The idea

Ever since playing classic management games like OpenTTD and SimCity, I wanted to build a world where you could watch small towns turn into busy, connected cities because of the lines you drew between them. Not a city you zone from above, but one that grows because your buses, trains and ships keep bringing people in.

For a long time it stayed an idea, because building a game like this alone is a lot of work. When AI tools became good enough to write real software, I decided to find out whether I could finally build it, by directing the design and working through it step by step with an AI assistant.

How it was made

The game was designed and directed by me and built with Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, over more than twenty versions, with some technical advice from Gemini along the way. I described what I wanted, played each version, decided what felt wrong and what to add next, and repeated.

Pure browser technology. The game is a single web page written in plain JavaScript, drawn on an HTML5 canvas. There is nothing to install.
Drawn in code. All 120+ building designs, 75 attractions and landmarks, 25 vehicles, the trees, animals and the people walking the streets are vector shapes generated by the game itself. The character portraits for your neighbours are built from parts, so each one is different.
Sound. Sound effects are synthesised live in the browser. The soundtrack is original music composed with Suno AI.
Cloud saves and leaderboards run on Google Firebase.

Why share how it was built

I hope this project is a small reminder that big ideas and long-held dreams are achievable. The tools have changed a lot, and sometimes all it takes is the first step.

What is in the game today

A 96×96 starting map inside a 144×144 world, with twelve regions to unlock and three more maps abroad.
Buses, trucks, trains, planes and ships, five models each.
Fourteen industries forming seven production chains.
Towns that grow from cottages to skyscrapers, with four seasons and a day and night cycle.
Neighbours who drop by with delivery orders, 152 achievements and 20 company levels.
A Daily Challenge on a shared map, plus Growth and All-Time leaderboards.

Questions, ideas or bugs are welcome at support@browsercitytycoon.com.

Thanks for playing!