City builders are incredibly difficult to get right, especially for indie projects. To succeed, they need deep and complex simulation and management systems, while also being incredibly customizable and intuitive. A newcomer called City Masterplan is stepping up to the plate, and its first impression is very strong.
The reveal trailer for City Masterplan sets the stage for what indie developer and publisher 1:1 Studio is hoping to accomplish. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, City Masterplan hopes to feature larger build areas than its genre cohorts, while also instituting frequently requested city builder features, such as logistics, dynamic weather, and 1:1-scale assets. The reveal trailer is a promising first look at the game, which is "coming soon" to Steam, but it's definitely a tall order for an indie studio's debut project.
It's a good sign that the City Masterplan developers seem to know what players want out of the city building genre. Snippets of gameplay show everything from landscape terraforming to roadway micromanagement. The latter's apparent focus on realism extends to its art design, with assets scaled to mimic their real-world counterparts. Vehicles and traffic lights, for instance, are realistically sized compared to the humans and buildings they're next...
