A downloadable game for Windows and macOS

NEWS:

At the moment, we're actually in the middle of a big re-design of the game -- the driving and building systems weren't quite working the way we wanted. Thus, the game remains unreleased for now.

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If you want to e-mail us, we're at contactus@itsaltercationtime.com


a city simulation game about the most prolific urban planner ever

by Robert Yang @radiatoryang (art, game design, game code) and Eddie Cameron @eddiecameron (systems design, simulation code)

This is a one-act prototype for a much larger five-act game that would attempt to cover the major periods of Robert Moses' life.

Act I would cover his initial Long Island parkway projects and beach projects and introduce a park building mechanic. Act II (this demo) covers roughly 1934-1936, when Moses first took power as NYC Parks Commissioner and TBA Chairman. Act III would cover blah blah blah etc, etc, etc.

Some design pillars for this game:

  • Resist the implicit crypto-fascism of SimCity by depicting and simulating the consequences of "urban renewal", and the city will resist your changes. A city sandbox-style game with political friction.
  • Give shape to Moses' historical rise to power and relationships, such as the love-hate with Mayor LaGuardia and animosity with President FDR. Think of it as historical fiction.
  • Let the player unknowingly rehearse many of Moses' tendencies: to constantly read memos and work in his car, to mindlessly rubber-stamp memos and give approvals, to imagine the city as a "miniature model" to be modified on his whim, to build "traffic machines" that funnel traffic through toll booths to power the TBTA, to think of a city as a machine for cars.
  • Simplify the city sim genre and emphasize narrative aspects that takes advantage of common "it's your city!!!" genre traditions.
  • Sprinkle with historical and period details about New York City. Unfortunately I only got around to modeling only like 5 landmarks, but imagine there were more like 50!!!

(If you're interested, you can also read about more of the process here and there.)

FINISHEDNESS: We ran out of time with everything, and tried to sew up the gaps as much as we could, etc. sorry in advance... there's quite a few little interface bugs everywhere

RUNTIME: 1-2 hours, but of course don't feel obliged to play the whole thing. Unfortunately, you'll have to play it all in one go, though -- we didn't have time to implement a save system, sorry.

NOTES FOR PLAYING: You'll need a mouse and keyboard, and sound provides important UI cues. If the game runs slowly, go to the game menu and disable shadows, or try a lower resolution in the game launcher. (The game is a bit taxing on a Macbook Air)

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