Citystate Metropolis - Q1 2026
[p]I’m very excited to announce that the Steam page for Citystate Metropolis is now up! Curved roads, procedural buildings, grid-less zoning and true traffic simulation are on the menu. Check out the trailer!
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The rest of this post is a deeper dive into the game's development and the decisions I made along the way. If you're not interested in the technical side, feel free to go straight to the store page!
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This has been a long and difficult road. Unlike most other types of games you can’t really have a good trailer or screenshots until most of the game is done. It’s not like I can design one level, get a basic character controller, use some pre-made assets, and get it running. The core tech had to be built from scratch. The road construction tool (spline-based), the zoning tool (also spline-based), traffic and pathfinding, the hundreds of home-made assets; everything has to be in an advanced state of development before it all starts to work together. I had hopes more systems from Citystate 2 would carry over but in the end only the camera script has been reused (partially). Oh, and the sound effects, Metropolis still uses most of CS2 audio clips right now. The soundtrack, of course, is all new, and I do love it![/p][p]It would have been easier, and frankly more sane, to just continue updating CS2 or reuse most of its tech. But that would have made curved roads impossible. Once you change the road system everything needs to change: the buildings, the terrain, traffic, everything is dependent on how the roads work. And this isn't just about curved roads. Even if I had kept the grid, just introducing more realistic, non-blocky terrain would have required a complete overhaul (in CS2 buildings can only be placed on perfectly flat land because the data is fundamentally based on a rigid grid).[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]So we are starting from a clean slate again and this time around we’re in for the long haul! Everything is planned and designed to be expanded upon. Instead of stacking up as many features as possible for launch, with Metropolis, I focused on the basics first. I’m making sure the core construction tools meet today’s standards and expectations. These foundations is where I wanted to innovate, where I wanted to take some risks. I do not want any of the core systems to become a limitation in the future. I’ll think of airports and garbage collection later on. I’ve learned that the hardest part in making a city builder is not the gameplay loop, it’s not the simulation systems, it’s not even the optimizations or the graphics! It’s the god-damned tools! And believe me, splines make everything more complicated. It’s no wonder there are so few modern city building games in the market. It’s no wonder it took a team with a decade of experience with splines to dethrone SimCity. But anyway, I digress.[/p][p]![]()
[/p][p]Citystate Metropolis is launching in Early Access next year. I expect the Early Access period to last for a year, two years max. During this time I'll focus on two main things. First, improving what you guys give the most feedback on (usually UX and quality-of-life features). Second, adding the bigger missing pieces: trains, tunnels, and other planned features I’ll likely have to cut to make the initial release. I really want to have a demo out before the end of this year as well, not really for marketing actually but to gather feedback and get a better idea of players’ expectations.[/p][p]My hope is that Metropolis will bring something new to the genre and introduce Citystate’s more pragmatic take on city planning and economy to a broader audience.[/p][p]I’m grateful for the chance you all have given me - by purchasing, playing and sharing my games - to work on something I love. Thank you and I hope you’ll follow me once again on this new adventure. [/p][p][/p]
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
The rest of this post is a deeper dive into the game's development and the decisions I made along the way. If you're not interested in the technical side, feel free to go straight to the store page!
[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
This has been a long and difficult road. Unlike most other types of games you can’t really have a good trailer or screenshots until most of the game is done. It’s not like I can design one level, get a basic character controller, use some pre-made assets, and get it running. The core tech had to be built from scratch. The road construction tool (spline-based), the zoning tool (also spline-based), traffic and pathfinding, the hundreds of home-made assets; everything has to be in an advanced state of development before it all starts to work together. I had hopes more systems from Citystate 2 would carry over but in the end only the camera script has been reused (partially). Oh, and the sound effects, Metropolis still uses most of CS2 audio clips right now. The soundtrack, of course, is all new, and I do love it![/p][p]It would have been easier, and frankly more sane, to just continue updating CS2 or reuse most of its tech. But that would have made curved roads impossible. Once you change the road system everything needs to change: the buildings, the terrain, traffic, everything is dependent on how the roads work. And this isn't just about curved roads. Even if I had kept the grid, just introducing more realistic, non-blocky terrain would have required a complete overhaul (in CS2 buildings can only be placed on perfectly flat land because the data is fundamentally based on a rigid grid).[/p][p]
