Overview and Citizen Modes

Overview — the city from above

You arrive here. Pan with W A S D, zoom with Q/E or the scroll wheel, and orbit by dragging with the right mouse button.

Overview is also where you build: the task column down the left edge is Architect mode, section 3.

Watching it run

Click any car or citizen to follow them. C switches between the follow and driver views, and 1 / 2 / 3 choose whether you drive the thing you picked, ride along in it, or just watch it. Settings (top right) changes the theme, the time of day, and how many cars and citizens the city is running.

Citizen — the city from the street

Press M (or Tab) and you drop to the pavement. Press it again to float back up.

Walk with W A S D and mouse-look, hold Shift to run, Space to hop. C changes the camera view — first person, over the shoulder — and G waves at whoever is nearby. They wave back.

Things to try, all on E

Almost everything a citizen does is the same key: E uses whatever is in front of you.

• Take a car — walk up to a parked car and press E. Drive with W/S, steer with A/D, handbrake on Space. E again gets you out — leave it on a marked bay and it will tidy itself in.
• Ride the bus — wait at a stop and press E when one pulls in. More on buses in section 5.
• Go inside — press E at a building's door.
• Cross safely — press E at a crossing to call the lights, and wait for them like everybody else.
• Take a job — press E at a shop counter with a mission behind it. See section 6.

Esc or right-click always steps you back out of whatever you are in, one layer at a time.

No wrong door

Nothing you do in one mode is undone by switching to the other. Build a road from above, drop to the street and drive down it. Park a car as a citizen, go up to overview and watch the traffic queue behind it. It is one world the whole time.