List of city-building video games

Last updated

This is a comprehensive index of city-building games, sorted chronologically. Information regarding date of release, developer, platform, setting and notability is provided when available. The table can be sorted by clicking on the small boxes next to the column headings.

Contents


Legend

Video game platforms
AMI Amiga
AMI32 Amiga CD32
AQUA Mattel Aquarius
ARC Acorn Archimedes
BBC BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, BBC Master
BROW Browser game
C64 Commodore 64
CDTV Commodore CDTV
CPC Amstrad CPC
CROSS Cross-platform
DESQ DESQview
DOS MS-DOS
DROI Android
DS Nintendo DS
EPOC32 EPOC32
FMT FM Towns
GBA Game Boy Advance
GBC Game Boy Color
INT Intellivision
JAVAME Java Platform, Micro Edition
iPhone iPhone
iPod iPod
LIN Linux
MAC Mac
MAIN Mainframe computer
MOBI Mobile phone
N64 Nintendo 64
NeWS NeWS
NX Nintendo Switch
OS2 OS/2
OSX macOS / OS X
PC98 PC-9800 series
PS1 PlayStation / PSone
PS2 PlayStation 2
PS3 PlayStation 3
PS4 PlayStation 4
PS5 PlayStation 5
PSP PlayStation Portable
SAT Sega Saturn
SNES Super NES / Super Famicom
ST Atari ST
SYB Symbian OS
Tk Tk
UNIX Unix
VC Virtual Console (Wii)
Wii Wii
WIN Microsoft Windows
WIN3X Windows 3.x
WIN9X Windows 9x
X01 OLPC XO-1
X11 X Window System
X360 Xbox 360
XOne Xbox One
XSX/S Xbox Series X/S
ZX ZX Spectrum

