Cityscape puzzle game (Flash)

March 10, 2006 7:10 AM

Cityscape. (Flash game) Build a city with 18 available components. The order in which those components are employed determines how they'll interact and how far the city will develop. There's one correct order that will score the full amount of points. (via)
posted by Melinika (22 comments total)

Similar to the Grow games (also Flash, have been previously posted on MeFi).
posted by Melinika at 7:10 AM on March 10, 2006

I feel like the logic should be slightly less subtle in these sorts of games, i.e. why the hell should building an amusment park boost my military base?

bah
posted by craven_morhead at 7:32 AM on March 10, 2006

I hate these games. They are so not fun.
posted by joegester at 7:33 AM on March 10, 2006

It's Grow with all the frustration and none of the fun.
posted by empath at 7:34 AM on March 10, 2006

I like the idea, but the execution is weak. A pale imitation of Grow.
posted by brain_drain at 7:38 AM on March 10, 2006

What's frustrating about the game is that the simulation is in direct opposition to what it is supposed to be simulating. A city with a single optimal growth strategy? Not to mention no flexibility as to where anything goes?

Next!
posted by illovich at 8:00 AM on March 10, 2006

Boring, inane and arbitrary. It's not a game or simulation, just randomly clicking on things trying to guess the designer's intent.
posted by signal at 8:07 AM on March 10, 2006

like grow, and really REALLY ripping off sim city - even the music.
posted by timory at 8:10 AM on March 10, 2006

Curses, I think building the church last hurt me!
Ampersand City: Faithless Failure.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:29 AM on March 10, 2006

yeah i agree. At least with grow there's some kind of visual reward. Here I just feel the guilt of having doomed my imaginary citizens to years of toil and obscurity. I mean, even the amusent park is vaguely reminiscent of a prison camp.
posted by jrb223 at 8:45 AM on March 10, 2006

"Congratulations Mayor Gaylord, Fagville is a City!"
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:58 AM on March 10, 2006

Solution here (scroll down.)
posted by ori at 9:01 AM on March 10, 2006

"Congratulations Mayor K, Alphaville is a Crappy New-Wave Band!"
posted by JeffK at 9:16 AM on March 10, 2006

Somewhere a procedurally coded Will Wright corpse is spinning in its asynchronously shared grave.
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 9:56 AM on March 10, 2006

It's quite shiny... why does the gameplay have to stink? I mean, just randomly trying stuff isn't actually entertaining when there's apparently no underlying pattern to discover.
posted by musicinmybrain at 11:34 AM on March 10, 2006

...apparently no underlying pattern to discover. (excluding one that doesn't really make sense :-P )

Fun for those with a lot more patience, I suppose.
posted by musicinmybrain at 11:44 AM on March 10, 2006

I was hoping there would be more logic to it and maybe a lesson about smart growth. Fun for a bit anyway!
posted by Pollomacho at 12:23 PM on March 10, 2006

That totally put me in the mood for a month-long round of Civ.
posted by DenOfSizer at 2:01 PM on March 10, 2006

what a letdown. i was really hooked on Grow until i figured them all out and now id like similiar games and so far nothing compares.
posted by trishthedish at 7:00 PM on March 10, 2006

This sucks.

Has anyone done any grow type games that don't suck?
posted by Artw at 7:53 PM on March 10, 2006

Clue for anyone still working on it: The build order is completely arbitary, and after explorers and surveys has absolutely nothing to do with the order you'd actually expect, and visual clues like the roads joining up mean nothing.
posted by Artw at 8:12 PM on March 10, 2006

So this funny thing happened during one of my attempts: Selecting tourism resulted in a 'level up' for the Army Base.
posted by hellhammer at 4:14 PM on March 11, 2006