City builders split into subgenres that barely resemble each other. Cities Skylines focuses on traffic optimization and aesthetic building. Anno centres on island logistics and production chains. Banished and Frostpunk push survival mechanics. Tropico simulates dictatorships. Soviet Republic recreates command economy management. Each game builds around different core systems despite sharing the city builder label.

SimCity created the genre in 1989 and dominated until SimCity 4. The series died when it failed to evolve. Cities Skylines launched in 2015 and replaced it by combining Sim City's zoning systems with granular detail and robust modding support through Steam Workshop. Traffic Manager Presidential Edition and thousands of custom assets transformed the base game. Players spent 8,000+ hours building and optimizing cities. Nothing has matched this combination since.

Cities Skylines 2 launched broken in 2023. Paradox removed Colossal Order from development in November 2025 and moved the game to Iceflake Studios, an internal team with no franchise experience. The problems started before launch. Paradox forced the game onto their mod platform instead of Steam Workshop, rushed development, and expected Colossal Order to recreate a heavily modded ecosystem from scratch. The game ran poorly and offered less than the original. After three years of fixes failed to salvage it, Paradox blamed the developer. This decision looks like scapegoating and positions Iceflake to focus on DLC revenue recovery.

Anno succeeds across six entries because each game iterates on proven systems. The island mechanics, production chains, and optimization loops remain consistent while graphics and features improve. Paradox achieved this with Europa Universalis and Victoria but failed with Cities Skylines 2 by attempting replication instead of innovation.

The episode covers Pharaoh, the Settlers series crossing into RTS territory, Dwarf Fortress difficulty scaling, and Citystate Metropolis attempting gridless zoning as a solo development project.