MaxisToast

Always!

Seriously though, being the first 3D SimCity (and the first with curvy roads) means there's some serious spline tech under the hood. We've got a few old, grizzled engineers (including some from the SC4 days) making sure your splines are reticulated to perfection.

Older and grizzleder.

Figuring out the best way to place buildings close together in a given space (read: city block) is one of the more daunting engineering challenges on the project. We have a dedicated programmer who's sole job is driving how buildings spawn in zones; it's a full-time job. And it's looking good! I was building a university town last night and even my curvy suburban roads were getting backed to the brim with homes.

But even with all of that tech, our tallest skyscrapers still need breathing room for certain features. Garbage is piled in the alleys between buildings until garbage trucks can come pick it up, for example.

Like SimCity games in the past, it can be somewhat of a steep learning curve at first. Without some reasonable fear of failure, the success of building a thriving city would be muted.

That said, getting a humble town up and running is pretty straight-forward after going through the tutorial once. And from there learning how to manage big cities and specialized industries ramps the difficulty.