Voxel City is a city builder for people who like watching a town come together. There's no game over, the weather behaves unless you ask it not to, and when a house won't grow it tells you why. It's still a proper city builder underneath, with roads, zoning, services, money and trade. It just doesn't shout at you.
A new city starts as one glowing patch of land with one road in from the outside world. A gold marker shows where it arrives. Draw a street from it, zone some homes, and the first family turns up a few minutes later.
There's a short tutorial in six chapters if you want it, with a glow on the button you need next, and Ctrl+Z takes back whatever you just built, money included.
Click a house and the inspector tells you in one line what it's waiting for, such as "Level 3 needs 2 more things". Below that is a bar with an icon for every need, and each missing one gets a button that fixes it, like Build a school or Add a park.
Nothing's hidden in a spreadsheet. The devlog post on the inspector goes through how it works.
If money runs low, the town tells you and services wind down gently. You can take out a loan and pay it back. Storms, floods and heatwaves are off unless you switch them on, and the Relaxed setting starts you with twice the money.
Building materials work the same way. On the default setting a home that's short of planks still grows, just more slowly, and the city buys in what's missing. You're never stuck waiting.
The year turns, with blossom in spring and snow in winter, and each season has a festival. Voxies ask for a park or a clinic near their home and send a thank-you when it's built. Pretty bits like a picket fence, a bench or a fountain make the street nicer to live on and let homes grow taller.
Hide the interface and send a postcard from your town. Every sight you build goes into the Mayor's Album.
A real neighbourhood has small things in it, so Voxel City has them too. There's a little library in a timber hut, a repair café, a playground, allotments, a dog park and a night market under string lights.
Homes at levels 4 and 5 like a mix of these within a short walk. If they're missing, a home only grows more slowly. It never stops. The devlog post on them has the whole list.
Progress is one tree of Town Plans, paid for in Ideas that schools, landmarks and milestones earn. You can make every plan in a single city, so nothing is a trap and nothing is given up. The only choice is what comes first.
The everyday basics stay on the milestones, so nothing you need early on is locked behind a plan. There's more in the devlog post on Town Plans.
If you like something to aim at, there are eleven scenarios with goals, a bonus star and a par date to beat, and a new town of the week every Monday. You can't lose any of them. And if you just want to build, Sandbox gives you unlimited money with everything open.
· 3 min read
A lot of buildings promised something and then just sat there. Now robot crews roll down a ramp to the fire, helper robots walk to building sites, the home printer has its gantry, rockets launch, and the post office, the bike docks and the sawmill all get on with it where you can see.
· 3 min read
The water-bomber airship used to stay on its mast and the fire drones never left their tower. Now helicopters and drones share one way of flying, over hills and round tall towers, the airship casts off to fight fires, and the coastguard's lifeboat goes out on the water.
· 2 min read
The title screen has a little card in its top corner now, with forty true tips about the game. It shows you the things you haven't tried yet first, and you can turn it off in Settings.
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