Hey guys, this is Titan!
Some of you may know me - I have been an active Asset Creator for Cities: Skylines since day one, am making assets for Cities: Skylines II as well, co-created the German Region Pack, and occasionally make some videos on YouTube as well… Today, I have the pleasure to tell you a little something about my very own Content Creator Pack: Office Evolution.
I always felt like office zones are neglected in the game and its predecessor. In Cities: Skylines, we only had high-rises; in Cities: Skylines II, we have either very tall high-rises or suburban single-story low-density office lots. We now have some quite nice Signature Buildings that offer more variety, but their number is very limited, naturally. I always felt like a medium-density office zone for all the cities that are neither New York City nor Tokyo are missing. So, when Paradox asked for ideas for an office-related CCP, I knew my time had come!
Throughout my Asset Creator career, if you wanna call it like that, I have received some calls for a specific kind of architecture that felt a bit outside my usual playground (those that know me also know that I specialized in historic European buildings: small and ornate old townhouses, churches, palaces, you name it).
On multiple occasions, oddly enough, people asked me to make eclectic architecture: combine the old and the new, the stone-and-plaster facades with modern and daring glass-and-steel additions. Preposterous! To defile grand old architecture like that … and yet … and yet, I can’t deny it has a certain feel to it that I kind of like. The clash between then and now, the visible evolution of the city…
So, when I was given the chance to make this office pack, I knew this was the one in a million chance to follow that guilty pleasure of mine!
The idea is simple: a pack that offers a medium-density office zone. A set of buildings that display historic architecture but, as it levels up, becomes more modern, gets glass towers added on, or its ornate facade is deconstructed. This kind of eclectic architecture is especially common in Europe, with its old and grand buildings, but also exists in other parts of the world, from the US all the way to Japan. Its execution was a little bit more difficult, but more on that later.
As I said, my usual playground is historic (as usually hundreds of years old) buildings, so making modern buildings, let alone the clash between modern and historic, was a unique challenge for me. I had to look for inspiration, figure out proportions and materials, upgrade paths, and modern building designs.
To do so, I modelled some “mock-up” buildings. Quickly done cubes with photos projected on them to give an idea of what the zone might look like and how modern and historic facades can work together.
Once these were done, I started actually working on…
After a good few weeks of work, the first buildings were done. For the most part, I started with the historic buildings and then gradually redeveloped them just as architects would have done in reality.
The core of the pack is a new high density office zone - complete with 5 lot sizes and 45 buildings inhabiting them. Most buildings display a clear path from classical to modern architecture as they progress through the levels.
For this pack and this zone, I was happy to stray from the usual way of levelling up buildings: in the vanilla game, only levels 1, 3 and 5 have unique buildings, while the intermediate levels have the same meshes, usually with more props on them.
For the my pack, I added small changes between all levels. This really shows a smooth transition from a heritage building to a modern office complex.
Only once the largest part of the zoned buildings was done did I also start making the 3 signature buildings, though it was clear from the start that I wanted to make some. With only a limited number of buildings possible in a CCP, it was clear that the zoned buildings could not stand out too much, lest you risk an office district look too repetitive.
With signature buildings, of course, that’s not an issue. With these, I really wanted to make some buildings where the modern extension absolutely dwarfs the heritage building, with little care for the original.
Have a look at the Brunswick corner building, for example. There used to be an old administrative building from the 1880s here. A grand neo-Gothic building with ornate details and a larger tower on the corner. Time, however, was not kind to it. It fell in disrepair, burned down until only a small ruin was left of it. Scroll forward a hundred years, and a growing multimedia corporation is looking to develop a new HQ. They found a derelict site in the city center with a long history. The ruin standing still provides a glimpse of the grandeur of old - just what the company needs. A corner lot in the centre of the city, where they can display their modern approach to media and a connection to tradition. So, instead of razing the ground, they carefully secured the old parts and included them in the main entrance of the building.
So, buildings like that also show a glimpse into the history of a city. History, which I always look for in my cities is just as well displayed in each of these buildings!
That’s it from my side! I hope this short Dev Diary gave you an understanding of the style I wanted to recreate in the game and the gap that I felt had to be filled.
Thanks for reading through this, and I can’t wait to see the progression from ornate facades to thriving office districts in your city.
Cheers!