Goal: grow a hamlet into a glowing metropolis. Buildings rise taller as density increases, so a healthy downtown is visible from its skyline.
- Plop a Coal Power Plant near the map edge (it pollutes).
- Drag Roads from it. Power flows along roads and buildings.
- Drag Residential and Industrial zones beside roads. Citizens move in on their own when a zone has road access, power, and demand.
- Add Commercial once you have shoppers, and services (fire, school, police...) as milestones unlock them.
- Watch the R / C / I demand bars (bottom right) to see what the city wants next.
Density: buildings level up from cottage to tower when land value, water supply, and services are good. Parks and shorelines raise land value; industry, traffic, crime, and the coal plant lower it. Growth past density 2 needs water (towers or shoreline pumps).
Economy: factories produce goods and freight trucks deliver them to shops; a shop with empty shelves eventually closes. Citizens must be able to reach jobs by road, and bus stops take cars off the street.
Politics: event cards bring offers with real tradeoffs. Ordinances (Policies button) trade monthly cost for citywide effects. The Fableburg Times (Times button) reports each quarter. Landmarks reward great cities.
AI Mayor: the Mayor button opens city hall. Assist mode maintains your infrastructure; Autopilot grows the whole city by itself from a requirement matrix you can inspect and re-weight, under a governor that keeps budgets and growth on course. Pick a Balanced or Industrial vision.
Controls: left-drag to build, right-drag or arrow keys to pan, mouse wheel to zoom, Esc for the inspector, Space to pause. Keys: 1 inspect, 2 bulldoze, 3 road, 4/5/6 zones. Click any vehicle or pedestrian with Inspect to follow their trip.
Beware: fires, crime, protests, and (if enabled) tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and stranger things. Unpowered or cut-off buildings are abandoned. Keep the budget positive. Scenarios with win conditions live under New.