List

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
YearGameDeveloperSettingPlatformNotes
1964 The Sumerian Game Mabel Addis HistoricalMAINText-based game based on the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash. [1]
1969 The Sumer Game Richard Merrill HistoricalMAINAdaptation of The Sumerian Game . [1]
1975 Hamurabi David H. Ahl HistoricalMAINExpanded version of The Sumer Game . Published later as part of BASIC Computer Games .
1978 Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio HistoricalMAIN
1981Kingdom [2] David Allen [3] HistoricalBBCA conversion of the game "Hamurabi", it was included as part of welcome package to BBC Microcomputers.[ citation needed ]
1982 Utopia Don Daglow ContemporaryAQUA, INT
1989 SimCity Maxis ContemporaryAMI, MAC, 27+ other platformsFirst title in the SimCity series.
1990 ActRaiser Quintet FantasyMOBI, SNES, VCHybrid with side-scrolling platform game.
1990 Moonbase Wesson Sci-fiAMI, DOS
1991 Utopia: The Creation of a Nation Celestial Sci-fiAMI, DOS, SNES, ST
1992 Caesar Impressions HistoricalAMI, DOS, STFirst title in the City Building series.
1993 Lunar Command Wesson Sci-fiDOSUpdated version of Moonbase .
1993 SimCity 2000 Maxis, Full Fat ContemporaryAMI, DOS, GBA, MAC, N64, PS1, PSP, SAT, SNESSequel to SimCity .
1993 The Settlers (a.k.a. Serf City: Life is Feudal) Blue Byte FantasyAMI, DOSFirst title in the series.
1993 Stronghold Stormfront FantasyDOSHybrid with RTS elements.
1994 Outpost Sierra Sci-fiMAC, WIN3XSci-fi version of SimCity.
1995 Caesar II Impressions HistoricalMAC, WINSequel to Caesar .
1995 Lincity VariousContemporaryCROSS Open source clone of Sim City .
1995 SimIsle: Missions in the Rainforest Intelligent ContemporaryDOS, MAC, WIN3X
1995 SimTown Maxis ContemporaryMAC, WIN, WIN3X
1996 Afterlife LucasArts FantasyDOS, MAC, WIN9X
1996 Holiday Island Sunflowers ContemporaryWIN9X
1996 The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici Blue Byte FantasyDOS, DS, MACSequel to The Settlers . Nintendo DS port was released in 2007.
1996 The Settlers II Mission CD Blue Byte FantasyDOSExpansion to The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici .
1997 Constructor System 3 ContemporaryPS1, WIN
1998 Anno 1602: Creation of a New World Max HistoricalWIN9XFirst title in the series. Hybrid with RTS elements.
1998 Caesar III Impressions HistoricalMAC, WIN9X, NotSequel to Caesar II .
1998 Settlers III, The Blue Byte FantasyWIN9XSequel to The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici .
1999 Pharaoh Impressions HistoricalWIN9X
1999 SimCity 3000 Maxis ContemporaryDS, iPhone, LIN, MAC, WINSequel to SimCity 2000 .
2000 Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile Impressions HistoricalWIN9XExpansion to Pharaoh .
2000 Master of Olympus: Zeus Impressions FantasyWIN
2000 SimCity 64 HAL ContemporaryN64Spin-off of the SimCity series.
2000 SimCity 3000 Unlimited Maxis ContemporaryLIN, WINRe-release of SimCity 3000 .
2000 StarPeace Oceanus Sci-fiWINMMOG.
2001 Master of Atlantis: Poseidon Impressions FantasyWINExpansion to Master of Olympus: Zeus .
2001 Mobility Glamus ContemporaryWIN, LIN
2001 StarTopia Mucky Foot Sci-fiWIN
2001 Stronghold Firefly Studios FantasyWIN Hybrid with RTS elements.
2001 The Settlers IV Blue Byte FantasyWINSequel to The Settlers III .
2001 Tropico PopTop ContemporaryMAC, OSX, WIN, WIN9X
2002 Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom BreakAway, Impressions HistoricalWIN
2002 Metropolismania Media Factory ContemporaryPS2First title in the series.
2002 Moonbase Commander Humongous Sci-fiWIN
2002 Tropico: Paradise Island BreakAway ContemporaryWIN, WIN9XExpansion to Tropico .
2003 Anno 1503: The New World Max HistoricalWIN9X, WINSequel to Anno 1602: Creation of a New World . Hybrid with RTS elements.
2003 Anno 1503: Treasures, Monsters and Pirates Max HistoricalWINExpansion to Anno 1503: The New World .
2003 SimCity 4 Maxis ContemporaryOSX, WINSequel to SimCity 3000 .
2003 SimCity 4: Rush Hour Maxis ContemporaryOSX, WINExpansion to SimCity 4 .
2003 Tropico 2: Pirate Cove Frog City HistoricalOSX, WIN
2004 Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile Tilted Mill HistoricalWIN
2004 Outpost Kaloki X NinjaBee Sci-fiWIN, X360
2005 Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand Monte Cristo HistoricalWIN
2005 Stronghold 2 Firefly Studios FantasyWIN Hybrid with RTS elements.
2005 Settlers: Heritage of Kings, The Blue Byte FantasyWINSequel to The Settlers IV .
2005 The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - Expansion Disk Blue Byte FantasyWINExpansion to The Settlers: Heritage of Kings .
2005 The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - Legends Expansion Disk Blue Byte FantasyWINExpansion to The Settlers: Heritage of Kings .
2006 Anno 1701 Related HistoricalDS, WINSequel to Anno 1503: The New World . Hybrid with RTS elements.
2006 Caesar IV Tilted Mill HistoricalWINSequel to Caesar III .
2006 City Life Monte Cristo ContemporaryWIN
2006 CivCity: Rome Firefly, Firaxis HistoricalWIN
2006 Dwarf Fortress Bay 12 Games FantasyWIN, LIN, MAC
2006 Glory of the Roman Empire Haemimont HistoricalWIN
2006 The Settlers II 10th Anniversary Blue Byte FantasyWINRemake of The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici .
2006 Tycoon City: New York Deep Red ContemporaryWIN
2007 Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery Keen HistoricalDSHybrid with RTS elements.
2007 Anno 1701: The Curse of the Dragon Related HistoricalDSExpansion to Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery . Hybrid with RTS elements.
2007 SimCity Societies Tilted Mill ContemporaryMOBI, WINSpin-off of the SimCity series.
2007 The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary - The Vikings Blue Byte FantasyWINExpansion to The Settlers II (10th Anniversary) .
2007 The Settlers: Rise of an Empire Blue Byte FantasyWINSequel to The Settlers: Heritage of Kings .
2008 A Kingdom for Keflings Ninja Bee FantasyX360
2008 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King Square Enix FantasyWiiHybrid with RPG elements.
