Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Rishi Shah, CMO of Tentworks:
Q: For those who haven’t heard of it, what is the best way to describe City Block Builder?
A: City Block Builder is a deep tycoon management styled game with large-scale city building elements. Set in 1950’s Los Angeles, the player becomes a young entrepreneur, determined to run his own business empire.
The game allows you to build a variety of businesses; from cinemas to restaurants, bowling alleys and a lot more. Your end goal is to take an empty piece of land, build your own set of business ventures and transform it into a bustling profitable empire. City Block Builder doesn’t limit you to one type of business, we believe you should be able to grow your business organically. Researching the most profitable areas for your business is crucial. In order to run the most efficient businesses, customization is key. From the cuisine served in your restaurant, to the showtimes playing in your theaters, every decision is at your fingertips.
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Q: What is the story behind City Block Builder? How did you start?
A: The game was conceptualized around 2 years ago in a small house in Orange County. Now, we are a team of 15 dedicated and spirited individuals in two different locations: San Francisco, CA and Bangalore, India.
Initially, the entire premise of the game was to build your own movie theatre in 1950s Los Angeles. It has slowly expanded into something that everyone can love. We hope to give the player the flexibility to create what they want with zero limitations.
The 1950s were a crucial and exciting era for many businesses in the US besides the movie theater. We felt it would be unjust to exclude all of the other ventures that helped shape this city and country into what it is today.
Fun Fact: We even scrapped the entire name! Our original title was, ‘ELLA: Los Angeles’. We decided to change the name to make sure people truly understood the vision of our game.
Q: Can you tell us something more about the game? What makes it unique?
A: Our CEO, Jay Basani believes in providing customizability to everything in order to make sure that whatever the user is creating is of their own imagination.
• The game mixes the macro-management of city building with the micro-management of tycoon games today. This allows the player to delve deep into every single business venture. Here’s an example: the restaurant. Even before building the restaurant, you must decide between fast-food, a diner, or a fancy restaurant. Once that is decided, you have to dive in deeper by hiring the staff (Chef’s, Waiters, Sommeliers, etc.), selecting the menu, pricing each item, and marketing the restaurant to your customers.
• Another unique aspect of the game is the research tree. Available for every business venture, this research tree gives you the opportunity to unlock different items that will lead you to success.
• The management aspect is vast – as your business empire continues to expand, so does the surrounding traffic, bringing in new challenges. Managing the traffic system, building parking lots and improving the quality of your roads, are all pieces of the puzzle you must put together in order to maintain a profitable business.
• City Block Builder also features a card system. These cards can be achieved upon the completion of the game’s bonus sections. Ranging from common to rare, these cards can help the player unlock special features.
• We have 3 game modes:
• Sandbox Mode – Explore your own creativity with the option to choose between limited and unlimited funds, set the difficulty level, and build anything imaginable.
• Scenario Mode – These get updated every week with different challenges thrown at you. Get a new scenario thrown at you every week. From building a new multi-plex to connecting your shops via railroad, you must be up for a challenge.
• Story Mode – Follow the life of Joey, a 1950s war veteran, who dreams of becoming a business tycoon in Los Angeles. It is all through a linear storyline, where you can truly experience LA during America’s golden era.
Recommended: Q: What’s the best thing about City Block Builder that people might not know about?
A: One of our favorite features of the game is our comic book-style story mode.
• Comic books had a huge impact in the 1940s and 50s and we couldn’t think of a cooler way to share our story mode but to animate this timeless art-style.
• The comics are all hand drawn and animated by our extremely talented art team.
Q: What can we expect from Tentworks in the future?
A: City Block Builder is set to be fully released in late 2020, with the early access available in May of 2020. Many free DLC’s will be available upon release, with a variety of new challenges every week.
We have a lot of ideas in the pipeline for the future. We are not planning on just being a one game release and are really looking to provide more quality game play for our users.
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