Stadtbau - City Builder

Stadtbau is an open-source city-building simulation in the style of the 1989 classic that invented a whole genre: the building game with no enemy and no win condition, where the appeal lies purely in watching a living system grow. Running here is micropolisJS by Graeme McCutcheon, a free port for the browser, in a version adapted for Werkzeu.ge.

The core principle is simple and deep at once. You designate areas as residential, commercial or industrial zones, connect them with roads and rails, and power it all from power plants. Where the conditions are right, people move in, firms open, factories produce. The zones grow on their own when you give them what they need - and decay when you neglect them.

A city is a cycle of supply and demand. Too much industry and no one wants to live there. Too few roads and everything chokes in traffic. No money for police and fire and crime and fires eat your tax revenue. You adjust the tax rate, allocate the budget and watch how your decisions shape the city over years. There is no right ending, only a city that keeps on growing.

And then there are the disasters. A fire eats through downtown, a tornado or a flood puts your planning to the test, and sometimes a monster even stomps through the streets. You can let them come or switch them off - but a little chaos is part of the appeal, because only the rebuild shows how robust your city really is.

You build with the mouse: pick a tool, click on the map. The arrow keys or WASD move the map, and the "Query" tool shows info about a field. The game itself is in English and needs a large window, ideally maximized. Anyone who has played a building game feels at home instantly, and newcomers learn how a city ticks as they build.

Stadtbau runs entirely in your browser. No download, no installation, no account. It is open source, nothing is permanently sent to a server, and your city stays saved in this browser until you log out.