2008 Hinterland Tilted Mill FantasyWINHybrid with RPG elements.
2008 Imperium Romanum Haemimont HistoricalWINSequel to Glory of the Roman Empire .
2008 Micropolis Don Hopkins ContemporaryCROSSOpen source version of SimCity .
2008 SimCity DS 2 ContemporaryDS.
2008 SimCity Societies: Destinations Tilted Mill ContemporaryWINExpansion to SimCity Societies .
2008 Settlers: Rise of an Empire - The Eastern Realm, The Blue Byte FantasyWINExpansion to The Settlers: Rise of an Empire .
2009 Anno 1404 Related, Ubisoft, Blue Byte HistoricalWIN, OSX, DS, WiiSequel to Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery . Hybrid with RTS elements.
2009 Cities XL Monte Cristo ContemporaryWIN
2009 Grand Ages: Rome Haemimont HistoricalWINSequel to Imperium Romanum .
2009 OpenCity Duong-Khang NguyenContemporaryCROSSOpen source. A development version is available.
2009 Tropico 3 Haemimont Games ContemporaryOSX, WIN, X360Successor to Tropico .
2010 A World of Keflings Ninja Bee FantasyX360
2010 Cities XL 2011 Focus Home Interactive ContemporaryWIN
2010 Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, The Blue Byte FantasyOSX, WINSequel to The Settlers: Rise of an Empire .
2011 Anno 2070 Related Designs Sci-fiWIN
2011 Cities XL 2012 Focus Home Interactive ContemporaryWIN
2011 Stronghold 3 Firefly Studios FantasyWIN, OSX, LINHybrid with RTS elements.
2011 Tropico 4 Haemimont Games ContemporaryWIN, X360, OSX
2012 SimCity Social Playfish, Maxis ModernBROWDefunct online, social SimCity spin-off.
2012 Stronghold: HD Firefly Studios HistoricalWINModest enhancement of Stronghold (2001) . RTS hybrid.
2012 Towns Xavi Canal, Ben PalgiFantasyWIN, LIN, OSXRPG hybrid with few influences. Abandoned in 2014.
2013 SimCity Maxis ContemporaryWIN, OSXRelaunch of Simcity Series.
2014 Banished Shining Rock SoftwareHistoricalWIN
2014 Stronghold Crusader 2 Firefly Studios FantasyWINHybrid with RTS elements.
2014 Tropico 5 Haemimont Games ContemporaryWIN, OSX, LIN, X360, PS4 [4]
2015 Anno 2205 Blue Byte Sci-FiWINSequel to Anno 2070 .
2015 Cities: Skylines Colossal Order ContemporaryWIN, OSX, LIN, PS4, XOne, NXBased on the engine used for Cities in Motion 2 .
2015 Cities XXL Focus Home Interactive ContemporaryWIN
2015 Planetbase Madruga WorksSci-fiWIN, OSX, XOne, PS4Survival city-builder.
2015 Valhalla Hills Funatics SoftwareMythologyWIN, LIN, OSX, Cloud, XOne, PS4City builder, RTS.
2016 Clockwork Empires Gaslamp Games Alternate History, LovecraftianWIN, OSXLovecraftian colony sim. Delisted 2019.
2017 Aven Colony Mothership EntertainmentSci-FiWIN, PS4, XOne
2017 Block'hood Plethora ProjectModernWIN, LIN, OSXNeighbourhood builder.
2017 Life is Feudal: Forest Village BitboxHistoricalWINSurvival town builder.
2017 Kingdoms and Castles Lion ShieldFantasyWIN, OSX, LIN, XOne, PS4, XSX/S, PS5
2018 Frostpunk 11 bit studios Sci-FiWIN, OSX, PS4, XOne
2018 Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation SuncrashPost-apocalypse, DemonsWINColony sim & real-time tactics.
2018 Surviving Mars Haemimont Games Sci-FiWIN, OSX, LIN, PS4, XOne
2019 Anno 1800 Blue Byte HistoricalWINIndustrialization-age exploration building sim.
2019 Dawn of Man Madruga WorksHistoricalWIN, OSXPrehistoric city builder. Eras: Paleolithic to the Iron Age.
2019 Islanders Grizzly GamesFantasyWIN, OSX, LINCasual city builder with low-poly aesthetic.
2019 Outlanders Pomelo GamesContemporaryiOS, WIN
2019 Rise of Industry Dapper Penguin StudiosHistoricalWIN, LIN, OSXTycoon sim with minimalist 3D graphics. Former name: Project Automata.
2019 Rise to Ruins Raymond DoerrFantasyWIN, OSX, LINIndie city-builder with survival and god game elements.
2019 Tropico 6 Limbic Entertainment ContemporaryWIN, OSX, LIN, PS4, XOne
2020 Before We Leave Balancing Monkey GamesSci-fiWIN, OSX, NX, XOne, PS4, XSX/S, PS5
2020 Per Aspera Tlön IndustriesSci-fiWINCity-builder about terraforming Mars.
2020 Airborne Kingdom The Wandering BandSci-fiWIN, OSX, PS4, PS5, XOne, XSX/S, NXSteampunk flying city.
2021 Actraiser Renaissance Sonic Powered, Square Enix FantasyiOS, DROI, NX, WIN, PS4Big remaster of ActRaiser .
2021 Endzone: A World Apart Gentlymad StudiosPost-apocalypseWIN, XOne, XSX/S, PS5Post-apocalyptic survival city-builder.
2021 Nebuchadnezzar Nepos GamesHistoricalWIN, LINSet in Ancient Mesopotamia.
2021 Patron Overseer GamesHistoricalWINSurvival city-builder.
2021 Surviving the Aftermath Iceflake Studios Post-apocalypseWIN, NX, PS4, XOne, XSX/SPost-apocalyptic survival city-builder. Sequel to Surviving Mars .
2021 Townscaper Oskar StålbergFantasyWIN, OSX, MOBIIndie city-builder with a specially intuitive gameplay and interface.
2022 Floodland Vile MonarchPost-apocalypseWINSurvival city-builder.
2022 Urbek City Builder Estudios KremlinoisContemporaryWIN, PS4, PS5, XSX/S, NXPuzzle aspects.
2023 Against the Storm Eremite GamesDark fantasyWIN Roguelike.
2023 Aquatico Digital Reef GamesHistoricalWIN
2023 Cities: Skylines II Colossal Order ContemporaryWIN, XSX/S, PS5Sequel to Cities: Skylines .
2023 Stranded: Alien Dawn Haemimont Games Sci-fiWIN, XOne, PS4, XSX/S, PS5Survival sim.
2024 Frostpunk 2 11 Bit Studios Alternate historyWIN, PS5, XSX/SSequel to Frostpunk .
2024 Summerhouse Friedemann AllmenröderContemporaryWIN, OSXOpen-ended sandbox game.
TBA Builders of Egypt Strategy LabsHistoricalWINAncient Egypt city builder. Eras: From Egyptian Civilization to the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Cleopatra's death.
TBA Foundation Polymorph GamesHistoricalWINMedieval indie city-builder.
TBA Infection Free Zone Jutsu GamesPost-apocalypseWINSurvival city-builder.
TBA Manor Lords Slavic MagicHistoricalWIN, XOne, XSX/SCity-building & real-time tactics.
TBA Timberborn MechanistryFantasy, FuturisticWIN, macOSBeaver colony.
TBA The Wandering Village  [ de ]Stray FawnSci-fiWIN, LIN, OSX, XOne, XSX/SMobile city-builder.
TBA Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic 3DivisionHistoricalWINCity builder with a focus on a communist economic system.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>SimCity</i> (1989 video game) 1989 video game

