This book is on my reading list! Guess it's worth mentioning I am working on a game to rival SimCity (and Cities Skylines), though aesthetically it looks like a game straight out of the 90s.
If Chris Sawyer made a city builder that dived deep into simulation.. that's what I'm aiming for.
Hey, make me a game where you start out running a business like the old days where you own the company store and own the workers homes, so you manage all that plus the business operations. I don't know, it could be a logging business or coal mine, whatever.
And then at some point the workers revolt against the "company owns everything" system and the game becomes a city simulator.
You just basically start small scale and then zoom out to manage the big scale.
Hell, make it two games as long as I can import the first game map as my starter city.
If Chris Sawyer made a city builder that dived deep into simulation.. that's what I'm aiming for.
Still in early development: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998/