EA’s working on their free-to-play take on the SimCity series with SimCity BuildIt, and they’ve just released a developer diary that talks about some of the work that they’ve put into the game, and also shows off some more of the game in motion, which is still looking quite gorgeous. It talks about how they want to make a game that’s true to SimCity, but also something that’s free and approachable to casual fans. Here’s the video:
One feature revealed is a crafting system, and how they’re trying to make the game pick-up-and-play friendly for mobile players. They talk about building a dialogue with fans – you may recall how Dungeon Keeper (Free) was a bit unpopular with that series’ fans, and the PC SimCity last year had an unpopular response for a number of reasons. So while EA going free-to-play on mobile is an inevitability because of market realities, hopefully this one goes over well. Still no worldwide release date, but with the game out in New Zealand, and all this promotion, it’s hard to imagine this one not being out in 2014.
