City building games
Group Description
City Building are games which identify the
primary gameplay as
the construction, development, administration and management of a city, town or similar venues where the player takes the role of a governor, ruler or similar roles to successfully achieve the aforementioned goals.
This managerial strategy hybrid was initially popularized by games such as the
SimCity series and
Caesar series and traditionally was identified with an isometric or top-down visual perspective. Gameplay also is usually real-time.
City building games usually are identifiable by one or more of the following traits:
- Main gameplay map is the city or town itself;
- The city or town mentioned are usually already owned or may only be developed by the player;
- Any form of opposition usually is located off-map;
- Manual strategic placement of roads, structures or other buildings;
- Manual management of citizen demands;
- Trade and taxation, usually micro economics;
- Upgrading options for structures and buildings;
- Manipulation and exploitation of surrounding resources.
Limitations
City building
must be identified as the primary gameplay of the specified game. Not to be confused with common RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games or other strategy games, where building does occur but as a secondary part of gameplay (e.g. for warfare purposes, although still an important part of the gameplay). Thus, such games should be
excluded from this game group (simply put, you play the game primarily for city building purposes).
Examples of aforementioned games not to be included:
Age of Empires,
Warcraft,
Command and Conquer,
Railroad Tycoon, etc.
| Game Title | Year | Platform | Publisher | MobyScore |
| Romopolis | 2009 | Windows | iWin, Inc. | ... |
| Empire Builder: Ancient Egypt | 2009 | Windows | Merscom LLC | ... |
| Plan It Green | 2009 | Macintosh, Windows | National Geographic Games | ... |
| Wonderburg | 2009 | Windows | Big Fish Games, Inc | ... |
| Westward Collection | 2009 | Windows | Sandlot Games | ... |
| Forgotten Lands: First Colony | 2008 | Windows | Big Fish Games, Inc | ... |
| Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe | 2008 | Macintosh, Windows | Big Fish Games, Inc | 4.38 |
| The SimCity Box | 2008 | Windows | Electronic Arts, Inc. | 4.50 |
| Children of the Nile Pack | 2008 | Windows | Tilted Mill Entertainment, Inc. | ... |
| City Life DS | 2008 | Nintendo DS | Monte Cristo Multimedia | ... |
| Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year | 2008 | Macintosh, Windows | Big Fish Games, Inc | ... |
| Westward II: Heroes of the Frontier | 2008 | Macintosh, Windows | Reflexive Entertainment Inc. | ... |
| SimCity Societies: Destinations | 2008 | Windows | Electronic Arts, Inc. | 4.29 |
| Westward III: Gold Rush | 2008 | Windows | Sandlot Games | ... |
| Children of the Nile (Enhanced Edition) | 2008 | Windows | Tilted Mill Entertainment, Inc. | ... |
| SimCity DS | 2007 | Nintendo DS | Electronic Arts, Inc. | 4.07 |
| SimCity Societies | 2007 | Windows | Electronic Arts, Inc. | 2.82 |
| The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary - Vikings | 2007 | Windows | ND GAMES | 3.71 |
| City Life Edition 2008 | 2007 | Windows | Akella | ... |
| The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary | 2006 | Windows | ak tronic Software & Services GmbH | 3.87 |
| City Life | 2006 | Windows | CDV Software Entertainment USA, Inc. | 2.60 |
| City Life: World Edition | 2006 | Windows | CDV Software Entertainment USA, Inc. | 3.33 |
| Caesar IV | 2006 | Windows | Sierra Entertainment, Inc. | 2.56 |
| Slaves to Armok: God of Blood - Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress | 2006 | Macintosh, Windows | Bay 12 Games | 3.26 |
| Westward | 2006 | iPhone, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows, Windows Mobile | Handmark, Inc. | 3.00 |
Selected Covers
Selected Screenshots