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Cityscape


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Rating: 4.2/5 (105 votes)
Comments (57) | Views (18,501)

CityscapeThis next game is not a new effort, and yet it has been enjoying renewed interest of late around the Web and it deserves a play through if you're unfamiliar with it.

Following the trail blazed by the tremendous popularity of On's Eyezmaze Grow series of casual Web games, two enterprising young Flash developers used that inspiration to create a sim-ilar game with a SimCity-like theme.

Created by Nick Pfeifer and Aaron Hibberd, Cityscape puts you in charge of breathing life into an otherwise undeveloped land mass by choosing the building order for the elements that make up a standard city.

Simply click on the small icons in the bottom right corner of the game window to build residential areas, industry, an airport, seaport, amusement park, etc. The order you choose determines how far each of the areas develops and matures via a process of leveling up, just as in the Grow games. Once you you are finished adding all 18 elements, you are scored out of a total 60 possible points. And just like Grow, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Analysis: The first time I saw this game about a year ago, I passed on it because I was expecting just a little bit more after having just played the original Grow. And while Cityscape may lack the intricately detailed and delightful animations that On puts into all of his games, it does present a hearty challenge with its many more elements.

Another difference I noticed between the two game designs is in the way leveling-up is handled. With On's Grow, although there exists some dependencies between elements (one requiring another to be present to level-up, for instance), each element generally levels-up on its own with each passing round. In Cityscape, the leveling-up appears to be more cause-and-effect than a passing of time. While this may be easier to implement, and even seem logical when building the rule set for a game like this, it also causes an unpleasant side effect that reduces the depth of gameplay. For example: if adding a commercial area influences the interstate to level up, then adding the commercial area before the interstate will never cause the interstate to level-up, even after it is added.

Games of this kind are difficult to design and become exponentially unwieldy with each new element added to the number available to choose from. Considering this fact and the sheer volume of possible combinations, the authors did a commendable job putting together a decent and very playable game that will appeal to fans of the Grow series, as well as to those that just like a good logic puzzle to solve.

Play Cityscape

Cheers to Dan, Matt and Kevin for suggesting the game. =)

Walkthrough Guide


(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)

The walkthrough if interested:

  1. Explorers

  2. Surveyors

  3. Residential

  4. Industrial

  5. Interstate

  6. Commerce

  7. Education

  8. Fishing

  9. Mining

  10. Airport

  11. Theme Park

  12. Seaport

  13. Media

  14. Health

  15. Religion/or Police

  16. Police/or Religion

  17. Army

  18. Tourism

57 Comments

Wow. This is hard. the best I've gotten is 33. here's a hint:

explorers go early on

Reply

Lol i got 34 but i dont remember what I did... Hint:

I do remember that I used explorers and surveyors first

Reply

yay for the mention! I think I got to 36 once, but I have no clue what I did. With 18 choices, it's hard to run through all of the iterations. 18! hard. (And that's factorial, not an exclamation mark.)

Reply

i only got 22 :'(

Reply

The walkthrough if interested:

  1. Explorers

  2. Surveyors

  3. Residential

  4. Industrial

  5. Interstate

  6. Commerce

  7. Education

  8. Fishing

  9. Mining

  10. Airport

  11. Theme Park

  12. Seaport

  13. Media

  14. Health

  15. Religion/or Police

  16. Police/or Religion

  17. Army

  18. Tourism

Reply

i got a 60/60!! after 60 million tries! haha.. it was pretty mind-boggling.

Reply

This game misses the point I liked best in oryginal Grow games - the wonderfull animations and sound.
Althrought - people who appreciate "mind" part more than visual one may like this one too.

Reply

Purely based on guessing, lacks the sense of accomplishment at the end and all of the fun and creativity Eyemaze has.

Reply

What the heck is that song, anyway? I like it, very mellow.

Reply

Hahahaaa!!!! I FINALLY BEAT IT!!! Mayor Annie, Brackenwood is a cityscape!! WOOOHOOO!! don't ask me why i named it after Brackenwood, I dunno... i liek brackenwood :). I LUV THE MUSIC!! IM LISTNING TO IT RITE NOW!!! Anyway...

explorers,surveyers,people, industrial,interstate,commerence,schools,
fishing,mining,airport,themepark,seaport,media,health,religion,police,army,tourists.


SO DANG COOL!!

Reply

Via the posted walkthrough, I got my 60/60... And after I read the walkthrough, I realized that I would have never figured out the order by myself.

