Back in November 2019, a trailer was released for New Cities, an upcoming indie city-building game from one-man studio Lone Pine that looks to take the genre back to its late 90s isometric and strategic gameplay roots. A new trailer, Building a Metropolis, offers more details into the gameplay and mechanics of New Cities.
One question that was briefly covered in the November trailer was “What is the size and scope of New Cities?”. This new trailer offers insight into the impressive size of New Cities, covering a large map in densely packed suburbs and high-density housing, industry and commercial zones. Take a look for yourself:
For those of you who haven’t come across the game yet, New Cities is an isometric-style strategic city-building game that resembles the late 90s to early 2000 games from the same genre. Its art style is quaint and unique, the traffic management appears complex, and the scope of the game is realised in this new trailer.
There are a few aspects of the game that look really interesting. Lone Pine covers the smart traffic A.I, 3D graphics, dense economic management, and goes into more detail about what it takes to build a huge metropolis in New Cities. Every city begins the same way, with plotting your first streets and building up an agricultural town.
Amenities come next, such as schools, police stations and hospitals, which are guided by the game’s heatmaps. This is not a new feature to city-building games, but the quick glances at the taxes management clearly show that the expansion to huge skyscrapers and office blocks isn’t going to be a walk in the park.
More details about the game can be found on Lone Pine’s website for the game, newcities.io. Here you’ll find a regularly updated game development blog where they most recently announced that the first early access keys had gone out to contributors to the Indie Go-Go fundraiser.
If New Cities looks interesting to you, this is your last opportunity to donate to the fundraiser as it ends today, Tuesday 21st 2020. Donate $12 or more and you’ll get access to the early access and get the chance to offer feedback on this upcoming indie title. The game is set to receive a Steam early access release in Spring of this year and will be available for less than $20.