SimCity, also known as Micropolis or SimCity Classic, is a city-building simulation video game developed by Will Wright, and released for several platforms from 1989 to 1991. SimCity features two-dimensional graphics and an overhead perspective. The game's objective is to create a city, develop residential and industrial areas, build infrastructure, and collect taxes for further city development. Importance is placed on increasing the population's standard of living, maintaining a balance between the different sectors, and monitoring the region's environmental situations to prevent the settlement from declining and going bankrupt.

<i>SimCity 2000</i> 1993 video game

SimCity 2000 is a city-building simulation video game jointly developed by Will Wright and Fred Haslam of Maxis. It is the successor to SimCity Classic and was released for Apple Macintosh and MS-DOS personal computers in 1993, after which it was released on many other platforms over the following years, such as the Sega Saturn and SNES game consoles in 1995 and the PlayStation in 1996.

Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic racing simulations and more fantastical arcade-style racing games. Kart racing games emerged in the 1990s as a popular sub-genre of the latter. Racing games may also fall under the category of sports video games.

Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such as training, analysis, prediction, or entertainment. Usually there are no strictly defined goals in the game, and the player is allowed to control a character or environment freely. Well-known examples are war games, business games, and role play simulation. From three basic types of strategic, planning, and learning exercises: games, simulations, and case studies, a number of hybrids may be considered, including simulation games that are used as case studies. Comparisons of the merits of simulation games versus other teaching techniques have been carried out by many researchers and a number of comprehensive reviews have been published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City-building game</span> Video game genre

A city-building game, or town-building game, is a genre of simulation video game where players act as the overall planner and leader of a city or town, looking down on it from above, and being responsible for its growth and management strategy. Players choose building placement and city management features such as salaries and work priorities, and the city develops accordingly.

