Design Map

A city builder, one parcel at a time.

Working notes for our small team.

Inspiration

See Citybound and SimCity 4.

Documents

So related docs are easy to spot, each doc below is tagged on two axes:

Tag key
Category
Content Pipeline Design-Time Engine & Tooling Macroscopic Simulation Microscopic Simulation Meta
Subject
Art & Lighting Buildings Citizens Civics Economy Education Parks Politics Time & Weather Transport Utilities
Meta
Player Stories

Concrete archetypes with a goals, a verb set, and a relationship to the city.

Meta
Design-Time
Planning

Terraform and sketch roads in a dedicated survey mode, then subdivide blocks into parcels.

Design-TimeEngine & ToolingTransportBuildings
Design-Time
Terrain

2D heightmap-based elevation model with contour visualization for road placement and site grading.

Design-TimeEngine & ToolingTransport
Design-Time
Roads

Sketch a rough polyline, pick a road class, tweak speed and lanes — the editor fits a curvature-bounded arc spline live.

Design-TimeTransport
Engine & Tooling · Simulation
Arc-Spline Transport

Every right-of-way is a arc spline; roads and rail are bundles of one or more of them.

Microscopic SimulationEngine & ToolingTransportEconomy
Engine & Tooling
Engine & GUI Stack

three.js with WebGPU for the 3D world, Lit + plain HTML/CSS for the GUI shell.

Engine & Tooling
Engine & Tooling · Content Pipeline
Procedural Materials & Markings

Road surfaces and markings are generated on the GPU from base colors, noise, and lane data — no baked textures.

Engine & ToolingContent PipelineArt & LightingTransport
Design-Time · Simulation
Utilities

Graph-based infrastructure networks: power, water, sewage, waste. Directional flow from supply to demand.

Design-TimeMacroscopic SimulationEconomyUtilities
Simulation
Economy & Zoning

Zoning is the player’s macro lever; RCI-style supply/demand drives growth.

Macroscopic SimulationEconomy
Content Pipeline
Art Direction & Lighting

Readable, toylike-but-grounded look; one dynamic sun/sky, no baked lighting.

Content PipelineArt & Lighting
Content Pipeline · Simulation
Procedural Buildings

Buildings are generated per parcel from footprint, zone, and density — not hand-placed props.

Content PipelineMicroscopic SimulationBuildings
Simulation
Citizen / Agent Simulation

A visible, sampled population of commuting agents under the macro economy layer.

Microscopic SimulationCitizens
Simulation
Time & Weather

Day/night, seasons and weather as shared drivers for lighting, materials and demand.

Macroscopic SimulationTime & Weather
Simulation
Civics & Politics

Council review, ballot measures, development hell, and a mayor whose favorability is a real number on the city HUD.

Macroscopic SimulationCitizens >CivicsPolitics
Meta
Naming

Shortlist and feel-brief for the game’s working title.

Meta