City builder
You lay out and grow a city: zoning, roads and services, while balancing the budget as the population's needs change. There is no enemy to defeat; the challenge is keeping the city working.
Also known as: city-building game, city sim, town builder
This is a basic entry: it has the definition and the classification. Full entries add history, games and a demo.
History
- 1964Origin
Wikipedia names The Sumerian Game (1964), a text-based mainframe game, as the earliest city-building game.
City-building game (Wikipedia) - 1982Utopia
Utopia, for the Intellivision, already gathers the elements of city building and influences SimCity.
Construction and management simulation (Wikipedia) - 1989SimCity
SimCity is the first big hit of construction and management games.
Construction and management simulation (Wikipedia)
Reference games
1982
Utopia
Two players each rule an island over timed rounds. With gold bars you build houses, schools, factories, hospitals and crops to house, feed and content a growing population; if you fail, rebels appear. It is credited with starting the genre.
1989
SimCity
You zone residential, commercial and industrial land and lay out roads and services, and the city grows by itself according to your planning; there is no way to win, only a city to keep going. In 2008 its code was released as Micropolis.
1992
Caesar
You govern a Roman province and raise cities where every home needs schools, theatres and baths nearby to prosper. It began Impressions' City Building series, which went on with Pharaoh and Zeus.