Swordless Mimetown:

Next week, our company will be participating in the Brackey’s Game Jam 2021. Starting on Valentine’s Day, our team will put our heads together and spend dedicated effort to create and release a video game. I’m elated to create a project from the ground-up with our talented team, and contribute in a way I have never done professionally before.

Major project ahead!
Major project ahead!

We plan to report on daily progress and share our creation with the community however we can. That is to say, it may take some time after the February 21st end date to polish what we wind up with. We have no idea how this will go; none of us have done this before! Either way, if you’re reading this, you’ll likely be the first to know.

Game jams typically have a theme announced at the starting hour. Personally, The prompts for this activity are well designed; “stay positive”, “recycling but bad”, and “The end of a book is just a new chapter” are some of my favorites. Those snippets are rife with conflict to dive into.

One of life's few certanties.
One of life's few certanties.

Galahad:

Tax Season - UGH!!

Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, you need to decide on a budget for your next huge mayoral project!!!

Should you increase the line of credit? Which would increase the debt of your city? Should you increase the sales taxes? Won’t that have a bad effect on consumer spending? Should you increase fines? That will drive citizens to live in another city? Should you sell some assets? Reduce services for your citizens?

These are the tough questions we want to use in our game to challenge players.

In the early stages of building a city and rapidly placing roads, a line of credit increase can be a good idea. As your city flourishes, you can look at an increase in property taxes. But, be wary about keeping it reasonable; if your city is reinventing neighborhoods by replacing agriculture or industrial with tourism, then fines might be the best path forward.

This neighborhood is pretty sharp.
This neighborhood is pretty sharp.

Asset sales can be a good idea for those underutilized services (education, police, or clinics) in overserved areas. Heat maps easily highlight these opportunities.

There are many secrets to creating the great city that mayors can be proud of. Density, transportation, parks and recreation are on the shortlist. But as always, it’s always wise to adjust financials periodically in order to achieve greatness.

Questions? Comments? Feedback on the game? Sound off on our Discord.

As always, we’re incredibly thankful for our great community across the web. We love seeing the hard work and attention to detail you pour into your cities, and it inspires us every day to keep building. Thank you again for your support.

If you want to play the game and haven’t got it yet, head over to our Steam page. We’re also on Reddit and Twitter. Give us a follow if you haven’t, and we’ll keep you up to date on what’s new with NewCity!