Project Highrise Interview

When we’re not making simulation games, chances are decent that we’re playing a simulation game. A lot of our influences came from other sim/strategy games. For this one, I think we were influenced quite a bit by other simulation games that involve the layout and management of space - so Cities: Skylines, Children of the Nile, Prison Architect and other games of that type. Also bits of Civilization V sneak in here and there - especially in terms of how to slowly expose complexity and new systems to players. Of course we loved SimTower when it came out over 20 years ago and it’s an obvious inspiration. But the simulation genre has grown and evolved since then. We didn’t want to do a remake - our goal was to reimagine a skyscraper simulation so that it fits in among current sim games.

On the team itself, no one has more than an amateur appreciation of architecture. We read about it as a hobby and love to walk around Chicago and learn about architecture and history. We did, however, talk to a few building developers and architects to get a sense of how skyscrapers are designed, built and then managed. We tried to incorporate some of those real-world analogues into the game. We’ve had a few real estate/building managers play the game and they really appreciated that level of detail.

We definitely drew broad-stroke inspiration from SimTower. We saw skyscrapers and their construction and management as prime territory for a compelling simulation - one that hadn’t really been attempted since SimTower. Getting a building that rises over 100 floors into sky is an impressive feat of engineering. The systems and interactions that make it possible for us to live and work in these tall towers were what we most wanted to explore. Where SimTower was mostly about construction and managing the flow of people about the building, we wanted to explore more deeply the economy, the dependencies and the relations that bind a skyscraper together.

Like outside of games? Our hometown is definitely up there. Chicago has amazing modern architecture. There are probably a dozen or so skyscrapers being built here right now. Every time we’re downtown, it’s enthralling to watch them go up. Also just walking around a big city like Chicago, there are systems and relationships everywhere that scream out to be put into a simulation game.

Something approaching the tallest buildings in the world. The Willis (Sears) Tower here in Chicago is the tallest building in the western hemisphere - it has 108 floors. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is 163 floors tall. Our goal was always to support building that tall. But that’s just one way to play. Some of the biggest buildings in the world - those with the most space inside - aren’t skyscrapers. They’re buildings like the Pentagon in Washington or The Merchandise Mart here in Chicago. They’re not tall, but they cover entire city blocks. We designed for height and for density - so it’s really up to the player how they want to build. The game can easily support having 1,000 characters onscreen at once. That’s a lot of building.

In sandbox mode, there really aren’t explicit lose/win conditions. Here the touchstone was in games like SimCity or Cities in Motion. Your goals as a player are twofold. First don’t fail - so keep your building’s economy in the black and maintenance and infrastructure in top form. Second, create a building that you’re pleased with. There’s a feeling when you fill up a map in SimCity - of accomplishment and pride in what you’ve created and nurtured. In sandbox mode, those are the central objectives. In campaign mode, each scenario will have specific objectives, but sandbox is deliberately open-ended.

We started with a pretty complicated design. Its implementation has inevitably changed the details of the design, but looking back at the vision we had for the game, I’m pleasantly surprised by the complexity of its systems we’ve managed to cram into the game. Hopefully players enjoy figuring it out and creating skyscrapers within it. I think that the way the systems slowly layer on top of one another as a tower grows worked out really well. We wanted players to have a “look what I made” moment when they get to a large tower, but we also wanted the process of getting there to be compelling as well. Also, I think our artists did a great job with that. We wanted to evoke a bit of SimTower for those that remembered it but also immediately make it look more modern and complex with a bit of mid-century flair. I’m really happy with what they’ve done.

That complexity that I just talked about? That. Two major issues came directly from that - surfacing what’s going on to players and getting tuning and balance right. In terms of explaining what’s going on, we as developers (usually) know what the simulation is doing and why it’s happening. Communicating that to players is not the easiest thing. A lot of the fun in a simulation game comes from trying to figure out how the underlying simulation runs and how you as a player can optimally interact with it. So as developers, we want there to be some (for lack of a better word) mystery about the game. But at the same time, it can’t appear capricious or arbitrary. It should be possible to mostly figure out what’s going on. It took a while, but I think we’ve finally licked that one. Mostly.

The second on is a lot harder. Getting the balance in all of the game’s systems just right involves a lot of crazy spreadsheets and hours upon hours of gameplay. It’s really tricky to get right throughout the lifecycle of a game session - from a small, basic building through a large, heavily populated skyscraper. Also we want to support different play styles. Some players will be interested in a more relaxed game that’s more focused on building and expansion. Some will want to be operating at razor-thin margins being always a moment away from utter failure. That’s a lot to get in balance. It’s an ongoing and probably perpetual challenge. Or at least it feels like that right now. :)

You just asked an architecture junkie to identify a favourite skyscraper, so you shouldn’t be surprised that it’s not a simple answer with the name of a building. So, that’s going to depend on what flavour of skyscraper. You shouldn’t be shocked, but they’re all in Chicago. For Art Deco elegance, there’s the Carbide and Carbon Building - it’s beautiful. 
Mid century sleek goes to the Inland Steel Building. It’s covered in stainless steel and interacts with the sky in amazing ways. 
And for something very modern from this century, Jeanne Gang’s Aqua building is pretty fantastic. Didn’t realize you could make a skyscraper almost move like that. 
In terms of inspiration for the game, that prize goes to two buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The outer skin of the buildings in the game was drawn from his IBM Building. 
And our UI and a lot of other game elements draw heavily from his Federal Center. It’s probably the purest expression of Mies’ aesthetic views anywhere. It’s a masterpiece.

There are some subsystems and variations to current content that we’d like to add in some future releases. We’ve also got ideas for some pretty substantial expansions. Right now, you can build an office tower, a residential tower or you can try to mix them both. But there are a lot of other things that can be done in skyscrapers. Things like hotels and conventions and the like immediately come to mind. We’ve also got a few more that we’re starting to explore and flesh out.
Beyond that, it’s sort of up to players. We’re looking forward to seeing where they want us to go with it. Some really great ideas have come from the players we’ve engaged during development and hopefully once the game gets a wider audience, we get even more great ideas!