Buck CityBuck City
An isometric city builder with a real simulation underneath. Paint roads, zone neighborhoods, keep the power on, balance the budget, and watch a town of named people grow around your choices.
The short version
| What it is | A single-player city builder in the tradition of the classic city sims. You zone land, build services, set taxes and watch demand fill the city in. |
|---|---|
| Where to play | In any modern browser at buck-city.com, and as an app on iPhone, iPad and Mac (Apple silicon) |
| Price | Web: free, the full game, no account. iPhone, iPad, Mac: free to try, then one optional purchase of $5.99 (US price; your store shows its local price). Bought once, it works on all three. |
| Ads, accounts, subscriptions | None |
| Offline | The iPhone, iPad and Mac apps play fully offline. Cities are saved on your device. |
| Languages | The game is in English, German and French. These pages are also in German, French and Spanish. |
| Current version | 1.2.0 (released 2026-10-03) |
| Made by | One developer, published by Commonwealth Business Systems LLC |
What makes it different
The people are real to the simulation. Every resident who gets a name has a home, a job, a routine and a story. Tap a house to meet the family inside, then follow someone through the day: out the door, into the car, through the morning commute, a shift at the factory, home at dusk. They complain about their own block, too, and the complaint points at the tile that caused it.
The numbers are real, and they explain themselves. Residential, commercial and industrial demand respond to jobs, taxes, land value and services. The demand meter answers "Why homes? Why shops? Why factories?", and any tile will tell you why its land value is what it is.
The city writes its own newspaper. The Gazette is a front page built from what is actually happening in your city: the advisor's warnings, citizens' requests, the budget, anniversaries and obituaries.
It is fair about money. The web version is the full game, free, forever. On Apple devices you can try everything before deciding, and one purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac.
What you can do
- Zone residential, commercial and industrial land at three densities and let demand fill it in
- Build power, police, fire stations, schools, hospitals, parks, bus stops, transit stations, subway lines and airports
- Set a tax rate for each zone, issue municipal bonds, pick one of five governance models and nine ordinances
- Make permanent choices in four City Charter chapters, such as College Town or Factory Town
- Survive fires and earthquakes, or play on Easy where disasters are rare and mild
- Build in one of eight architectural culture packs, from Nordic to West African
- Grow up to nine connected cities in a region, linked by highways and rail
- Play Today's City: one new map a day, the same for everyone
All features, explained · How to play · Questions people ask
If you liked SimCity
Buck City plays in the same tradition as SimCity and the classic city builders: zoning, demand, services, budgets and a city that reacts. It is smaller in scope than Cities: Skylines, runs on a phone, and puts more weight on the individual people living in the city. It is an independent game and is not affiliated with any of them.