<i>Choplifter</i> Video game first made in 1982 for the Apple II computer

Choplifter is a military themed scrolling shooter developed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. It was ported to Atari 8-bit computers the same year and also to the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, MSX, and Thomson computers.

In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. A game's mechanics thus effectively specify how the game will work for the people who play it.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to video games:

Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and military flight training which consist of realistic physical recreations of the actual aircraft cockpit, often with a full-motion platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business simulation game</span> Video game genre

Business simulation games, also known as economic simulation games or tycoon games, are games that focus on the management of economic processes, usually in the form of a business. Pure business simulations have been described as construction and management simulations without a construction element, and can thus be called simulations. Indeed, micromanagement is often emphasized in these kinds of games. They are essentially numeric, but try to hold the player's attention by using creative graphics. The interest in these games lies in accurate simulation of real-world events using algorithms, as well as the close tying of players' actions to expected or plausible consequences and outcomes. An important facet of economic simulations is the emergence of artificial systems, gameplay and structures.

<i>Hamurabi</i> (video game) 1968 video game

Hamurabi is a text-based strategy video game of land and resource management. It was first developed under the name King of Sumeria or The Sumer Game by Doug Dyment in 1968 at Digital Equipment Corporation as a computer game for fellow employee Richard Merrill's newly invented FOCAL programming language.

Construction and management simulation (CMS), sometimes also called management sim or building sim, is a subgenre of simulation game in which players build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources. Strategy video games sometimes incorporate CMS aspects into their game economy, as players must manage resources while expanding their project. Pure CMS games differ from strategy games, however, in that "the player's goal is not to defeat an enemy, but to build something within the context of an ongoing process." Games in this category are sometimes also called "management games".

Social simulation games are a subgenre of life simulation game that explore social interactions between multiple artificial lives. Some examples include The Sims and Animal Crossing series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandbox game</span> Type of video game encouraging creativity

A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or alternatively with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world concept which gives the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.

A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics and art. Serious games are a subgenre of serious storytelling, where storytelling is applied "outside the context of entertainment, where the narration progresses as a sequence of patterns impressive in quality ... and is part of a thoughtful progress". The idea shares aspects with simulation generally, including flight simulation and medical simulation, but explicitly emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flight simulation video game</span> Video game genre

A flight simulation video game refers to the simulation of various aspects of flight or the flight environment for purposes other than flight training or aircraft development. A significant community of simulation enthusiasts is supported by several commercial software packages, as well as commercial and homebuilt hardware. Open-source software that is used by the aerospace industry like FlightGear, whose flight dynamics engine (JSBSim) is used in a 2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to space industry standards, is also available for private use. A popular type of flight simulators video games are combat flight simulators, which simulate combat air operations from the pilot and crew's point of view. Combat flight simulation titles are more numerous than civilian flight simulators due to variety of subject matter available and market demand.

Mainframe computers are computers used primarily by businesses and academic institutions for large-scale processes. Before personal computers, first termed microcomputers, became widely available to the general public in the 1970s, the computing industry was composed of mainframe computers and the relatively smaller and cheaper minicomputer variant. During the mid to late 1960s, many early video games were programmed on these computers. Developed prior to the rise of the commercial video game industry in the early 1970s, these early mainframe games were generally written by students or employees at large corporations in a machine or assembly language that could only be understood by the specific machine or computer type they were developed on. While many of these games were lost as older computers were discontinued, some of them were ported to high-level computer languages like BASIC, had expanded versions later released for personal computers, or were recreated for bulletin board systems years later, thus influencing future games and developers.

<i>The Sumerian Game</i> 1964 video game

The Sumerian Game is an early text-based strategy video game of land and resource management. It was developed as part of a joint research project between the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Westchester County, New York and IBM in 1964–1966 for investigation of the use of computer-based simulations in schools. It was designed by Mabel Addis, then a fourth-grade teacher, and programmed by William McKay for the IBM 7090 time-shared mainframe computer. The first version of the game was played by a group of 30 sixth-grade students in 1964, and a revised version featuring refocused gameplay and added narrative and audiovisual elements was played by a second group of students in 1966.

References

  1. 1 2 Rollinger, Christian (9 January 2020). Classical Antiquity in Video Games: Playing with the Ancient World. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 29. ISBN   978-1-350-06664-9.
  2. ↑ "The Majesty of Welcome Tape". Rock Paper Shotgun . Gamer Network. 23 July 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  3. ↑ http://bbc.nvg.org/doc/Welcome.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  4. ↑ "9 Ways To Dictate Like A Pro In Tropico 5 on PS4" . Retrieved 2 October 2016.
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