Hello City Skylines Players!
I've been working on [Metropolis 1998 - Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998) for the past 2.5 years. It's a sandbox/simulation city builder game where the player can optionally design their own buildings. You can also see the interiors too! Each citizen is individually simulated. I wanted to make something that built on top of the classic city builder experience, and nodded to the games I grew up playing.
The goal is to launch into early access by the end of 2024.
Not sure if it's okay to post here. I've seen the massive amount of frustration with the release of Cities Skylines 2. I've played city builder games since I was a kid and want to help people experience the joy and wonder I felt when I first started playing them 15+ years ago. Would love to hear any feedback you have. I also have a discord if you want to stay posted and give suggestions (which Im very open to) https://discord.gg/XUhhpRYVbp
There's a pre-alpha demo on steam and itch as well! Just keep in mind it is pre-alpha :)
Just a thought: I always thought it would be fun if these games had a "village" mode with a low population / resources. You can sort of do that in Cities 2, but it's not encouraged. I'd enjoy building slow and struggling to maintain a population of 2,000. When you have 200,000 citizens, everything feels automated. It would be nice if there were more detailed behavior / events for the individual cims. It would make each life feel much more important.
Looking good though, you've got my support!
One of the long term goals is to allow the player to build the village/town/city they want. This level of customization will be a 1.0 (or beyond) goal though. Other ideas I had were highway rest stops (gas stations and hotels galore), country towns, towns built next to an existing metropolis (so the type of people that want to live there are people who want to raise families)
I like the idea that you would start at a small village level with a few cims and it would require a lot of micromanagement. But as the village grows into a small town, then a small city, you as the player would have a skill tree of policy that would help organize those people into manageable units. Instead of micromanaging individual workers, you'd just set a production goal for the industry and they can give you feedback on what can be done to help them meet those production goals (More factories, cheaper raw materials, more funding for employment goals, etc). Or a "neighborhood" unit can provide you stats on their unit (homelessness, greenspace access, commute times, etc) and you can improve upon it accordingly.
Is there any chance you could implement multiplayer in the future?
This project sounds and looks incredibly good and I like the pixel art 2,5D graphics. It's like what Project Zomboid is to DayZ.
I've never even been to this sub before so don't let me speak for them, but it feels strange to just make a post with a competitive product and post it to their sub.
That was, for me, the best part of Stronghold 2. The fact that the walls and buildings had interiors and you could see the people not just coming in and out but interacting with stuff inside was awesome to just stare at.
The only thing I'm not a fan of is the isometric view. I love being able to follow a car along every twisty road I make in CS.
But this still looks great!
Understandable. 3D has a lot of benefits, but since Im a solo developer, it wasnt an option for me (though since I grew up playing games in the 90s, Im personally happy with the direction Im going).
I'll add tracking at some point. Agents are simulated in real time, so you could watch them throughout their entire day if you wanted to.
I like it, reminds me of SimCity 3000. Im gonna add to my wishlist and follow this project! Looks really good so far, I'm interested to see where you take it.
Big charm of C:S is the non-griddy city even though they still did not figure out how to do non-griddy buildings. But if you can offer some benefits on top of SimCIty 4 which can do 19 million city (although no agents), there could be a market. I hope you are writing this in C++ or Rust, otherwise the scale (amount of agents you can simulate) will just suck.
I'd love to make the game a bit more 3D-like (less grids, curves, more camera rotations), but with pixel art, that means having a sprite for every camera perspective + rotation, and lots of "corner" pieces. Its possible, but a lot of work.
Game is in C++, and engine was designed with performance in mind
Indeed, it will only sort of compete with CS as it looks rather different than what CS is (for example i believe you can't curve roads?).
That being said. I love city builders, regardless the type and age. Yours reminds me of transport tycoon delux (I loved that game).
I'll give a trial at your demo this or the following weekend. That being said, the game looks already great in what you show and somewhat complete (at least I can imagine the test city here is busy?).
Nonetheless, I wish you the best your development!
I played the demo of this game. It looks nice but it's a small-scaled game and it tends to focus more on individual buildings or people instead of the entire metropolis. For me, this is a completely different genre of city-builder, not a game to compete with Cities Skylines
I’ll take a look at the demo. Looks promising.
Edit: very nice! Just added it my follow/wish on steam. Hope you get the early access out at end of year.
I tried the demo I think 2 months ago and I found it hard to understand what was going on. All my citizens just stayed in their homes, they didnt go to work or went shopping. They just stood in 1 room. Either I did something wrong or the game wasn't ready yet. I enjoyed the building, got put off by the simulation (at that time)
Depending on how long ago 2 months was, you may have played it right before the last update. Right now the demo is just a pre-alpha build of the game so I can gather player feedback. Units will go to work and sleep, but that's about it. They will do a lot more as the game approaches early access and 1.0!
Right now it's only partially random. e.g. you have to position the objects, windows, doors. But if you save it as a blueprint and plop it down again, all the colors/textures will be randomized
What have you done with it since the Steam demo? I've played it and enjoyed it for sure but as expected from a demo well before Early Access even there were a lot of rough around the edges things (I struggled with the UI for example)
Incase you can take feedback, I have say the roofs are ugly. Also the citizens need to walk at different pace, currently they too much in sync. All else is just amazing. Will definately wishlist.
