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Metropolis 1998

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Metropolis 1998

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A fresh, modern city builder with charming aesthetics. Detailed agent-based simulation and scheduling. See inside buildings. Design and customize almost anything. Business-specific zoning, and mixed use zones too!

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Most popular community and official content for the past week. (?)

Metropolis 1998 is now in Alpha - Demo Updated

8:29am

Metropolis 1998 is now in alpha

The demo has been updated!

I'm excited!

Hello Builders,

Over the last year, I've added dozens of new features to Metropolis 1998. The updated build (demo) is now live, ready for you to try out!

Alpha means the game is >80% of the way there. Nearly all the major features are added, and many are feature complete. Parts of the game might be unbalanced. Existing features might be significantly tweaked. Please take a minute to share your thoughts if you play the new build? ːsteamthumbsupː

MAJOR UPDATES

MAJOR UPDATES - Description

Game Loop

Supply and demand play a major role in growing your city

Homes wont upgrade until their inhabitant's needs are fulfilled. Businesses, offices, and industry also rely on this system.

Features unlock as your city grows.

Creative mode still exists. :)

Utilities

Electricity, telecom, cable, water, sewage, garbage, recycling, postal services, city hall, death care, and maintenance systems have been added to the game

Utility poles and pipes power roads (and buildings), but roads do not power other roads (may change!)

Terrain Generation

Each map is randomly generated with micro biomes, hills, and plants/trees.

Warning Icons

Icons will output over buildings when there is a problem

Overlays / View Mode

See your city in specific details. Colors buildings depending on the mode

Editing Tools

I've added a lot more creative editing tools.

Copy & Paste Buildings
Recolor objects on the map
Set a specific (visual) building level
Add trees/street lights to roads
Click once to flood fill zone placement (auto zones)
Output original terrain
Terrain brush
Change terrain shape/height (one tile, for now)
\[More are planned!]

Outdoor Lighting

Street lamps and vehicles now have lights. Windows lights up at night as well.

Tilt Shift Camera

Adds blur and depth of field

24 Hour Businesses

Some businesses are now open 24 hours, with multiple worker shifts

Abandoned Buildings

Buildings will become visibly abandoned if they lack utilities after 8 in game hours. More to come

Pie Charts

View detailed info about your city's population and (currently inactive) economy

Economy

Economy is not active/balanced, but it's in the game and you can see the break down of income/costs.

New Assets

Lots of new objects and blueprints have been added to the game

Auto Zones

Classic zone placement (buildings construct on their own) has been fleshed out to include low to high density for residential and office buildings.

All other business/industry you place via blueprints, since placement matters!

Supply & Demand

When you place a business, the game will show you every building that:

Want's this business but doesn't have it
Already has supply for this business

Strategically placing businesses is key to leveling up your city's buildings

Icon Overhaul

The UI icons have been completely reworked (still in progress, but mostly complete)

MINOR UPDATES

Notable Minor Updates - Description

Breeze Effects

Trees gently sway in the wind

Custom Roofs

There is a new roof option that lets you place each roof part manually

Demand UIs

Every unit and building will show you what businesses it needs to thrive

Performance

Faster everything

Collision Detection

Cars will now check for collisions with pedestrians on crosswalks and vehicles entering/exiting properties

Homemakers

Added chance for an adult to be a home maker

Schools

Children will now go to school (only high school is in game, for now)

Sounds

More sounds have been added to the game

Original Terrain 2

When placing a zone, new option to keep terrain as seen

New Businesses

Added Arcade, Optometrist, Bakery, Dentist

Timber Industry

Timber industry demand is determined by how big your city is. If you do not fulfill the demand, construction speeds slow down

Tutorial

I've added a tutorial for the basics. Will be improved!

QOL

Many quality of life changes. Too many to list

Game Options

Added more simulation options to let the player choose how they want to play the game

Note: Construction speed does NOT save currently

Demolish

When placing a business, residential buildings default to being replaced/demolished for QOL

Public Spaces

Units will now use the public spaces in apartment buildings

Cars

Both adults in a household will own a car if there's no sidewalk connection. Otherwise it's more likely only one will.

Night Colors

If the moon is obscured by clouds, the colors of the night will change

Have fun! Hope to hear from you. Please let me know your thoughts if you try out the demo <3

\\- Chase

Metropolis 1998

Water connection

I can't seem to figure out how to connect anything to the water grid. See screenshot https://www.pasteboard.co/i9eNvgjl9PHw.png

Timbo

Apr 21 @ 12:01pm

General Discussions

Developer Update -- Nov'25- Feb'26

Feb 27

Hello everyone!

