedy series. Released in 2017, the game allows players to build, manage, and explore their own Futurama universe filled with locations, characters, and stories from the show.In Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow,...
Bit City
Bit City is a popular city-building game for mobile devices with retro pixel art graphics. In Bit City, players can build their own virtual city from the ground up. They start with an empty plot of land and slowly build upon it by constructing residential zones, commercial areas, industrial complexes...
Citystate
Citystate is a free, open-source city-building and political simulation game where you take control of designing, building, and managing a city from the stone age to the space age. With its pixel art graphics and gameplay, Citystate is designed to evoke nostalgia for classic city management games of the 90s...
Voxel Turf
Voxel Turf is a 3D modeling and sculpting application designed specifically for easy creation and editing of voxel models. Voxels are essentially 3D pixels, and allow for a distinct, blocky aesthetic popularized by games like Minecraft.Some key features of Voxel Turf include:Intuitive voxel sculpting brushes for shaping, smoothing, texturing, and...
Citybound
Citybound is an open-source city-building simulation game and city simulator developed by Anselm Eickhoff. The project aims to create an advanced city simulation that focuses on simulating the daily lives and activities of each individual citizen.Unlike traditional top-down city builders, Citybound uses a bottom-up approach where complex urban environments emerge...
City Sandbox
City Sandbox is a 3D city building and management simulation game released in 2015 by developer Stone shard. In City Sandbox, players take on the role of urban planner and mayor to design and develop a thriving virtual city.Gameplay revolves around strategic placement of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings to...
Dino Island
Dino Island is an educational video game designed for children ages 8-12. The game teaches key concepts in paleontology, archeology, evolution, and more through fun gameplay mechanics and immersive environments.In Dino Island, players take on the role of a young paleontologist who has inherited their grandfather's dinosaur island. Throughout the...
Epic Astro Story
Epic Astro Story is a mobile simulation and management game developed and published by Kairosoft in 2013. In the game, players are tasked with building and managing a colony on an uninhabited alien planet.To start, players must choose which planet to colonize from a selection of planets with different environments...
Aquapolis
Aquapolis is an open-source note-taking and task management application developed by Aquapolis Software. It has an intuitive and minimalist user interface that allows users to quickly capture ideas, thoughts, and to-dos. Key features include:Quick note entry with automatic date/timestampTagging for easy organization and searchCloud sync across devicesBasic task management with...
Hot Spring Story
Hot Spring Story is a dating sim/visual novel video game developed and published by Hanako Games in 2021. In the game, the player takes on the role of a young man who visits a scenic mountain hot spring resort in order to relax and take a break from his stressful...
IBM CityOne
IBM CityOne is a free-to-play business simulation game developed by IBM that focuses on creating more efficient, sustainable, and livable cities. The game allows players to take on the role of city manager and make decisions that impact areas like energy, water, banking, retail, and transit.In the game, players are...
StarPeace
StarPeace is an epic space simulation and combat game set in a vast, procedurally generated universe. As an admiral in command of an interstellar navy, you explore new star systems, establish colonies, manage resources, research new technologies, and build powerful battle fleets.A key highlight of StarPeace is its large-scale ship...
Lincity-NG
Lincity-NG is an updated version of the classic open source city building game Lincity. As the mayor of a virtual city, the player is responsible for managing essential infrastructure and utilities for the growing municipality.Key gameplay elements involve zoning land for residential, commercial and industrial development; building power plants, public...
