And while the issues raised were numerous, there are two critical points we are exploring in this piece. The game came under intense criticism at release with players posting screenshots and videos of cities not behaving as expected. However, 2013 saw a gap emerge in the market courtesy of the latest entry in the beloved SimCity franchise from Electronic Arts. Colossal Order, having achieved success with the Cities in Motion series had sought to expand into a full city building title, a sentiment that at that time Paradox Interactive did not share.

This includes establishing city zoning, utilities such as water and electricity, establishing zones for residential, commercial and industrial growth, public services such as schools, fire services and law enforcement, all the taxation that is required to pay for it all and - critically for this episode - road placement and establishing transportation services within the region. Released in 2015 and published by Paradox Interactive, Cities: Skylines is an open-ended city-building simulator where players are responsible for many aspects of modern urban planning. In this article, we'll take a look at the traffic and navigation systems that run in every city, how citizens go about their day-to-day routine and how developers Colossal Order sought to address the traffic jams that can easily emerge. Let's take a look at a fantastic example of this found in the popular city-building simulator Cities: Skylines. An AI tool or system can be running in plain sight, providing a critical element of the game that players are largely unaware of until it starts to go wrong. Quite often artificial intelligence is in control of so many elements of our favourite video games, but we seldom take notice and take it for granted. You can support this work by visiting my Patreon page.

'AI and Games' is a crowdfunded YouTube series that explores research and applications of artificial intelligence in video games.

Cities skylines vs simcity