Key Features of the Original Sim City
2005/10/12
As an
exercise in design, I once sat down and tried to list what I thought were the
key features of Sim City.
It's sort
of amazing how few key features there really are... or have I missed some
obvious ones?
- FEATURES
- Zoning
- Residential
- Commercial
- Industrial
- Services
- Transportation
- Power
line
- Facilities
- Active
- Power
Plant
- Airport
- Seaport
- Fire
- Police
- Passive
- Block
query
- Land/zone/service/facility
type
- Density
- Value
- Crime
- Pollution
- Growth
- City
evaluation
- Ratings
- Statistics
- Problems
- Taxation
- ACTIONS
- Place
Block
- Zoning
(large block)
- Services
(small block)
- Facilities
(several sizes)
- Bulldoze
existing block
- Set
tax rate
- VARIABLES
- Player-set
- Internal
- General
- Population
- Funds
- City
value
- City
score
- Mayoral
approval rating
- Per
Block
- Population
Density
- Pollution
Level
- Crime
Rate
- Land
Value
- Housing
Cost
- Traffic
- Police
Influence
- Fire
Protection
- Satisfaction
(aggregate)
- BEHIND-THE-SCENES
- Each
tick of the clock is one month.
- Zones
must be connected to power to attract sims; connections are checked each
month.
- Taxes
are assessed on all sims at the end of each year to generate funds.
- Placing
a block costs an amount of money that depends on the type of block.
- Sims
enter and leave the city each year based on satisfaction with city-wide
and local variables.
- Connection
to services and proximity to facilities will increase or decrease sim
satisfaction.
- Increasing
the number of sims in each zone type affects the desirability of other
zone types.