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A comment on Cities: Skylines II. Parent comment

Re:Cities: Skylines II by fy20 on Monday March 06, 2023 @11:19PM (#35051494)
This is somewhat out of context. Colosal Order developed two niche games before C:S; a transport simulator series called Cities in Motion. They received government funding before the first game was released. Many European countries have grants, tax cuts or loans for new businesses, so it's not anything unusual.

CiM 2 is a really good game, and very beautiful (which I guess is how they got the idea to build C:S). The focus is on transportation, and it does a much better job of simulating it than C:S (no despawning for starts). It has a few bugs and performance issues which I guess will never be fixed now, but worth playing if you like games that are a bit more constrained.

https://youtu.be/Bkwbajm7nG8

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Cities: Skylines II by pavlov on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @02:37AM (#35052636)
> “…it's not anything unusual.”

I would argue it’s actually unusual on HN to hear such an origin story for a successful business. Everybody has heard a hundred versions of the VC-funded twenty-something boy genius and also the bootstrapped hustler… But the story where your seed funding comes from government grants in a small European country doesn’t align with that kind of hero founder narratives.

Personally I got started in the software business with a Finnish government loan too, and I’m grateful for it. So I wanted to highlight that this actually happens and leads to products that people want.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Cities: Skylines II by rags2riches on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @04:46AM (#35053463)
I liked Cities in Motion. But like many other games like it, the joy dies when the UI can't keep up with the growing complexity as I build. Things that were easy in the beginning become a chore later on. That's when I give up and move on.
[ Parent | on HN ]