SimCity is not a game I've played, but it is a game that helped inspire the stuff I love now! Here's links to all the indie games I mention:

Parkasaurus 

Simmiland 

Game Dev Tycoon 

And a word from Nick:

 SimCity is what happens when one guy (Will Wright) is really interested in a very specific, very gamifiable subject like city planning and building, and then he turns that interest and a love of building virtual islands into a video game where all his political views hang out for everyone to see.  Nobody thought it would be a success - it was so different from the action platformers of the day. But dozens of sequels across three decades later, it’s one of the most important games of all time. Join hosts Mumbles and Nick on a journey through a game series that wasn’t like any other, and paved the way for so many: SimCity.