This 'brutally honest' city builder features greedy landlords, cutthroat corporations, and a newspaper that gives you 'a constant reminder that your citizens' bad luck is perhaps your fault'

A low-res city — (Image credit: explodi)

Oh, a new city builder? I know exactly how to get started. I'll drag a bunch of long roads across the map, slam in a ton of residential and commercial zones, slap down a fire house, a cop shop, and a few schools, then sit back and watch the virtual bucks roll in.

That approach usually works in city builders, but it's not gonna fly in Microlandia. This city builder, as described by its developer, explodi, is aiming to be "brutally honest" with its simulation, so it looks like my usual slapdash approach isn't gonna work.

In Microlandia, roads, usually the cheapest things to build in games, cost "thousands of dollars" per kilometer and represent "a huge investment for the city." Traffic jams aren't just a nuisance: citizens will literally get fired if they can't make it to work on time. And if someone can't pay their rent, they won't just conveniently skip town: they'll become unhoused, giving you a new problem to deal with.

Why so serious? It's because Microlandia's simulation is "carefully modeled after publications like World Bank Open Data, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Equity Atlas, Center for Urban Future and more." Don't worry, it's still meant to be fun to play. But it's also meant to provide insight into the genuine challenges and complexities of modern cities.

That means you'll need to put thought into everything you do, whether it's drawing a new road or adding a high school to the neighborhood. And as mayor, there are plenty of factors you're not in direct control of, like corporations and housing costs. "When companies don’t make ends meet, they go bankrupt, and everyone is fired," explodi says. "When the supply of housing is scarce, landlords get greedy and increase rents."

Your townsfolk also get older. "Time comes for everyone; even simulated citizens. They now retire at a certain age, and the city pays pensions from its monthly budget. Ignore this at your peril: the elderly vote, and deficits don’t forgive," explodi says. "Your citizens now know about hospitals, taxes, and the delicate balance between survival and bankruptcy. Hospital capacity is calculated; tax rates feed the treasury and starve the people. The simulation now whispers the uncomfortable truth: every service has a cost."

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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