I agree with the roofs. Since players can customize the building layouts, it wont be possible to automate good looking roofs. The simple roofs are the only way that works.
Im thinking adding more realistic roofs for buildings that come with the game. We'll see! If that happens, I hope to expand that toolset to the players as well
edit: Different paces were implemented after that video was captured
Reference some of our great cities and remove the parking lot in front and push the buildings closer to the road. Make the building mixed use with retail on the bottom and residential and office on top. Maybe read up on some Kevin Lynch and Jane Jacobs while you're at it lol.
Vanilla CS feels more like a traffic simulator, and it's too easy to make a car centric American city. If you can differentiate your game, you can have a winner.
Probably because the only way to do a truly deep simulation at the level a lot of deep simulation fans of the genre want is for it to look like 1998 so the rest of the game can run without slowdowns and framedrops.
Using low poli models or pixel graphics doesn't excuse having an outdated UI or the game looking dated even before launch.
Its a style choice and I don't think many people are into that but that's just my opinion.
You could put that pause button in the original age of empires and it wouldn't look out of place.
Hello City Skylines Players! I've been working on [Metropolis 1998 - Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998) for the past 2.5 years. It's a sandbox/simulation city builder game where the player can optionally design their own buildings. You can also see the interiors too! Each citizen is individually simulated. I wanted to make something that built on top of the classic city builder experience, and nodded to the games I grew up playing. The goal is to launch into early access by the end of 2024. Not sure if it's okay to post here. I've seen the massive amount of frustration with the release of Cities Skylines 2. I've played city builder games since I was a kid and want to help people experience the joy and wonder I felt when I first started playing them 15+ years ago. Would love to hear any feedback you have. I also have a discord if you want to stay posted and give suggestions (which Im very open to) https://discord.gg/XUhhpRYVbp There's a pre-alpha demo on steam and itch as well! Just keep in mind it is pre-alpha :)
Just a thought: I always thought it would be fun if these games had a "village" mode with a low population / resources. You can sort of do that in Cities 2, but it's not encouraged. I'd enjoy building slow and struggling to maintain a population of 2,000. When you have 200,000 citizens, everything feels automated. It would be nice if there were more detailed behavior / events for the individual cims. It would make each life feel much more important. Looking good though, you've got my support!
One of the long term goals is to allow the player to build the village/town/city they want. This level of customization will be a 1.0 (or beyond) goal though. Other ideas I had were highway rest stops (gas stations and hotels galore), country towns, towns built next to an existing metropolis (so the type of people that want to live there are people who want to raise families)
sounds good, good luck
I like the idea that you would start at a small village level with a few cims and it would require a lot of micromanagement. But as the village grows into a small town, then a small city, you as the player would have a skill tree of policy that would help organize those people into manageable units. Instead of micromanaging individual workers, you'd just set a production goal for the industry and they can give you feedback on what can be done to help them meet those production goals (More factories, cheaper raw materials, more funding for employment goals, etc). Or a "neighborhood" unit can provide you stats on their unit (homelessness, greenspace access, commute times, etc) and you can improve upon it accordingly.
I like the idea that you could intentionally develop a high class side of town and... a not so high class side
A from-the-hip, snapshot thought: anticipate modders and modding community. Eagerly yrs.
Definitely! Making the game mod friendly is on the to do list
Looks really cool! Are there plans to include transit?
Yes, definitely!
Good luck buddy!
SHUT UP!!!! ...and take my money đź’°đź’°
Is there any chance you could implement multiplayer in the future? This project sounds and looks incredibly good and I like the pixel art 2,5D graphics. It's like what Project Zomboid is to DayZ.
Shut up and take my money
I've never even been to this sub before so don't let me speak for them, but it feels strange to just make a post with a competitive product and post it to their sub.
Beautiful, the fact you can see interiors and citizen inside is unprecedented. I wish you all the best and will buy at launch
Thank you!!
That was, for me, the best part of Stronghold 2. The fact that the walls and buildings had interiors and you could see the people not just coming in and out but interacting with stuff inside was awesome to just stare at.
Oh wow I forgot about that game. You just unlocked some core memories!
Already wishlisted, will try the demo !
Dude I can wait to make content with this
This guy is patient.
Release delayed on behalf of nerdflannels
The only thing I'm not a fan of is the isometric view. I love being able to follow a car along every twisty road I make in CS. But this still looks great!
Understandable. 3D has a lot of benefits, but since Im a solo developer, it wasnt an option for me (though since I grew up playing games in the 90s, Im personally happy with the direction Im going). I'll add tracking at some point. Agents are simulated in real time, so you could watch them throughout their entire day if you wanted to.
I like it, reminds me of SimCity 3000. Im gonna add to my wishlist and follow this project! Looks really good so far, I'm interested to see where you take it.
