Fundamentals of Construction and Simulation Game Design

The Game World

It’s easy enough to say that CSGs focus on systems and processes, but the processes must be displayed meaningfully on a computer screen and must fire the player’s imagination. To do either, you must have an attractive setting. CSGs take place in a simulated physical space, often an outdoor world viewed from an aerial perspective in which the players can construct buildings or other objects. In the Caesar series, the player builds an ancient Roman town, so the setting is a landscape near a river. In the Civilization games, the player explores a world while at the same time advancing a civilization both culturally and technologically, so the setting is an entire continent or several of them.

CSGs are often set in 2D or 2.5D (layered ...