Pixelopolis
| Rank | Player | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1,851 |
About Pixelopolis
Pixelopolis is a city building simulation in pixel art, played in the browser and modelled on the classic city sim of 1989. You are the mayor of an empty piece of land in January 1900: a generated map with a river, a lake or a coastline and patches of forest. Every map comes from a number, so the same map number always gives the same land, and the map of the day is the same for everyone.
You don't build houses yourself. You zone land as residential, commercial, industrial or office space, and the city fills it. A zone grows when it has power, a road next to it and demand, shown by the R, C, I and O bars at the top. Homes want jobs and shops nearby, shops want customers, industry wants workers, and offices want residents a school has reached, on clean land of good value. Each zone grows through four densities, from cottages to a residential tower, from a corner shop to a skyscraper, from a workshop to a chemical plant, and from a pavilion office to a glass tower with a helipad.
Under the streets the city runs on simulated maps. Power flows from the plants through power lines and from building to building. Each grid has only the megawatts of its own plants, and denser buildings draw more, so a growing city needs new plants or linked grids. Water comes from pumps through pipes under the streets, and past low density a zone stops growing without it. Homes send workers to open jobs in shops, offices and industry. The trips run along roads or ride the train, the bus or the metro, and the busiest roads fill with cars and smog. Pollution, land value, crime and police and fire coverage spread across the map, and you can lay any of them over the city to see where the trouble is.
Every January the taxes come in and the bills go out, power plant upkeep included. You set the tax rate and fund transport, police and fire. Underfunded roads crumble, unfunded stations cover less, and high taxes slow growth. Fires break out where no fire station reaches, and every few decades a tornado tears a path through town. As the city grows, residents ask for a stadium, commerce for an airport and industry for a seaport, and growth stalls until you build them. Trains stop only at train stations by the rails, a bus depot puts commuters from the homes on its streets onto buses, and from 1906 you can dig a metro: stations on the streets, tunnels between them. Every trip that rides leaves room on the roads.
Your term lasts 20 years. Two years in debt, or two years with approval under 20%, and the council recalls you early. The score is the population weighted by how many citizens approve of the mayor, plus a point for every $50 left in the treasury. After the term you can keep building in free play, and the city saves itself so you can come back to it. The buildings, land, roads and everything that moves are drawn in code; the toolbar icons are pixel art made with PixelLab.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Pixelopolis like the original SimCity?
It follows the rules of the classic 1989 city sim: residential, commercial and industrial zones that grow on their own (plus office zones of its own), power plants and power lines, roads and rail, R C I demand bars, police and fire coverage, a yearly budget, disasters and a mayor's evaluation. The map is smaller, your term lasts 20 years and the art and code are its own.
Why won't my zones grow?
A zone needs power, a road next to it and demand for its kind, and above low density it also needs water from a pump through pipes. A flashing lightning bolt means no power. The Query tool shows why a zone grows, stalls or shrinks: power, a road, water, whether its trips reach free jobs, workers or customers, and how demand, land value, pollution and crime pull on it. Bigger buildings need land value, which rises as the city grows and near parks and water, so keep homes away from pollution.
What do the R, C, I and O bars mean?
They show demand for residential, commercial, industrial and office zones. A bar above the line means people want more of that zone, a bar below means there is too much of it. A red mark on top means growth is capped until you build a stadium, an airport or a seaport. Office demand rises when schools reach the residents.
How do water and public transport work?
A water pump supplies 400 m³, half as much again on a shore, but only while it has power. Pipes carry the water underground to the zones, and denser buildings drink more. Without water a zone stays small, and a denser one starts to empty after six months dry. The metro opens in 1906: build stations by the streets and join them with tunnels. Trips walk to a station on their road, ride to the station nearest their goal and take no room on the roads. Trains stop only at train stations that touch both the rails and a road; plain rails carry nobody. A bus depot puts 40% of the commuters from homes within 10 tiles on its own streets onto buses, up to 600 people a month, and a bus takes far less room on the road than their cars.
How is the score counted?
When your 20-year term ends, the population is multiplied by 0.5 plus your approval share, so between half the population at 0% approval and one and a half times it at 100%, and every $50 left in the treasury adds a point. A big city that people like scores best.
Can I play the same map again?
Yes. Every map has a number shown under the preview on the title screen, and the same number always makes the same land. The map of the day is the same for every player that day, so you can compare cities built on the same ground.
Can I play Pixelopolis on my phone?
Yes. On a phone in portrait the toolbar sits along the bottom, sorted into groups. Tap a tool and then the map to build, use the hand tool to drag the map around, and pinch to zoom.