It seems very abmornal to me (That you would build an airport before a hospital or church for example..). I was also confused because if you start fishing without the seaport, that it would do nothing since the road doesn't connect.

Anyway, I always enjoy seeing the daily updates! Keep up the good work Jay!
Chris

Reply

the order in the solution walkthru doesnt make much real world sense.

Reply
The Count March 4, 2006 2:19 PM

What I thought was the strangest thing about the game was the fact that

the seaport

was one of the last things to added into the town.

Reply
cheetah65 March 4, 2006 3:59 PM

it was hard. took about 20 mins just to get an idea of the order.

Reply

I dislike games that change cursors on me for NO reason.

Reply

blech, i hate games like this because i suck so badly at them...32/60...sad day!

Reply

Not as good as grow, too much guess work

Reply

Hahah, I thought it odd that education wasn't right after residential, police was almost last, and health came later too. I mea, what city prospers without hospitals, police and schools? go figure!

Reply

I also had a "Wuh?" moment when

Theme Park came before Police.

...wuh?

Reply
hiram archibald March 6, 2006 1:18 AM

I don't mind minimalist graphics/animation.

But I do mind that none of the elements are labeled or color coded. When something levels up, you should at least know what's being levelled up, not just a random gray block that I can't tell from other blocks.

Reply

It was pretty cool. Saw it for the first time today and beat it after playing for a bit, taking a shower and thinking about what improves what, then going back at it. 5 mins later it was done.

Here's the entire walkthrough, slightly different from some in one or two ways:

Explore
Survey
Residence
Industry
Interstate
Commerce
Education
Fishing
Mining
Airport
Theme Park
Media
Seaport
Health
Police
Religion
Army
Tourism

Reply

great game to play at work - trial and error, trial and error. finally got it though, 60/60, such a great gotdang feeling! 18 to 34 to 42 to 45 to 48 to 49 to 60!

Reply
Maryville March 12, 2006 9:55 AM

if you want 60/60 heres the walkthrough !!

Explorers
Surveyors
Residential
Industrial
Interstate
Commerce
Education
Fishing
Mining
Airport
Theme Park
Seaport
Media
Health
Religion/or Police
Police/or Religion
Army
Tourism


Reply

Personally, I can't stand games that force you to listen to their choice of awful music. How hard is it to allow you to turn the darn thing off! (Yes, I know I can turn my speakers off, but I want to listen to something else and can't because they want to force some new age John Tesh music down our throats.)

Reply

it's a good game but if you don't get the point of i't, it's hard. I like it because it reminds me about GROW.

Reply

City Scape
Walkthrough

Explorers
Surveyors
Residential
Industrial
Interstate
Commerce
Education
Fishing
Mining
Airport
Theme Park
Seaport
Media
Health
Religion/or Police
Police/or Religion
Army
Tourism

Reply
Harry Bowles April 6, 2006 4:35 PM

This game isnt any fun..... i thought it might be but the order makes no sence. the best game like this that actually goes in order is sandbox of god!!! that game is the hissy shizzy buizzy lizzy nizzy for all you gaming fizzles out there.

Harry

Reply

This one was rather hard and didnt seem to make much sense to me. I was able to figure out the first two sequence and also the last, because they actually made sense, but apart from that not really. Grow cube was much better. Does anyone know where you can get any more mind boogling games?

Reply

it took me a few hours but i finally worked a 21/60 up to a 60/60. Its very helpful to write down the steps you take each time you do it and plan out your next controlled move to see what works

Reply

YES!!! The quickest and easiest way to get 60/60 for me was this! Just click on the spoiler button!

Explore
Survey
Residence
Interstate
Industry
Commerce
Education
Fishing
Mining
Airport
Theme Park
Religion
Media
Seaport
Health
Police
Army
Tourism

I was Mayor Maynot, City of Skidmark

Reply
The DAKH June 28, 2006 10:26 AM

Jay, you're not quite right in saying that the elements of On's games simply level over time. The difference in progression between this game and the GROW series is that Cityscape's level system is event triggered, while GROW games have a state-based level method--level of GROW elements is affected by both existence and level of other elements. I think event-triggered leveling would be appropriate for some types of game, but doesn't serve so well in a city-building sim.

