In: Games, SimCity 4 Custom Maps

Sunspear: custom SimCity 4 region

My SimCity 4 resurgence has to thank, at least in part, anime.  To be more specific, the cities of sci-fi anime.  It’s not the buildings themselves I’m interested in, but the layout of the cities and the interesting problems that arise from heavily man made or customized foundations.

Natural terrain of course poses it’s own problems and while I respect the volcanoes and earthquakes of the planet, it isn’t for me.  Natural terrain maps only hold my interest so long, mainly because of the exact problems architects face every day.  Natural terrain can be serverly limiting.

This is where anime comes in.  The cities of sci-fi anime laugh in the face of mountains – I say this as they’re all mostly flat, but that’s not the point.  These cities are beautifully laid out and designed with stunning features, even waterways and transport are thought of before a graphic pen hits the paper.

Back we come to reality.  The cities of today are built on top of the mistakes past, which means many of our city dreams cannot come true.  Of course anime doesn’t have that problem.  Either we’re seeing far far in the future, some wacky alternate earth or the spoils of a post-apocalypse.  Enter Sunspear.

Sunspear is the first SimCity 4 custom map based on the idea of a clean slate.  If it was up to me, what would the terrain of this planets future regions look like.

Download the Sunspear region now!

Sunspear terrain map

Sunspear rendered region

Posted: Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Tags: anime, custom, map, simcity4, terrain