City Life: New 3D Planning Game Called 'SimCity With a Conscience'

City Life is a stunning city-building simulation which gives players the opportunity to build and manage a modern day metropolis in a fully 3D world. The game is being hailed as "SimCity with a conscience."

3 minute read

May 31, 2006, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


CityLife is a new 3D city building simulation being marketed as an introduction to urban planning for gamers. The game challenges players to design, build and manage a modern day metropolis in a fully 3D environment. In the game, players create a living city, and strive to maintain harmony mong six different sociocultural groups "through skilled urban planning and meeting their day-to-day needs." There are over 250 possible building types and classifications, and cities can be build on any of 22 predefined maps, or you can script an entirely new map.

CDV's tagline for the game is: "CDV Kicks Urban Planning into Overdrive with the Release of City Life". From the game website:

"From superb villas in residential neighborhoods to imposing skyscrapers in the financial district, design, construct and develop the city of your dreams. Provide comfort and satisfaction for your citizens by offering them adequate leisure and entertainment facilities, all the while ensuring that taxes and other charges are collected efficiently. It's up to you to manage this city effectively, ensuring booming development while at the same time regulating the very delicate issues of pollution and traffic. You must also see that diverse communities share the city in the best way possible to guarantee a peaceful and prosperous city.

City Life is a next-generation city simulation that allows you to build and manage a living metropolis in gorgeous real-time 3D. The 3D game engine provides a level of detail and animation unprecedented in the city builder genre. Among the game’s superior features are highly realistic environments, reflection mapping, a tree engine, dynamic shadowing, and an immersion mode (giving players the first-person point of view as they advance through cities). City Life is a unique game experience and an exciting new challenge for the man fans of city builders and simulations.

...In City Life, not only must you worry about the infrastructure and development of your city, you must also take into consideration the needs and expectations of your population. As a guru of urban planning, your role is not only to manage the finances of your creation, but also to facilitate the coexistence of the six socio-economic cultural groups: the elite, the bobos, the suits, the fringe, the blue collars and the have-nots."

From GameSpy's review:

"Leading Gaming Site Compliments City Life on Depth of Social Layer

"Once the player gets into the game, however, real differences between it and other city-builders start to emerge. Rather than being based on buildings and zones and some abstract version of "citizen happiness," the social model of City Life is based on the collective mood of individualized citizens. Every inhabitant of a City Life city has a name, address, place of work, and places they like to go for fun -- and an attitude. How happy they are is based on what kind of home they live in, whether they're employed, if they have access to their preferred sorts of amenities, and what sort of neighborhoods they have to pass through and the people they meet as they make their daily rounds."

CityLife is published by CDV Software Entertainment USA, and was created by an video game company, MonteCristo which was created in 1995 in Paris, and which has offices in Kiev.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 in GameSpot

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

April 30, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Close-up on Canadian flag with Canada Parliament building blurred in background.

Canada vs. Kamala: Whose Liberal Housing Platform Comes Out on Top?

As Canada votes for a new Prime Minister, what can America learn from the leading liberal candidate of its neighbor to the north?

April 28, 2025 - Benjamin Schneider

Hot air balloons rise over Downtown Boise with the State Capitol building visible amidst the high rises.

The Five Most-Changed American Cities

A ranking of population change, home values, and jobs highlights the nation’s most dynamic and most stagnant regions.

April 23, 2025 - GoodMigrations

People biking along beach path with moored ship in San Diego, California.

San Diego Adopts First Mobility Master Plan

The plan provides a comprehensive framework for making San Diego’s transportation network more multimodal, accessible, and sustainable.

May 2 - SD News

Sleeping in Public

Housing, Supportive Service Providers Brace for Federal Cuts

Organizations that provide housing assistance are tightening their purse strings and making plans for maintaining operations if federal funding dries up.

May 2 - KSL

Conductor walks down platform next to Amtrak train at station in San Jose, California.

Op-Ed: Why an Effective Passenger Rail Network Needs Government Involvement

An outdated rail network that privileges freight won’t be fixed by privatizing Amtrak.

May 2 - Streetsblog USA

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Senior Manager Operations, Urban Planning

New York City School Construction Authority

Building Inspector

Village of Glen Ellyn

Manager of Model Development

Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO