Open country · a small city you can hold

Date
Jan Y1
Funds
2500
People
0
Jobs
0
Happy
50%

Tap a tile to build. Drag to paint roads and zones; on a touch screen, hold first. Swipe to scroll.

LEARN

Twelve lessons 0 / 12

  1. Lay a road

    Pick the Road tool and tap three tiles in a row. Drag to paint.

  2. Zone four homes

    Homes go next to a road. Tap four grass tiles touching your road.

  3. Build a power plant

    Nothing grows in the dark. A plant powers 24 zone tiles anywhere in town.

  4. Zone two shops and two workshops

    The first few dozen move in on their own. After that, homes follow jobs. Shops sell, workshops make.

  5. Let a month pass

    Press Next month, or turn on Auto. Watch the ledger.

  6. Reach 50 residents

    Zones fill in one level at a time when they have power, a road and demand.

  7. Plant a park near homes

    A park within two tiles of a home raises its value and cleans the air.

  8. Keep every home out of the smoke

    Workshops and plants put smoke on every tile within two steps. Keep homes three away, or add parks.

  9. Finish a month in the black

    Roads, parks and plants cost upkeep. Taxes from people and jobs pay for them.

  10. Reach 200 residents

    Balance homes against jobs. The RCI bars show what the town is asking for.

  11. Reach 80% happiness with 100 residents

    Jobs for everyone, clean air, parks per person and a fair tax rate.

  12. Run the town for a year

    Twelve months without going broke. Then it is your city.

LEDGER

Month by month

  1. Nothing has happened yet. Lay a road.

SHIP

Keep it, share it

Your city saves in this browser after every change. Export it to take it anywhere.

A city link carries the whole town in the address: whoever opens it can walk around, inspect it and keep a copy. A map link shares only the empty terrain.

HOW IT WORKS

The whole rulebook

  • The map is 16 by 16 tiles. Water cannot be built on. Trees and grass can.
  • A zone grows one level a month, up to three, when it touches a road on one of its four sides, has power, and the town wants more of it. Zones are visited in reading order from the top left, and demand is re-read after each one, so growth stops as soon as the town has what it asked for. A zone loses a level when it is dark or cut off, or when demand is deeply negative.
  • Each home level holds 8 people. Each shop level is 6 jobs; each workshop level is 10.
  • One power plant serves 24 zone tiles anywhere in town, in reading order from the top left. The rest stay dark.
  • A workshop puts 2 units of smoke and a plant 3 on every tile within two steps, so a home needs to be three steps away to stay clear; a park clears 2, so one park cancels one workshop. A home in the smoke stops at level one, and a built-out home that smoke reaches loses a level a month until it gets there. A park within two steps clears two units of smoke and raises land value; water and trees next door raise value too, but only a park counts for the park lesson.
  • Each month, income is (people + half the jobs) times the tax rate over ten. Upkeep is 2 per road, 2 per park and 25 per plant.
  • Happiness starts at 50 and moves with employment, parks per 40 residents, smoke over homes and land value. Every tax point over 7 costs 3; every point under 7 adds 1, up to 3.
  • Bulldozing is always allowed, even with no money, so a broke town can always shed upkeep. Undo takes back the last build.
  • Inspect any tile to see what it needs: road, power, demand, air and land value, and the one thing standing in its way.
  • Towns are named by their people: Hamlet at 1, Village at 50, Town at 200, City at 500, Metropolis at 1000.
  • Nothing is random after the map is drawn. The same moves on the same seed always give the same town.