Highrise City News

Playtest Patch #1 Released

Greetings Builders,

We currently have roughly 1800 people with access to the playtest but thousands are still waiting for access. We are trying to get more people in but keep in mind that we still need to at least keep some sort of control about the amount of feedback. And while the steam forums are not being flooded, the Discord is. And that feedback is amazingly helpful. Anyways. We're trying our best to get more people in down the line.

In the meantime, the first patch is now available.

[h3]Patchnotes[/h3]

Garbage zones cannot be placed inside other buildings
Hints will be displayed less frequently
In the Hint-Window hints can be disabled (They can be reactivated in the menu as well)
DirectX11 is now the standard pipeline
Added a tooltip in building info window for maximum workers
Fixed a crash issue when building streets
Visual bug on crossroads fixed
Improved street building tool when connecting streets
Farm buildings now get a preview when building a farm
Fixed some translations
Buildings connecting to streets has been improved (might not yet be perfect)
Right click will now close the tooltip menu
Maximum loans increased (requires a new game)
Reduced difficulty on easy for trading
Reduced difficulty on medium slightly
If the player goes into the debts, the bank gets unlocked (Only if Hints are active)
Intro FourExo can now be skipepd
If an office gets clicked on, a hint will explain the ressource "office" and the taxes
Checkbox symbol visually improved
Placing objects improved when camera is in far distance
Photomode and F9 (standard key) will remove 3D Symbols and street names
Driving your own car will remove 3D Symbols and street names
Milestones: Unlocking of certain buildings has been adjusted. Removed doubled buildings, tax office gets unlocked earlier
Minimum length of streets slightly increased
In the population stats now the correct number of people is being displayed
Terraforming Description increased (ToolTipLock)
Terraforming strenght of brush reduced. With CTRL strength can be increased
Laws: Removed wrong texts
Buying land cannot be negative anymore
Reduced costs of gargabe zones

Here's a handy fan roundup of 30 city builders coming up

There are a whole lot of great city-building games out there, but there's always room for more. We've already seen some nuggets of information about a few on the way this year, such as "next evolution" city builder Highrise City, which is currently having a closed beta test. Now, though, YouTuber GamerZakh has posted a handy roundup of upcoming PC city builders due to head our way over the next couple of years that are worth keeping an eye out for if you're a fan of the genre.

GamerZakh's video kicks off with Highrise City, which is on the way from developer Fourexo Entertainment and publisher Deck13 sometime this year. The game looks to bring a new and modern spin to city sims and tycoon games by expanding on their economy and resource management facets. You'll be able to have up to one million inhabitants for each city, up to 30,000 buildings per city, and up to 5,000 cars and vehicles per scene (with 20,000 per city simulated), as its Steam page explains. The aim is that the game will offer a "complex resource-based economy system", so it sounds like it'll be good for fans who enjoy sinking their teeth into the nuts and bolts of forging a flourishing city.

Elsewhere in the list, we've got Hermes Interactive and Crytivo's Power to the People, which sees you create and maintain a power grid that keeps ever-growing cities, well, powered.

Read the rest of the story...

Playtest is now live & FAQ

Greetings Builders!

We have just started the playtest. The first batch of invitations is out. Check your inboxes, you might be among the first ones. But we won't stop here. More invitations will go out soon. Check also the FAQ below.

[h2]When will I get access?[/h2]
We cannot guarantee that you will get access to the playtest. On the first day we plan to unlock the build for 200 randomly selected players from all over the world. On the second day we'd like to add another 200. After the weekend we'll see how we will proceed.

[h2]Why not more players?[/h2]
Again: We don't know what to expect. Depending on the amount of feedback, we will definitely invite way more players. But keep in mind that Highrise City is handled by a very small team and we need to control a bit the amount of feedback and bug reports.

[h2]Is there another way to get access?[/h2]
Feel free to join the official Discord. We're handing out a few keys there as well.