Reply

Hmm, well that's an over-simplification to what I wrote, but I do agree with you, as I did in my review. ;)

Reply
Christina July 20, 2006 3:12 PM

yes i beat it mayor Nguyen, Viet town is a cityscape i got a 60/60 Anyway walkthrough below:

Explorers
Surveyors
Residential
Industrial
Interstate
Commerce
Education
Fishing
Mining
Airport
Theme Park
Seaport
Media
Health
Religion/or Police
Police/or Religion
Army
Tourism

Reply

this game was terrible. its completely random. a game like GROW makes you think of every possible thing that could happen and in every order it would have to happen. not cityscape though. just because its "hard" doesnt mean its a "thinker" it just means that no effort was put into making it an actual, playable, game.

this game sucks, did i spoil it?

Reply

Yeah, this game is kind of a letdown. The order makes no sense and I don't really know how it is you're supposed to figure it out. With most puzzle games with definite solutions, I'm usually kicking myself for not figuring it out sooner, but really, with a game like this the solution doesn't really make more sense after than before.
It's pretty much all been said already, but what is up with the graphics? Seriously, how much time did it take the guy to make this? One hour? If it took someone more than an hour to make a game like this, he has serious problems with computers.

Reply

The most annoying thing was, after closing the popup, even when browsing away from this page (Alt+Home ftw) the music kept playing... had to close the browser to get rid of it

Reply
someone annonymous February 25, 2007 7:57 AM

woo hoo, Mayor Matthews, Citiopolis is a cityscape

Reply

cool game but i don't really get the order, it really makes no sense at all! it's very odd that fishing and mining come AFTER industrial:S that's not really logical at all..
but well, the whole order makes no sense.. it was a fun game to play though, for some minutes..

Reply

not too difficult, it's a trial and error really.

Reply

this game is pretty cool eyemaze is cool too but they both make you think so i think there equal

Reply

it was great!!!

what will i click first to the police/religion?

well i dont know and i try the first to the list and i got it!!!

Reply

I find the level-ups are just too ILLOGICAL!!!
Why would

tourism

affect

The Army

? This infuriates me!!!
Waaaa!

Reply
Jonathan July 25, 2007 4:42 PM

I liked the music.It was calming and cool.
And the order wasn't so great,but oh well.the game itself was good, at least.Graphics, bad, I know, but theses guys, overall, made a pretty good game out of just flash. The game they made cityscape from, Sim city,
used a bunch of 3-d animation and stuff so it wasnt easy to make a game like that from flash.
Anyway, here's the spoiler.

Explorers
Surveyors
Residential
Industrial
Interstate
Commerce
Education
Fishing
Mining
Airport
Theme Park
Seaport
Media
Health
Religion/or Police
Police/or Religion
Army
Tourism

Reply

Hey i have to say this was a hard game, but if you want that will drive you nuts!!!, then you want to try Submachine, without any walkthrough until you've given up. Of Course by now there are actually 4, it's an ongoing chapter thing, so make sure to try them all in order, or you'll get even more messed up. good luck guys ;)=

Reply

Good Game....Just took forever to get the order!!

Reply

lol! got 60 easy

Reply

This game is dumb. the order is so messed up. If this game was in real life the worlds going to blow up!!!!!!!!!
Be careful next time!

Reply

I loved it. it was confusing at first, but then I caught on. It was amazingly done, and I loved the music. I litterally turned this on JUST for the music now that I've beaten it, and it's hard to make me like music! and the gameplay is so smooth, too.

Reply

this is a good game and it is a very challenging game so thanks to all that helped so if you need help

thanks for all the fun oh by the way army is second to last

Reply

I do not get why

a theme park is more important than health or police

.

How very strange.

Reply

I did it I did it!

Reply

I got a 57/60 i named it GROW City.

Reply
Burrrr Bell Blizzard July 11, 2008 5:52 PM

This game is really awesome, i got 60/60 on my very first try without any hints or spoilers. I'm sure it was just luck but still i never "win" at anything. This is for people who like a challenge.

Reply
P!nk-Cherry August 4, 2009 10:59 AM

Explorers
Surveyors
Residential areas
Industry
Interstate
Commerce
Education
Fishing
Mining
Airport
Theme Park
Seaport
Media
Health
Religion/or Police

60/60 !!
Woohoo
Police/or Religion
Army
Tourism

Reply
lycyfyrsam September 4, 2012 7:09 AM

i'm here late in the game [no pun intended] but i did wanna add that the oddest thing about this one is that all one is really doing is trying to figure out what the gamemakers think are the features most important to a city. if one has played sim city in the past, especially w/ any regularity, one has already been through this drill, created w/ much more style & verve--& a bit more choice. it's okay, this one, but everything but necessary.

Reply

Making the connection between

Fishing and Education

was just the biggest reach for me.

Reply

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