From SimCity 2000 to Simulator Surveys: How Playfulness Solves Planning Challenges

I still remember the first time I booted up SimCity 2000. Hours slipped away as I tweaked zoning, balanced budgets, and watched my little pixelated city spring to life (or collapse under the weight of my mistakes). It was fun, but it was also serious play. The game taught me early on that even complex systems of water grids, transit networks, and land use become approachable when you can experiment, fail, and try again.

Fast-forward three decades, and I find myself leading Konveio, a platform built for cities and planners grappling with real-world versions of those same problems. The stakes are higher than my teenage experiments. Now there are real budgets, real communities, and real trade-offs. But the lesson from SimCity still applies: play is one of the best ways to learn and solve problems.

That’s why I’m excited about Konveio’s new simulator surveys. They take the spirit of playful experimentation and bring it to public engagement. Instead of asking residents to read a dense PDF and check a box on a survey, simulators let them explore trade-offs: Should we fund more transit or parks? What happens to housing affordability if we prioritize growth in one area versus another? Just like in SimCity, every choice has ripple effects, and seeing those impacts makes the conversation more real, more human.

The beauty is in the simplicity. We didn’t set out to build another complicated planning tool. We set out to make it easy for anyone—whether a seasoned planner or a curious resident on their phone—to jump in, test priorities, and understand consequences without needing a PhD in urban policy. Keep it simple, keep it playful, and the insights will follow.

This matters because traditional engagement too often feels like work. Long PDFs, scattered maps, and surveys that ask for opinions without context leave people disengaged and cities without the thoughtful, practical feedback they need. By contrast, simulators create buy-in through exploration. They help participants see themselves as part of the solution, not just critics on the sidelines.

At Konveio, our broader mission is to make planning content, feedback, and community voices easier to access and act on. Simulator surveys are the latest step in that journey—turning what could be dry, abstract policy choices into something tangible, interactive, and yes, even fun.

When I look back at my SimCity days, I realize it wasn’t the graphics or the novelty that stuck with me. It was the empowerment—the sense that I could try, learn, and improve. That same spirit drives Konveio today. If we can make civic engagement just a little more like play, we’ll make it a lot more effective.

Whether it’s a game on a floppy disk or a city’s comprehensive plan, the key to solving complex problems is the same: invite people to play with possibilities.

PS: if you’re old like me and miss SimCity (or you’re young and want to try it!), you can buy it at Good Old Games and play it on your current laptop here.