Episode description

In PlanningxChange Episode 85, Jess Noonan and Peter Jewell interview Stone Librande, the lead designer for SimCity 2013. 

Stone is currently a Lead Designer in the R&D group at Riot Games, and has worked in the video game industry for 20 years on games such as SimCity 2013, Spore, and Diablo 3. In addition to his full-time job designing video games, he also teaches a game design course at Carnegie Mellon University’s ETC program and runs design seminars around the world. An avid board game inventor, Stone has published two games: "Mechs vs. Minions" and "Alakazam! The Game of Dueling Wizards".

SimCity 2013 is a city building and urban planning simulation multiplayer online game developed by Maxis Emeryville and published by Electronic Arts. Released for Microsoft Windows in early March 2013, it was the first major instalment in the SimCity series since the release of SimCity 4 a decade before. A macOS version was released in August 2013.

The game is considered a reboot of the SimCity series. Players can create a settlement that can grow into a city by zoning land for residential, commercial or industrial development as well as building and maintaining public services, transport and utilities. SimCity used a new engine called GlassBox that allows more detailed simulation than previous games. Stone was part of a very large team that brought the game to market.

In this interview Stone talks of his research into city systems, the concessions that were required to model the real world of cities (for example car parking takes up less area in the virtual cities), the interplay and consequences of city decision making and that players have a finite set of resources available. He also talks of the role that gaming can have in influencing our approach to real world issues. A terrific interview subject with a great perspective on the virtual and real worlds.

Audio production by Jack Bavage. The episode was released on 17 November 2021.