What makes a game a classic?  Is it graphics?  Is it brand name? Is it replay value? Or, is it much deeper than that?  Why has SimCity4 lasted for over 6 years and why does it continue to reign supreme as the world's foremost City Building Simulator? 

Six Years is not an insignificant amout of time in the world of software; it is downright ancient.  The longevity of SC4 is seen not only in the community support on the web but also on the retail store shelves.  SC4 and its expansion pack, Rush Hour, are still being sold in many venues all over the world, it was even included in the latest boxed set for the more recent Sim City Societies possibly as a way to increase the value of the much loathed sequel.  You would be hard pressed to walk into a video game store and find a new copy of a 6 year old game.  SC4 is one of the few titles that has stood the test of time in spite of more recent 'next gen' simulators that have tried (and failed) to topple the city building monopoly that is SC4. Sim City 4 has out dated graphics, a limited grid design structure and is no longer maintained by the manufacturer (last official patch was April 2003), so, why has it remained so popular over the last 6 years?

Read more...

Hey, City Journalers and Journal Followers.  You might have heard through the grapevine that the city journals section is being revisited.  I haven't made any functional updates to the current system lately because I've been working on a whole new build, so instead of doing a bunch of little updates, I figure I'd just do one bit update. Your suggestions are requested.

Read more...

Hello, I'm your new creature. Same as your old creature.

Every city-building game ends up being linear, formulaic and predictable to play. 

Monte Cristo calls it "gardening", and it's a perfect description. 

Once you've figured out the precise conditions required to make your city grow in a predictable way, you often have little reason to try anything else.  Some games might take you longer than others to discover this, but once it's been "solved", you pretty much have to find something else to maintain your interest with the game or it gets shelved.

So I got thinking, wouldn't it be great if you could never truly solve a city simulator?  That every time you built a new city, it's a unique experience?  That you'll always be a mayor and never a gardener? 

Read more...

Let's be blunt, hardcore city simulator game fans are not a profitable demographic.

That should surprise absolutely no one.

That's not to suggest that we don't matter to game developers, it's just that are a small, niche interest group.

What does matter are our opinions, our insight and our nuanced understanding of the details that make a city-building game fun -- but the truth is that we have never been concerned with how to make such a game profitable.  And while we may satisfy ourselves with that,  it's important to remember that a company such as Monte Cristo is very much concerned with the latter point as well. 

I realize that kind of rationalizing offers little comfort to many of us whose only concern is to get a good, solid, fun city-building game.  Games for this genre are all too rare, and we have waited long for a worth successor to SimCity 4.  But it doesn't hurt to take a step back and examine the sitatution with a dispassionate eye.

Read more...

If you haven't already tried Tropico 3, it's definitely worth a look. 

The demo gives you a pretty good sense of what the game is like with two scenarios to play.  While Tropico 3 is not exactly a city-building game, you do plop buildings, and can build some basic infrastructure, the focus is on managing your economy and maintaining your political influence.

Read more...