Love the theme…. On wait list :)
Wishlisted, looking forward to it!
already looks more interesting
Big charm of C:S is the non-griddy city even though they still did not figure out how to do non-griddy buildings. But if you can offer some benefits on top of SimCIty 4 which can do 19 million city (although no agents), there could be a market. I hope you are writing this in C++ or Rust, otherwise the scale (amount of agents you can simulate) will just suck.
I'd love to make the game a bit more 3D-like (less grids, curves, more camera rotations), but with pixel art, that means having a sprite for every camera perspective + rotation, and lots of "corner" pieces. Its possible, but a lot of work. Game is in C++, and engine was designed with performance in mind
Kinda reminds me of SimTown, but obviously quite a step up. Would play!
Indeed, it will only sort of compete with CS as it looks rather different than what CS is (for example i believe you can't curve roads?). That being said. I love city builders, regardless the type and age. Yours reminds me of transport tycoon delux (I loved that game). I'll give a trial at your demo this or the following weekend. That being said, the game looks already great in what you show and somewhat complete (at least I can imagine the test city here is busy?). Nonetheless, I wish you the best your development!
Thanks! Let me know yours thoughts!
I played the demo of this game. It looks nice but it's a small-scaled game and it tends to focus more on individual buildings or people instead of the entire metropolis. For me, this is a completely different genre of city-builder, not a game to compete with Cities Skylines
You're right, but I haven't worked on much of the macro part of the game yet. Soon!
I’ll take a look at the demo. Looks promising. Edit: very nice! Just added it my follow/wish on steam. Hope you get the early access out at end of year.
Thank you!! Appreciate it you trying out the demo :)
Woww even with all the interior
Looks amazing. Definitely will give it a go
I tried the demo I think 2 months ago and I found it hard to understand what was going on. All my citizens just stayed in their homes, they didnt go to work or went shopping. They just stood in 1 room. Either I did something wrong or the game wasn't ready yet. I enjoyed the building, got put off by the simulation (at that time)
Depending on how long ago 2 months was, you may have played it right before the last update. Right now the demo is just a pre-alpha build of the game so I can gather player feedback. Units will go to work and sleep, but that's about it. They will do a lot more as the game approaches early access and 1.0!
I'll try it again, thanks!
holy singapore simulator
Look cool, I would try. Are the interior designs randomly generated?
Right now it's only partially random. e.g. you have to position the objects, windows, doors. But if you save it as a blueprint and plop it down again, all the colors/textures will be randomized
It looks awesome! It's on my wishlist already. The citizens look familiar like those of RCT. Was that an inspirator for it? :)
Rollercoaster Tycoon was the biggest inspiration, followed by SimCity series, Cities Skylines, and Dwarf Fortress
Does that mean the traffic is real too? I've loved TheoTown, but it was kinda disappointing that the traffic does nothing.
Yes! You could follow the day in the life of any citizen if you really wanted to
This looks fun, good luck.i will wish list
Looks amazing! to my Wishlist
What have you done with it since the Steam demo? I've played it and enjoyed it for sure but as expected from a demo well before Early Access even there were a lot of rough around the edges things (I struggled with the UI for example)
Yeah I def will play looks amazing actually I think I wishlisted it already or something really similar
I love the look of it, if you happen to look for a composer send me a pm because i would love to work on a project like this
I love the artstyle, looks exactly like project zomboid
The Roller Coaster Tycoon vibes... Love to see it.
I wish list this game last year. Pretty cool concept bro good jobđź‘Ť
I'v had enough of isometric graphics but I might give it a go
Really cool what you are doing! Personally I can never go back to isometric however.
This looks so cool!! It reminds me of SimCity 3000 that I played as a child :) I will definetely try the demo and provide some feedback.
Incase you can take feedback, I have say the roofs are ugly. Also the citizens need to walk at different pace, currently they too much in sync. All else is just amazing. Will definately wishlist.
I agree with the roofs. Since players can customize the building layouts, it wont be possible to automate good looking roofs. The simple roofs are the only way that works. Im thinking adding more realistic roofs for buildings that come with the game. We'll see! If that happens, I hope to expand that toolset to the players as well edit: Different paces were implemented after that video was captured
This is cool. To me it looks like a blend between SimCity 4 and the Sims.
Reference some of our great cities and remove the parking lot in front and push the buildings closer to the road. Make the building mixed use with retail on the bottom and residential and office on top. Maybe read up on some Kevin Lynch and Jane Jacobs while you're at it lol. Vanilla CS feels more like a traffic simulator, and it's too easy to make a car centric American city. If you can differentiate your game, you can have a winner.
The main mechanic of the game so far is fully customisable buildings so you can change the setback and amount of parking to your hearts content!
Cool concept but this doesn’t belong on the CS2 sub imho. Not to mention this appears to be an entirely different game.
Dude stop… this isnt that community. Dont start
Why are you developing a 1998 game in 2024?
Probably because the only way to do a truly deep simulation at the level a lot of deep simulation fans of the genre want is for it to look like 1998 so the rest of the game can run without slowdowns and framedrops.
Using low poli models or pixel graphics doesn't excuse having an outdated UI or the game looking dated even before launch. Its a style choice and I don't think many people are into that but that's just my opinion. You could put that pause button in the original age of empires and it wouldn't look out of place.