SimpliCity is a city simulation game rooted in the original SimCity, with small improvements and a focus on simplicity. It is an open source fork of MicropolisJ, the Java/Swing port of Micropolis, which in turn is the open source version of SimCity.
You build a city, zone land for homes, commerce and industry, connect it with roads, rails and power, then manage taxes, services, traffic, pollution and growth. The game is intentionally closer to a quiet toy and simulation than to a modern always-engaging management game.
Tip
If you just want to play the game, visit the website. For technical details, keep reading.
MicropolisJ was abandoned and needed renewal to keep running well on modern computers. SimpliCity keeps the classic simulation alive while modernizing the project around current Java and Maven tooling.
This fork aims to be:
- simple to run
- simple to play
- friendly by default, with easier gameplay settings enabled out of the box
- restrained, without adding addictive loops, mission pressure, milestone chasing or excessive visual complexity
- open to advanced features only when they can stay optional
The main audience is younger players first, then retro-game fans who want a small, understandable city simulator.
simplicity-promo-web.mp4
Compared with the original MicropolisJ codebase, SimpliCity currently includes:
- Maven build support
- Java 25 source and target level
- easier defaults, including automatic budget handling and disasters disabled by default
- graphics cleanup and reduced dithering
- new graphics themes: Modern and Deluxe
- smoother Gaussian pollution and police/fire coverage, selectable alongside the Classic model under Options → Effect Spread
- fixes and startup options for UI scaling and locale selection
- support for HiDPI graphics
- Italian localization
- improved sound playback, including the default PulseAudio/PipeWire output on Linux
- miscellaneous bug fixes
See the changelog for the project history.
- JDK 25
- Maven
mvn packageThe build produces:
target/SimpliCity-x.x.x.jar
java -jar target/SimpliCity-x.x.x.jarThe application is a desktop Java/Swing program.
The player guides intentionally retain their original SimCity framing because they are adapted from the classic manual and document the rules of the game SimpliCity descends from.
SimpliCity is a modified fork of MicropolisJ by Jason Long.
MicropolisJ is based on Micropolis, the Unix version developed by Don Hopkins for DUX Software under license from Maxis around 1990, later modified for the One Laptop Per Child program and released as free and open source software in 2008. The original game was designed and implemented by Will Wright. Portions are Copyright (C) 1989-2007 Electronic Arts Inc.; MicropolisJ is Copyright (C) 2013 Jason Long.
This project is free software under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. See COPYING for the GPLv3 text.
The original MicropolisJ README, preserved at docs/legacy/MicropolisJ-README.txt, contains the original copyright notice and additional GPL section 7 terms, including the Electronic Arts trademark notice. SimpliCity is not affiliated with Electronic Arts, and this project does not grant any right to use the SimCity trademark or any other Electronic Arts trademark.
