Finally, a building simulator that pushes the mobile genre of games an evolutionary step forward. Pixel People, by Lambda Mu (and published by Chillingo), abandons the degenerating game play mechanics of cleaning the city or producing candy bars in factories and having to wait a twenty-four hour period for the results. Pixel People even includes pixelated sprites that enjoy the expanding city — which is forcibly called Utopia — by walking around and smelling the freshly potted Martian Flowerbed, and freshly planted Plutonian Pines. Yes, this is a science fiction world; Utopia is a futuristic city floating in space, and constructed by citizens who are clones.
Pixel People is about Discovery
Pixel People possess that addictive gene that A Game Dev Story has. A quality that make you pause your friends mid-conversation: “one sec, I gotta check to see if he Cafe is finished building so the Poet has a place to write poetry.” This addictive nature of Pixel People comes from the need to discover the new professions the clones can take on.
In Pixel People clones are generated at this factory every few minutes, which you then combine specific genes such as an Accountant gene with a Gardner gene to discover a new profession. Most professions have their own building. For example, the Philosopher belongs to the University and the Poet belongs to the Cafe. However, some professions can work in other builds. The Poet, for example, can work in both the Publishing house and the Cafe, just as the Gardner can work in the Farmer’s Market or the Floral Shop. But you have to discover all these combinations. It’s mind numbing to consider how many there actually are. One hundred and fifty (150) professions times (X) the number of buildings they occupy (A) equals (=) mind numbing (M).
Improving the genre
The first city building game for iOS I played was City Story, which had its merits, but its gameplay was bogged down by the developer’s shove to make money via in app purchases. It was like tumbling down a cliff at times. Buildings took as much as twenty four hours to be built and to produce things.
Pixel People is a different story (a totally intended pun). There isn’t a necessity to purchase the in app currency, Utopium, to afford progress. There are still wait times for buildings and new people to emerge in your city, but you won’t be waiting for hours. And there is plenty of work to be done in the city to keep you occupied. Erect monuments and parks, plant trees, power buildings with the tip of your finger, and acknowledge happy citizens by collecting hearts for rewards. Or just spy on your citizens as the meander through their day-to-day doings like Big Brother (like the U.K. Or Germany).
It’s no City Sim, but that’s okay
Fortune in Pixel People isn’t correlated with the socio-economic conditions of your city. The poet sitting in the cafe with an outrageously priced coffee won’t be penning poems in their notebook about their inability to see the lake and the trees behind the glimmer city-centre towers. (They’ll probably just write poems questioning the ethics of selling coffee for such in un-justified prices).
City planning is as simple as knowing you have the funds in your city vault to afford upgrades. Most buildings are placed free upon discovery of a new profession. Buildings can be place freely an aren’t restricted to a typical square city limits which most game of this genre offer.
My only nit-pick is the inability to name my city. I’m stuck with Utopia, which is a fine name, but doesn’t match the distopian theme of my city. Also: why not include the ability to scout out other Pixel People cities?
Closing Comments
As with any free iOS game, I suggest downloading it to abuse the fact it’s free. All the best things in life are supposed to be free, yet usually such is not the case– except this time! Pixel People is the best.