"Cities of the World" is an independent project started by a small group of Spanish city-building fans. The idea behind it is to create the kind of city-building game that city-building fans want to play. Such grassroots efforts is not unheard of in the gaming world, but it's rare to see players actually trying to develop their own game entirely from the ground up.
The Cities of the World project draws from familiar ideas long established by SimCity, and it makes no attempt to conceal its main source of inspiration. In fact, the team wants to take everything they liked about SimCity and add in everything they've always wanted to see.
The small team is lead by Dario Alonso who is very excited to share the Cities of the World project concept with us. Of course the project is very early in development, but Dario hopes to inspire the city-building community to become involved. Dario's native language is not English, but here he explains the ideas behind the project; how it started, what its current state is, and where it hopes to go.
Is "Cities of the World" a city-building game? Or it is a city-building construction set?
"Cities of [the] World" is city-builder game in the style of SimCity. The game will require you to control all aspects of your city beginning with the reclassification of land for
residential, industrial or commercial. You will need to solve all the problems that are typical to a city, such as providing basic services (police, firefighters), manage finance as well as controlling the flow of traffic, but we hope to add in many new ideas.
So is this game intended to be a simulation?
The game is based on the simulation of a city and you will be required to monitor its growth, attract citizens to your city, be concerned with commute times, health care and many other aspects based on real life. So yes, it is intended to be a simulation game.
What is the objective of Cities of the World?
How did the project start?
You can say this project began a long time ago when I first got my hands on a 3.5" diskette with the original SimCity. Since then, it has always been on my mind, because as much as I enjoyed it, I always felt something was missing. After playing many SimCity games, it became obvious that SimCity 4 was probably going to be the last version, and that the city-building community was more or less left on our own. I looked into other games, such as City Life, but could still not find what it was I was looking for, so I decided to finally start work on this little daydream of mine, that was about a year ago. Recently, it has started to take shape, the city is starting to come alive with some moving cars at first, and music, and after much more time and effort, I feel that it might actually see the light of day!
What is the current state of the game? How far along are you?
There is still plenty left to do, but we have the basis in place from which to build.
What is your ultimate goal?
How many people are working on it?
Currently the core team is composed of 6 people.
- Myself, Dario Alonso, my role is to develope the guidelines for the game, as well as help promote the project.
- Luis De La Cruz, the programmer who takes these ideas and developes the game engine.
- Moises, is handling the art and graphics, and I think we may surprise you with some of the designs.
- Francisco Lara, is developing parts of the transport system.
- Jordi Jorda, is developing the financial simulation system of the game engine.
- Antonio Socoro, is developing the social aspects of the city simulation.
You can check out the team's website at www.citiesofworld.com
An early build can be downloaded here.
Oct 29, 2009 at 8:29 AM Still very early but I tried the build on official site and looks very promising.
The idea is good, it's aiming the right direction, however, that kind of open source project is an ambitious challenge, I wish them luck and success ! even if it can take very long to become a real challenger on the city building market. Thanks about sharing this, Dirk ! without you i would probably never have heard about this project, and it seems to worth to keep an eye on it :)
Oct 29, 2009 at 10:28 AM They really need to get those fps up higher. Its looks like a great start though!
Oct 29, 2009 at 8:48 PM To be early in development as an open-source, 6-person collaboration game, I think they're making tremendous progress. They are rounding out the core of the game, and I am confident that with enough time, effort, determination, and suggestion, this thing may start to be like a pseudo-Simcity 5. Time will tell, however.
Oct 30, 2009 at 6:12 PM I hope they can improve the looks of it. It looks like the Sim City I have on my ipod.
Nov 2, 2009 at 4:12 AM CitiesXL is the new gold standard. I wouldn't even begin to try to start from scratch to recreate that wheel.
Nov 2, 2009 at 9:33 PM SimBurger, thats a pretty out there statement your making there, many people would totally disagree,
personally i think SC4 is definitely still the gold standard in city simulators,
Cities XL to put it simply is not a city simulator, its a city builder, and an entirely different kind of game.
In regard to cities of the world, i agree, it looks VERY promising, i tried out the build from their site, and they are making great progress (and have great ideas). In regard to graphics, i personally have no problem with the games current graphics, its the gameplay which makes a game great or not, not graphics.
Nov 4, 2009 at 6:42 PM danielches, I think that whether the graphics are as important as the gameplay is questionable depending on who you are and what you're looking for in a game. If what you want is to make a beautiful skyline then the graphics are absolutely as important. If you're looking for some kind of computerized puzzle to figure out then by all means but this game for me, and for anyone who is looking for what I am looking for, is just not it.
Also, Simburger made the statement that cities xl is the new gold standard but he didn't say in what. So while you are differentiating Sim City as a City Simulator versus Cities XL as a city BUILDER then perhaps they can both be the gold standard in their respective categories.
As for myself and what I look for I would agree that it's the new gold standard in more than one regard. Maybe not all but in some. The graphics they've achieved are definitely the best in the genre(s) so far and if that's important to you (it is to me) then they are certainly the ones to beat there.
It's all a matter of who you are as a player and what you are hoping for in the future of these games. I like building an attractive and realistic looking city with some challenges. SC4 has part of that, the challenge, but visually it is tired. I want to be able to go in and explore what I've made. See it from the POV of a resident.
Nov 14, 2009 at 12:45 PM danielches,
you my friend are insssane.
I'll give it to the guys for a good effort but to try and say its VERY promising or say Simburger is off? you are nuts dude.
Cities XL is the new standard.
Nov 16, 2009 at 3:41 PM Do not try to be better than anybody, just trying to make an entertaining game and that appeals to the community.
Trying to create something akin to CXL is impossible for us at the moment but if we make the base for a game entretnido, such as SC4.
Step by step, we will reach small goals and make a game that is fun for the community, but always bearing in mind that we are a group of players of SimCity, not a video game company.
Dario