Dev Diary - Office Evolution by Titan

Some of you may know me - I have been an active Asset Creator for Cities: Skylines since day one, am making assets for Cities: Skylines II as well, co-created the German Region Pack, and occasionally make some videos on YouTube as well… Today, I have the pleasure to tell you a little something about my very own Content Creator Pack: Office Evolution.

I always felt like office zones are neglected in the game and its predecessor. In Cities: Skylines, we only had high-rises; in Cities: Skylines II, we have either very tall high-rises or suburban single-story low-density office lots. We now have some quite nice Signature Buildings that offer more variety, but their number is very limited, naturally. I always felt like a medium-density office zone for all the cities that are neither New York City nor Tokyo are missing. So, when Paradox asked for ideas for an office-related CCP, I knew my time had come!

The Idea

Throughout my Asset Creator career, if you wanna call it like that, I have received some calls for a specific kind of architecture that felt a bit outside my usual playground (those that know me also know that I specialized in historic European buildings: small and ornate old townhouses, churches, palaces, you name it).

On multiple occasions, oddly enough, people asked me to make eclectic architecture: combine the old and the new, the stone-and-plaster facades with modern and daring glass-and-steel additions. Preposterous! To defile grand old architecture like that … and yet … and yet, I can’t deny it has a certain feel to it that I kind of like. The clash between then and now, the visible evolution of the city…

So, when I was given the chance to make this office pack, I knew this was the one in a million chance to follow that guilty pleasure of mine!

The idea is simple: a pack that offers a medium-density office zone. A set of buildings that display historic architecture but, as it levels up, becomes more modern, gets glass towers added on, or its ornate facade is deconstructed. This kind of eclectic architecture is especially common in Europe, with its old and grand buildings, but also exists in other parts of the world, from the US all the way to Japan. Its execution was a little bit more difficult, but more on that later.

The Making-Of

As I said, my usual playground is historic (as usually hundreds of years old) buildings, so making modern buildings, let alone the clash between modern and historic, was a unique challenge for me. I had to look for inspiration, figure out proportions and materials, upgrade paths, and modern building designs.

To do so, I modelled some “mock-up” buildings. Quickly done cubes with photos projected on them to give an idea of what the zone might look like and how modern and historic facades can work together.

Once these were done, I started actually working on…

The Zone

After a good few weeks of work, the first buildings were done. For the most part, I started with the historic buildings and then gradually redeveloped them just as architects would have done in reality.

The core of the pack is a new high density office zone - complete with 5 lot sizes and 45 buildings inhabiting them. Most buildings display a clear path from classical to modern architecture as they progress through the levels.

For this pack and this zone, I was happy to