City Corner #6
Greetings Mayors!
Sini here, the Community Manager for Cities: Skylines II. In this City Corner, we will be talking about all things Community and really get into how community feedback continues to help shape the development of Cities: Skylines II. Over the past few months, we have been exploring new ways to communicate more directly with you through our new streams, social media, and community events. At the same time, we’ve been paying close attention to discussions happening across different platforms, like Paradox Forums, Reddit, Discord, etc., to better understand which topics, features, and improvements are currently the “most wanted” to you!
Now, let’s dig in, shall we!
Streaming
Last month, we had our first official stream, hosted by Toadie and me, where we went through some of the changes and improvements included in our latest patch, Spring Cleaning! Ever since starting this project, streaming was something that we really wanted to explore, as it gives us an opportunity to communicate with you in real time and showcase upcoming changes in a more direct and personal way. Since then, we have had the pleasure of hosting three streams, and as you might have guessed, there is plenty more to come in the future!
Streams have already proven to be an excellent way for us to connect with you. Not only can we show upcoming features and improvements, but we also get the opportunity to answer your questions, hear your immediate reactions, and simply spend time together talking about Cities: Skylines II. We think that the reception for the streams has been positive, and we’re having a blast!
In the future, we want to experiment even more with what streams could offer. This could include deeper dives into upcoming content, developer-focused Q&A sessions, gameplay challenges, and potentially collaborations with content creators from the community. We are still trying new things and learning what works best for streaming, so as always, we’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future streams, and what you would like to see!
Reddit
In addition to streaming, we have dipped our toes into the world of Reddit. Last week, we hosted our very first Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), where we answered questions sent by you.
To say that the response exceeded our expectations would be quite an understatement. We received over 600 questions in total, which genuinely surprised us, but also made us extremely happy! The amount of passion, curiosity, and detailed feedback you shared reminded us, once again, how invested you are in the future of this game. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated, whether it was by asking questions, reading answers, or simply following the discussion. We have already discussed how we can host more AMA’s and similar community events in the future, so keep your eyes peeled!
Why is it important to us
We are actively lurking in PDX Forums, Reddit, Discord, and other social media platforms to see what you think about the newest changes we are planning to make, as well as what kind of things you would like us to add to the game. In fact, we have gathered a lot of suggestions and other recurring topics from you into a feedback / suggestions list, which we regularly review together with the team. A few examples of these suggestions coming into fruition include the hex code addition to the color customization tool, a historical toggle for buildings, and the ability to adjust the transparency of the new toolbar. This list acts as a guide when we are planning new content and improvements to systems that already exist within the game.
One of our goals moving forward is to continue improving transparency and finding better ways to involve you in the process, whether that’s through streams, AMA’s, forum discussions, or other community activities. While not every suggestion can be implemented (replacing all citizens with dogs would be funny, but not something that we can prioritize, unfortunately), we want to create more opportunities for meaningful conversations about the game and where your expectations currently are. That being said, don’t be afraid to post your craziest ideas to the Paradox Forums’ Suggestions board, or our Discord’s suggestions channel!
Looking forward
As we continue the work ahead, community engagement will remain one of our top priorities. We know that there is still a lot of work ahead of us to bring Cities: Skylines II to its full potential, and your feedback continues to help shape where we should focus our efforts next. We are still experimenting with different formats and approaches, but overall the goal remains the same: to communicate more consistently, share more information about ongoing development, and create additional ways to engage with our team.
As always, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback and thoughts with us, and we will see you in the next City Corner!