City 20 skiljer sig från andra stadsbyggarspel genom att erbjuda folk som "har behov"

När det gäller stadsbyggarspel och simulatorer kan det ofta kännas som att spelaren agerar som en gud, utan något större intresse av att faktiskt ta hänsyn till invånarnas behov. För teamet på Untold Games var detta ett område där de såg en möjlighet att särskilja sitt spel City 20 från konkurrenterna, genom att skapa datorkontrollerade stadsbor med verkliga behov och personligheter.

I samband med detta talade vi nyligen med medgrundaren Elisa Di Lorenzo under London Games Fests New Game Plus-event, där vi fick veta mer om det starka fokuset på att skapa trovärdiga och karismatiska NPC:er. Hon sade:

"We currently have, I think, around 80 NPCs in the game and they're entirely simulated. So they have basically to live and survive exactly like the player. So they have their own needs, routines, jobs and stuff like that. And what they do also depends... I mean, they're driven by desires. So they do things because they want to do specific things.

In many games NPCs are just there for you. You do your things and, you know, like, oh... the shop is open, the shop will have the things I need and so on. But if a character is not there, that character is not going to be at home necessarily. They might be doing something else. There's some characters that like specific things, like mushrooms, and then the guy that likes mushrooms will be looking for mushrooms in the woods when they're not working, you know, that sort of thing."

Detta innebär naturligtvis vissa utmaningar när det gäller balans, och Elisa Di Lorenzo fortsatte:

"It's also a challenging thing for us in terms of balancing the game as well because while the player has needs, but also the NPCs have needs. Sometimes you find yourself competing with NPCs for resources. I may need to go to the blacksmith and buy some stuff, and maybe it's out of stock because the inventory is not just simply replenished every now and then. The blacksmith needs to build everything. So they will need resources and that sort of thing.

We think it's interesting and challenging a bit. And also because the way you can potentially have an impact on the NPCs because of how you can help them or sabotage them in a way. So you have an impact on the actual life of the NPCs as well, depending on what you do."

City 20 finns just nu i Early Access till PC och har nyligen fått sin 0.9-uppdatering. Det är ännu oklart när spelet ska lanseras i sin fullständiga version, men enligt Di Lorenzo är målet att släppet ska ske under 2027. Kolla in hela intervjun nedan.