Cities: Skylines My Sustainable City

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After taking a long break from simulation games, I decided to come back to the genre that got me into video games. When I was very young I couldn’t play genre’s like RPG’s and horror games which are my two favorite genres of all time. The game I decided to play was Cities: Skylines. When I was a kid I was constantly playing games like it, such as Sim City and Zoo Tycoon. I figured it would be fun to give it a try and see if the nostalgia from the simulation games of my childhood would be something I would enjoy. As it turned out, this was 100% the case.

(My little plot of land)

When you start the game, you get to choose from one of several locations, you are also given the ability to name your new city. I thought for all intents and purposes it would be fun to name my city and to keep the streets and districts that made it up have the same theme. The name I chose was Middle-Earth. I have always been a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings books and movies and thought it would be fun to have my city be comprised of the regions that make up Middle-Earth.

When I began the creation of my city I decided it didn’t matter if I played a tutorial or not. Unfortunately for me, Cities: Skylines Is an incredibly intricate game and my original city ended up failing. It wasn’t long before I was losing thousands of dollars a week and slipping into economical downfall. It became quickly apparent that I would need to do some more research on how everything works for my new city of Middle-Earth to thrive and be a place where people would want to live.

(City up and running)

So, started Middle-Earth 2.0, thankfully this time I could get off the ground and with some effort I managed to actually earn money rather than lose it. The key thing you need to do is manage the creation of large building areas as it turns out. You are constantly in demand of either creating residential, industrial or commercial zones in your city to help please the populace. You also need to provide proper transportation, services, regulations, and try to keep your city from being overly polluted. I did the best I could with all those things and my city ended up functioning entirely on wind power which I found incredible. This game gave me the ability to be conscious of the environment and the devastating effects of global warming as I hoped to create a successful city.

(SO much detail for every aspect of the game)

As my city grew and grew, I was forced to expand and develop constantly which proved to be a rigorous, yet addicting task. I found myself locked in the game and would turn to look at the time and hours had gone by. I was constantly trying to make my way through the stages unlocked through population levels so I could unlock innovative ways to make my city even better.

(Night view of Middle-Earth in it's early stages)

Now, there are several issues your city can have as you progress in the game. I encountered one problem that proved to be incredibly annoying. This was the ability for my garbage and recycling collection service to work. I ended up going through a patch where across the city people’s garbage and recycling were constantly piling up. On top of that my cemetery/hearse service was also failing. So not only did people must deal with garbage, they also had to live with bodies in their houses for days. As amusing as this conundrum was tome I knew that if my city was going to improve I needed to solve these problems.

(The first expansion, building across the river)

I eventually discovered the problem wasn’t my services, but the roads that led to many of these places were constantly clogged with traffic. Thus, I discovered the need to make more connecting roads, with multiple ways to access sections of my city. Although I had many large roads that provided the ability to support heavy traffic, I ended up needing to make more roads and prevent large transport from using certain routes. The game got more and more complex as I went on in ways like this and I absolutely loved it.

(Finally solved the bodies and garbage issue)

Middle-Earth was finally getting somewhere and after meticulously naming all my roads and districts after Lord of The Rings places and characters I had a thriving city built. Not to mention I still had all my energy sources remain green. I ended up adding solar power to my arsenal due to it’s incredible efficiency at producing electricity and for its contribution to my sustainable cities success.

(Still so much that can be built and expanded upon)

After logging a ridiculous sum of hours, I had a thriving city and still had plenty of room to grow. Cities: Skylines gives you the ability to go incredibly in depth in your creation of your city as well as the size of it. You can essentially expand forever and aren’t limited to a small space like most simulation games where you build cities. I must say that I’m absolutely hooked on this game and will likely be playing it in my free time for an extended period. Hopefully I’ll get my city of Middle-Earth to rival the great sustainable cities of the world if it actually existed.