City Life: Interview
By andi_kam - August 24, 2006
After finishing my City Life review I decided to follow up the developer Monte Cristo with a couple of questions about the game. The interview was conducted with (Takes a deep breath) City Life Project Manager and Lead Game Designer Renaud Boclet and it gives an interesting insight into the developement of this highly rated city building simulation game. One point I would like to instantly bring to attention is that to play your mp3 files, rather than the games somewhat repetitive music you can place your mp3 files into the City Life installation folder. Why not just note that feature down in the manual? Secondly, the thing that most people will want to know about is the future of City Life. Well, I can reveal that currently the developers focus remains on supporting City Life, however, a Delux Edition is on the way with "50% more buildings". What about a City Life 2? Well don't rule it out. The developers are looking to expand on the idea that "people are different and belong to social groups" that was introduced in this game. There's the main points out of the way, now on with the interview. Having got an average of 77% from most reviewers and gamers I asked developers to reflect on the success of the game. Renaud Boclet was quite proud of the impressive 3d engine that allows you to create "the most beautiful cities". Monte Cristo are not just taking in the praise but also the critisisms such as the lack of building variety. In responce they have created the design toolset. When I asked about the design toolset, Renaud stated that this and other tools provided by the team allow the community to create your own unique experience with the powerful City Life engine at your disposal. No doubt many gamers will be looking into these tools to further their experience. As with all our Gengaming interviews we provide developers a chance to raise a point that they want to bring to the attention of everyone. Here Monte Cristo discussed the social and economic system, the effect of it on the city and how far you, as the player, are able to control riots and other situations. The trick to this game is that there are a number of different cultures. Some don't get along too well with the other. But, they can't live without each other so they have to live together. "Your mission, as the mayor to this happy melting pot" says Renaud "is to minimise social tension between the various groups." So how do you go about doing this? Well theres loads of ways: "one of them consists of making sure all citizen needs are satisfied, because happy citizens do not enter conflict". Sound easy? Nop! Its expensive, different groups have different needs and it only gets worse as the city grows! The other way to deal with disturbances is with SWAT teams. "There are many ways to handle social tension in the game, and I will not detail them all... but my personal favorite is probably providing education & a social ladder allowing citizens to progress". Thats our interview, hopefully you will have picked up some tips and useful info. To read the full interview click read more. Many thanks to Renaud Boclet for answering our questions and hopefully the questions of the community. Read More...
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< Thats was my initial responce.
Ah summer time, the perfect time to top up the tan and spend endless hours on computer games. So which computer games to play? Well I had been eyeing up City Life for a while but had been too busy to look into it but now with all the time in the world I bought a copy and gave it a try.
Command and conquer 3