SimCity
10 urbanist video games that aren’t Sim City
Sim City may have inspired an entire generation of urban planners — but these games have perfected the art of city-building simulation.
Who Wants to Play SimParkingLot?
The original urban planning game wanted to model real life cities. One grim reality of American urbanism held it back.
Cities: Skylines as an Urban Planning Tool
Computer simulations continue to play a novel and important role in urban planning, especially in finding new ways to engage the public and add some fun to the process of planning for the future of cities.
SimCity’s Impact and Evolution
The video game has inspired many people to pursue careers in planning. But, the newest version is also trying to better align the simulations with what planners face in the real world.
How a City Planner Plays SimCity
A gaming video on the popular City Beautiful YouTube channel shows of the Sim City skills of a professional city planner.
The New Era of Planning Simulations
The continued improvement of digital technology should benefit evidence-based policy and decision-making. Welcome to a new era of planning simulations.
Lessons for Urban Planning in 2016—From SimCity 2000
A tech writer had a chance to revisit SimCity 2000 after years away from the game for contemporary lessons in planning.
The Not-So-Great Lessons of SimCity
A game encountered as a youth has brought many adults to the ranks of professional planning. What, then, is the legacy of the lessons offered by SimCity and its brethren?
Introducing the Latest City-Building Simulation Game
The "Cities: Skylines" city-building simulation game enters the scene long dominated by SimCity.
3 Good Reasons SimCity Should Adopt a Form-Based Code
And an update from Codes Study about the 600 places that really are upping their game with form-based codes.
Lessons for the Real World in SimCity 4's Homeless Problem
Emanuel Maiberg discusses an ongoing crisis in a simulated version of reality familiar to many planners—i.e., the homelessness problem in SimCity 4.
What a Megacity with 107 Million People Looks Like—via SimCity
Writing for Motherboard, Derek Mead details what it took for a particularly ambitious SimCity player to build a city of 100 million people.
Could SimCity Become a "Swiss Army Knife for Teachers"?
Following a path blazed by Oregon Trail and other classic educational video games, SimCity is hoping to become a common classroom tool. Thousands of students are testing a tailored version of the game, and the results are promising.
A Never-Ending Map Of Imaginary Cities
Artist spends decades creating an always-growing hand-drawn paper map of an imaginary place. Development is determined by drawing a random card from a custom deck of cards.
Prominent Urbanists Face Off in SimCity Battle Royale
After a decade of waiting, today's the day planning geeks have been waiting for. SimCity has arrived! To celebrate, Fast Company has assembled "some of the most interesting urban thinkers...to see who would make the best fake metropolis."
SimCity-Style Interactive Map Seeks to Make Zoning Understandable
In an essay for Next City, Juan-Pablo Velez, member of the Chicago-based civic tech collective Open City, explains the rationale behind their latest project, which aims to make the city's zoning "digestible by humans."
Grid vs Cul-de-Sac: Using SimCity to Test Development Patterns
Norman Chan uses a beta version of the new SimCity game to test the merits of three familiar types of suburban subdivision design - a rectangular grid, circular sprawl, and cul-de-sacs.
Planners and Computer Nerds Rejoice at the Return of SimCity
After a decade of absence, Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, has announced plans to release an updated version of SimCity, the pioneering urban planning computer game, in 2013.
Friday Funny: Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Tax Plan is Straight Out of SimCity
Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain has been touting a plan where individuals, businesses and a national sales tax would all be 9%. Reporter Amanda Terkel says this sounds suspiciously similar to the default settings in SimCity.
Building the Virtual City
Beatville is a new "open source, multi-player environment for real cities", which purports to be a useful tool for democratizing urban planning.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