It's been awhile since my last update (insert sweaty smiley face hard at work). I'm happy to share there's been a lot of new updates since my last post (which also contains a lot of new content, in case you missed it!)

Also check out the new screenshots on the main page :)

Im working towards the big demo update. Initially I was planning on waiting until the game was in alpha, but it's almost been a year since the last update (wow!). So this next update will be the last pre-alpha update. I dont have a date yet though, sorry!

To the point: New Features!

Business now have multiple shifts
24 hour businesses
Lots of new job titles
Demand/supply info UI outputs when placing a businesses
Started added economy to the game (with pie charts!)
GUI Icon overhaul (in progress)
Both adults in a family will now own a car. This is required since there are not other transportation options, and sidewalks are optional.
Pedestrians obey crosswalk signals
Collision detection for vehicles exiting/entering properties
General bug fixes, performance improvements, etc.

Tilt Shift

Street Lights, Vehicle Lights

Building Levels

New Assets, New Buildings (small sample)

Window Night Lights

Abandoned Buildings

Recolor existing objects

Copy Place Building

Object-road output

Pedestrian collision detection

Thank you!

Chase / Yesbox Studios

Metropolis 1998

196

Developer Update - A Real Game Soon

Nov 1, 2025

Howdy Everyone. (I'm in Texas now y'all). It's been awhile! About time I post an update.

First off, there's two major bugs in the demo for some people:

Textures are black when starting or loading a map
What happened: shaders are not compiling for AMD hardware.
Solution: The next build will fix this issue
The game wont stop zooming in
What happened: I forgot to comment out controller/joystick code (for media creation)
Solution: Unplug all joysticks/controllers. I'll comment out the code in the next build

The next demo update will be awhile

I've reached the point in development where I'm adding simulation gameplay
These features are strongly interconnected
Thus: Pushing out an update is not feasible until all the parts are working together
This might be the final push to alphaːsteamhappyː

What have you been working on?

\[Only major features are listed] -- Gifs are below!

Terrain height, generation, and manipulation. Note: Roads and buildings cannot be placed on elevated terrain, this is coming after launch. Most other objects can be placed though.
Tutorial for the mayor house
Lots of new assets/objects
Custom roofs
New buildings (Bakery, Dentist, Optometrist, Arcade, Utility Buildings)
Utilities: Electricity, telecoms, cable, water, and sewage
Overlays, view modes, and warning icons
Inability to place businesses unless there's enough demand
High density residential auto zones (aka classic zone->growth placement)
A lot more included blueprints
Municipal service simulation (police, fire, hospital)

Personal Stuff

While working on the terrain, I burnt out and stopped working on the game in August and September. I decided to move out of Vermont cause there's no game development industry up here, and the isolation sucked. So in September, I traveled around the US, was (pleasantly) reminded how friggen big and diverse this country is, and ended up choosing Austin, TX as my new home (the industry is pretty big down here).

I'm now feeling much better and productive, and I'm excited that I'm entering the development phase of "putting it all together".

Fun: Simulating, Pathing, and Rendering 100,000 units at 30 FPS.

Terrain generation

Terrain Manipulation

Mayor Building Tutorial. Will be polished later :)

Custom Roofs

Utilities

Substation (WIP/Art is temporary).

PWR -> No Power

NO SUB -> No Substation / not enough substations

NO CON -> Substation/utility building not connected to grid

NO TELE -> No telecom / not enough telecom stations

(work in progress)

High Rise Buildings and Construction

Starting to work on police simulation (very early look)

Breeze Experiments

Overlays (WIP shown previously)

1.) Demand

2.) Road condition and traffic

3.) Current unit schedule

Thanks

\[fin]

Metropolis 1998

285

How can I play?

is there anywhere I can play

Major

Apr 21 @ 3:05am

General Discussions

Black screen with UI on the demo under Linux. What should I do?

Hi, I am totally unable to play the demo of Metropolis 1998 due to a graphical bug that produces a black screen with UI elements during game play. Twiddling with the settings does nothing. My system specifications are as follows: Operating System: Debian 13 Trixie, Proton Experinmental CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT RAM: 16GB DDR4 What should I do?...