SimCity: BuildIt

SimCity: BuildIt is a city-building simulation mobile game. Developed by TrackTwenty and published by Electronic Arts, it was launched in late 2014. The game is part of the SimCity franchise,[1] and is available for download on iOS, Android and the Amazon app stores. It is a free simulation game in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

SimCity: BuildIt app
Developer(s)TrackTwenty
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
SeriesSimCity
Platform(s)
ReleaseAndroid
  • CAN: October 22, 2014
  • WW: December 16, 2014
iOS
  • CAN/AUS/NZL: October 24, 2014
  • WW: December 16, 2014
Genre(s)City-building simulation, mobile game
Mode(s)Single-player

This game allows users to solve real-life situations like fire, sewage, pollution, and traffic and helps in dealing with problems that the public faces. Players can connect and compete with other users for more connected gameplay.[2]

Gameplay

The game is freemium (free-to-play with intrusive advertisements and in-app purchases). It utilizes music and graphics similar to the 2013 SimCity game, although it is slightly downscaled in order to fit in with the iOS and Android devices' graphic capabilities. The game starts with 25,000 simoleons and 50 SimCash on hand. There is no zoning feature in SimCity: BuildIt. Instead, buildings are moved manually. Commercial and industrial buildings produce items, and residential zones require them in order to upgrade to a higher density. Factories can also be upgraded, although it requires demolishing the original building when it is not producing anything, then replacing it with a new one.

There are also special buildings based on Season tournaments; and based on holidays such as Christmas, New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving that can be placed in the city. Each season plays every three months, giving the categories of the types of buildings every season for a limited time such as movie studio buildings, amusement park buildings, wild west buildings, special landmark buildings, extra university buildings, parade buildings, and buildings based on real-world promotional events such as the promotion of the Lays Max potato chips. Once players have used all the city space available, players can only store or swap these buildings. The game has five additional regions that players can switch to and develop. This extends the gameplay to provide varied new land, buildings, and materials and lets players also use the season buildings.

Players can only build two-lane roads using the build tool. Players cannot manually build higher-capacity roads; they must upgrade them instead. Initially, only two, four, and six-lane roads are available at launch; three more road types (avenues, boulevards, and streetcar avenues) were introduced in the Disasters update.

The Disasters update allows Players to launch disasters (meteor collisions, earthquakes, etc.) in their own city. Each disaster has three levels players can unlock. Players unlock these levels by launching the disasters. Players can earn gold keys this way.

Users play as the mayor of their city and make choices in order to keep their townspeople happy. When players do this, players can earn taxes from the City Hall. When players have more people, players earn more taxes ("Simoleons"). Users can trade, chat, and join clubs with others players for connected online gameplay.

Factories Produce Metal (1 Minute), Wood (3 Minutes), Plastic (9 Minutes), Seeds (20 Minutes), Minerals (30 Minutes), Chemicals (2 Hours), Textiles (3 Hours), Sugar and spices (4 Hours), Glass (5 Hours), Animal feed (6 Hours), and Electrical components (7 Hours)

Commercial

Building Supplies Store Produces nails, planks, bricks, cement, glue, and paint.

Hardware Store Produces hammer, measuring tape, shovel, cooking utensils, ladder, and drill.

Farmers Market Produces vegetables, flour bags, fruit and berries, cream, corn, cheese, and beef.

Furniture Store Produces chairs, tables, home textiles, cupboards, and couches.

Gardening Supplies Produces grass, tree saplings, garden furniture, fire pit, lawn mower, and garden gnomes.

Donut Shop Produces donuts, green smoothies, bread rolls, cherry cheesecake, frozen yogurt, and coffee.

Fashion Store Produces caps, shoes, watches, business suits, and backpacks.

Fast Food Restaurant Produces ice cream sandwiches, pizza, burgers, cheese fries, lemonade bottles, and popcorn.

Home Appliances Produces bbq grill, refrigerator, lighting system, TV, and microwave oven.

Contest HQ unlocks at level 11. Club Wars, a competitive PvP mode, unlocks at level 18.

Regions

An update to the game added Regions, and different types of terrain to build cities on, with each having its local factories and commercial supplies. At first, the player can only pick one out of the 5 available, but if they reach a certain amount of inhabitants, the player can choose another Region to build on, and so forth. The 5 Regions available are the following:[3]

  • Cactus Canyon, with supplies such as Oil and Tires
  • Green Valley, with Recycled Fabric and Cotton Bags, for example
  • Limestone Cliffs, with products related to String and/or Silk
  • Frosty Fjords, with products related to Fish
  • Sunny Isles, with coconuts, coconut oil, face cream, and tropical drinks

Reception

As of October 2021, the application has seen over 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store.[9] It ranks number four all-time in simulation games downloads operating on Android.

In 2018, according to EA Mobile, SimCity: BuildIt has been recorded as the most-played SimCity ever when it stayed in the top 10 in U.S. sim and strategy games on IOS platforms, in the top 100 for U.S. games overall and in the top 150 global.[10]

References
  1. "SimCity BuildIt – Free Mobile Game – EA Official Site – Electronic Arts EA.com › games › simcity-buildit". ea.com. January 13, 2017.
  2. ARTS, ELECTRONIC (January 22, 2018), SimCity BuildIt, ELECTRONIC ARTS, retrieved February 11, 2018
  3. Arts, Electronic (September 25, 2018). "Regions – SimCity BuildIt – EA Official Site". Electronic Arts Inc. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  4. "SimCity BuildIt for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  5. "SimCity BuildIt – IGN". IGN.com. November 25, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  6. "SimCity BuildIt review – iPhone reviews Pocket Gamer". pocketgamer.co.uk. December 18, 2014.
  7. Ford, Eric (December 23, 2014). "'SimCity BuildIt' Review – Actual City Planning Has Timers Too". TouchArcade. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  8. "SimCity BuildIt (for iPad) Review". PCMAG. September 5, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  9. "SimCity BuildIt – Apps on Google Play".
  10. "SimCity BuildIt – The Best Construction Game". August 15, 2019.
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