I’m itching to play something like Cities Skylines, but also something that isn’t just about growing and growing, rather building within certain (spatial?) limitations and/or solving problems or something. I hope this isn’t a contradiction, but I’d also like if it had a bit more focus on individual buildings and livability rather than optimizing car traffic, if that makes any sense. I guess i’m looking for something that is a bit more than just a city sculpting sandbox, but less than a full blown metropolis-society-simulator.

  • Agent_Karyo@piefed.worldEnglish
    11·
    9 hours ago

    If you are OK with historical city-builders, the campaigns for Caesar III, Pharaoh and Zeus/Poseidon, are largely level-focused. They are available on GOG and there is a really nice modern engine for Caesar III.

    Based on feedback and discussion that I’ve seen (I haven’t tried it yet), Microlandia seems to mostly fit your request in a modern city-builder:

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/4094120/Microlandia/

    Might also be worth checking out Urbek City Builder (also modern).

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/1411740/Urbek_City_Builder/

    I have played UCB and it does have a bigger focus on neighbourhoods and types of commercial/industrial areas. I felt that the tutorial makes it seem like it’s not a city-builder, it very much is and with it’s own game design approach.

    You can play it as a Metropolis city-builder too, but there can be some annoyances with this approach (I had to design blocks for certain things for space efficiency, some blocks are available in the guide section on steam).