''City Building'' is a series of historical

city-building game A city-building game, or town-building game, is a genre of simulation video game where players act as the overall planner and leader of a city or town, looking down on it from above, and being responsible for its growth and management strategy. ...

s developed by

Impressions Games Impressions Games was a British video game developer founded by David Lester. He sold the company to Sierra On-Line in 1995, who was then bought out by Cendant and eventually, Vivendi Universal (now known as Vivendi SA). Impressions specialized ...

BreakAway Games BreakAway Games is a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States, established in 1998. Their executive staff is composed of several veterans from companies such as MicroProse, Origin Systems, Atari and Acclaim Entertainment. ...

Tilted Mill Entertainment Tilted Mill Entertainment is a video game developer located in Winchester, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2001 by former Impressions Games lead designer and general manager Chris Beatrice, business manager Peter Haffenreffer, and designer Jeff ...

(following Impressions' demise), and published by

Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, ...

. The series began in 1992 with ''

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caes ...

'', set in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, and consists of twelve games to date, including

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or an ...

s. In the ''City Building'' series the player is put in charge of providing goods and services to the populace of their town, ensuring crime is low, and reducing the risk of disease, fire and building collapse. The player must also strike a balance between imports, exports and taxes to keep their town financially strong. The player is also responsible for defending their town against invasion by building a military. The series covers four ancient civilizations:

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. Titles released up until

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

used the same

isometric view Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings. It is an axonometric projection in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and ...

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

, although progressively tweaked and modified according to the theme of the game. Subsequent titles use

three-dimensional Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...

graphics engines.

Games

The series includes: *Set in the

: **''

'' (1992) **''

Caesar II ''Caesar II'' is a 1995 video game of the ''Caesar'' video game series that takes place in Ancient Rome. It is the second game in the '' City Building'' series. Gameplay When the game begins the Roman empire extends no further than Italy. Playe ...

'' (1995) **''

Caesar III ''Caesar III'' is a city-building game released on September 30, 1998, for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra On-Line. It is the third installment of the ''Caesar'' series of games and is part of ...

'' (1998) **''

Caesar IV ''Caesar IV ''is a city-building game set in ancient Rome, developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment ( Vivendi Universal Games). The game was released on September 26, 2006 in North America. The game features a ...

'' (2006) *Set in ancient Egypt: **''

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

'' (1999) ***Expansion '' Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile'' (2000) **'' Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile'' (2004) ***Expansion ''Children of the Nile: Alexandria'' (2008) **Remake of ''

'' - '' Pharaoh: A New Era'' (TBA) *Set in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

: **'' Zeus: Master of Olympus'' (2000) ***Expansion '' Poseidon: Master of Atlantis'' (2001) *Set in

ancient China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...

: **'' Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom'' (2002) *Set in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

: **''Medieval Mayor'' (TBA)

''Medieval Mayor''

''Medieval Mayor'' was an announced city-building game set in the

by Tilted Mill Entertainment for the PC and tablets. Unlike the previous two games by Tilted Mill Entertainment, ''Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile'' and ''Caesar IV'', the game would not use a 3D engine but return to the 2D engine, because Tilted Mill thought "2D works better in terms of players being able to tell what’s going on at a glance". Walkers would once again be limited by roadblocks instead of the more recent radius-based or pseudo walker systems, and players would focus more on building a few cities to great heights, rather than restart a new city after each mission. There would be no multiplayer, but Tilted Mill was planning integration with

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. As of October 2013 ''Medieval Mayor'' was put on hiatus due to funding challenges and other project commitments. In later interviews,

Chris Beatrice Chris Beatrice is a video game designer and artist noted for primary creative development of popular historical strategy games, including ''Lords of the Realm'' series and the '' City Building'' series. Beatrice worked at Sierra Entertainment's ...

expressed both his continued desire to eventually make the game and reticence to start development.

References

External links

Official ''Medieval Mayor'' website
*
Top 25 Most Underrated Games of All Time
' from

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

(#25) posted on rome.ro {{City building series Activision Blizzard franchises Video game franchises introduced in 1992