Project requirements

This article remains incomplete. Please watch for future updates.

This is an overview of the fundamental project requirements of the game tentatively called Charm Cities:

Minimal Requirements

The game is accessible

The list below is adapted from the Game Accessibility Guidelines project based on what seems practical to achieve in a city-builder game.

• All actions are available via pointer device
• Pointer sensitivity is adjustable
• Any action that requires click and drag can be remapped to work another way
• Any action that requires a button to be held down can be remapped to work another way
• Remappable keyboard shortcuts are available for key functions
• UI elements like icons and menus can be resized
• UI elements are predictable and do not move on their own
• UI elements can be rearranged and resized
• UI elements have a visually distinct hover state
• UI elements have individual, unique, and predictable associated sounds
• Can run in windowed mode to allow use of virtual keyboards
• Provides a quickstart option to skip complicated game start menus
• Uses simple clear language, formatted simply and in high contrast, with key words highlighted
• Allows user to switch to a font designed for dyslexic people
• Where possible, includes audio recordings of critical in-game text
• Includes a replayable tutorial system and in-game contextual help systems
• Avoids any elements that might cause photosensitive epilepsy
• Allows non-critical background animations to be disabled
• Shows a thumbnail and brief description of game state with each savegame file
• Allows diegetic city audio, UI sounds, music, and voiceover volume to be controlled (or muted) independently
• Avoids using color as the only means of conveying information where possible
• Uses yellow-blue color gradients to convey information rather than red-green gradients by default, and allows remapping to alternate gradients
• Ensures the cursor is always visible and allows the user to change cursors
• Online help is optimized for screenreaders
• Avoids using sound as the only means of conveying information
• Includes visual cues for important in-game audio, including subtitles for speech
• Allows audio to be switched between mono and stereo
• Remembers all accessibility settings between sessions

The game is a desktop city-builder game

• Is capable of running on a typical, 3-5 year old desktop computer at a reasonable framerate
• Allows the player to represent, in some capacity, the leadership of the city (or the city itself!)
• Gives the player broad authority to affect the overall direction of the city, but not to micromanage the lives of individual citizens
• Leaves the player's objectives up to the player, who will rarely if ever reach a win or loss state
• Depicts the city from a bird's eye view in full 3D
• Depicts a generally contemporary setting
• Uses UI elements and overlays to provide the player with information about multiple aspects of the city's status, so that they can decide if they are meeting their objectives, including
  • population
  • wealth
  • citizen happiness
  • land value
  • access to utilities and amenities
  • burden on transportation networks
  • pollution
• Begins by default by presenting a terrain map representing a greenfield site where the city is to be founded ex nihilo
• Provides the player with a starting pool of funds with which to found the city
• Allows the player to use those funds to directly construct "ploppables":
  • transportation networks such as roads, rails, paths, and public transit
  • utilities such as electrical grids and water/sewer distribution networks
  • amenities such as schools, parks, and fire stations
• Allows the player to designate zones where "growables" will appear if the player has provided sufficient amenities
• Differentiates, at a minimum, residential, commercial, and industrial growables, each of which grows in its own zone
• Simulates citizens, or HONs, who live and work in growables
• Simulates HONs building more and more expensive growables as land value increases due to increased amenities
• Allows the player to derive income from the economic activity of HONs, forcing them to balance income and expenses to stay solvent
• Allows the player to set policies which affect the behavior of HONs and the shape of the city
• Allows the player to speed up and slow down or pause time while still taking actions
• Unlocks new options as the city increases in population, wealth, happiness, or other metrics

The game adds something new

• Is set in a society which, like our own, features power differentials
• Classifies HONs into at least two groups with differing power levels in the game society
• Simulates interactions between HONs that model real-world behavior across power differentials
• Provides the player with information about the status not just of the city as a whole but of each group in particular
• Places the player's city in the context of a larger province with its own leadership
• Changes the player's relationship to the provincial leadership based on the player's gameplay

Big Ideas

• procedural assets
• wildlife simulation