[h2]Where shall we report bugs?[/h2]
We have created a Subforum here on Steam. Make sure to give the sticky thread a read. It contains infos on the structure. If you post your feedback int he general forum we'll move it to the subforum. You can also join the Discord. We have a playtest channel there as well.

[h2]What happens with the Feedback?[/h2]
We have created a public Trello board. We're going through the feedback and will add stuff there based on the feedback you gave. From time to time we might also post on the forums (and on Discord). We can't guarantee to answer each and every question or report though. We guarantee however to read each and every one of them.

[h2]The Trello wasn't updated...[/h2]
On weekends we won't update the Trello. We'll still be reading the posts most likely. But we'll also try to get some rest.

[h2]How long will the playtest run?[/h2]
We plan to keep the test running for about two weeks.

[h2]I have more questions...[/h2]
Check the public Trello board. We've put most common questions in an FAQ there as well.

"Next evolution" city builder Highrise City is getting a beta test this week

Cities: Skylines remains a fantastic city builder and one of the best management games on PC but it's also nearly seven years old, so it's no surprise that it's getting some more modern competition. Highrise City prides itself as "the next evolution of city builders" - and you might be able to try it yourself this week.

Cities: Skylines came out in 2015 and quickly became the best city management game around, but while it continues to be supported - the Airports DLC is out on Tuesday - there's still no sign of a sequel, leaving plenty of room for a modern upstart.

Highrise City - from Focus Interactive, Deck13, and new indie developer Fourexo Entertainment - aims to be "the next evolution of city simulations" and promises "a modern take on the genre". Specifically, Fourexo aims for Highrise City to be both a traditional city builder mixed with elements from economy and resource management sims. The latest trailer can be found below, giving a taste of this "complex resource-based economy system" the developer promises in action.

Read the rest of the story...

Playtest starts January 27th - New Showcase - New Visuals

Greetings Builders!

We have a date. On January 27th we will start the playtest. You can still register for it and even while it runs you will still be able to register for a chance to try out the game ahead of its release. Of course, some questions arrise from that:

[h3]How many players will be able to participate in the playtest?[/h3]
We will unlock the game for 100 randomly picked users on the first day. We will add another 100 on Friday 28th. On the weekend we'll decide on how to proceed.

[h3]How long will the playtest run?[/h3]
We plan to keep the version up and running for two weeks.

[h3]Why not more people?[/h3]
This is the first time we're giving the Playtest feature of Steam a try. We don't know what to expect and since we're a small team and we're expecting quite some feedback, we need to make sure we can actually handle it. Depending on the amount of feedback we will also invite more players.

[h3]What is in this build?[/h3]
One map. And you can play it as you wish. We haven't locked out a lot of stuff. There might be untextured buildings in the later parts of the game, just so that you know. The balancing is probably a bit off.

[h3]Where should we post feedback?[/h3]
We have opened up another subforum here on Steam. There is also a sticky post explaining a lot of more things about the feedback structure and where you can check what Feedback we'll use. You can also join the official Discord and discuss with us, obviously.

[h3]Is there another way to get access to the build?[/h3]
Yes. On Discord we will hand out a few more keys every now and then. Also, if you are a member of the press or have a Youtube / Twitch Channel, feel free to get in touch and we'll see what we can do.

[h2]Feature Showcase and the new look[/h2]
We've got some additional news for you! A new Feature Showcase has just been released. Taking a look at the laws and research features of the game. We actually wanted to release the showcase last week already but... well. We ran into a major issue.

See, we've always been very transparent about the development of the game. And last week we managed to finally finish up the overall lighting and post processing. This created a situation where the game looked way different. Way better. And we had to decide on how to proceed with the Feature Showcase. Cause the scenes were, obviously, recorded before those changes were made. We think we've found a proper way however:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We recommend turning the sound on. And if you don't want to get spoiled about the mechanics, well, here is a screenshot which demonstrates how the game looks like right now: