City planning games like SimCity and Cities: Skylines are nothing new, but they all feature an emphasis on expansion. Moving outward and taking up more land is the key to success. Block’hood is looking to change that, with players focusing attention upward instead.
Block'Hood Early Access Trailer from jomasan on Vimeo.
Combining SimCity and Minecraft together, Block’hood sees players building a little ecosystem out of different types of blocks. Instead of dirt or wood, these blocks are a bit more substantial. One might be a bar or beer garden, for example. Another could be an apartment or even a wind turbine. All of these blocks then get built on top of each other, creating towers of civilization.
The interesting thing is what happens after you combine blocks. “As you are playing, you will actually discover that different people, different habitats start appearing and populating what you’ve created,” Jose Sanchez told iDigitalTimes. Sanchez is the lead designer of Block’hood. “If you create apartments, different city blocks, you’ll get a different lifestyle.”
Block’hood isn’t just about city life though, there’s also an emphasis about striking a balance between urban development and the natural world. “If you create more organic tiles, more landscape, you will actually get animals and different wildlife. It’s up to you to go urban or nature or rural,” said Sanchez. “It’s up to you to deal with the consequences of that.”
Block’hood is already on Steam via the Greenlight program. More changes are going to be coming to the game before it is fully released, but there’s still plenty to play with right now. As for moving beyond PC, a console release is doubtful.
“It plays well with a mouse and keyboard, so consoles would be a bit tricky,” said Sanchez. That’s not to say Block’hood will be a PC-only release. “If release goes well, we’ll look to mobile. That will be our second wave of the project,” Sanchez said.
While it may look nice, Block’hood can also get downright hard. “We have a challenge mode, and it really plays more like a puzzle,” Sanchez mentioned. These challenges see players having to focus on one aspect of building a city, but still be able to balance out the opposite side as well. For example, players may have to worry about keeping enough housing and food for a population of people, but also have to ensure the air and water quality are nice as well.
“The final challenge, people argue that it’s impossible,” Sanchez warned about Block’hood. “We’ve done it and it’s very tricky,” he said. That means it is possible, players will just have to play a little bit smarter.
Block’hood is currently available to download on Steam and through GOG.
So what do you think? Are you intrigued by the vertical city building found in Block’hood? What other game hybrids have you enjoyed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
