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[mko]

Is there any existing game or program that can be used to see how city or town grows into a bigger one?

DF is very, very close but from what I tried city are growing during worldgen (and you can't look at them) and stop changing after that.

Note that I am looking for something where there is no need for player to make any decisions. For example in SimCity there is some simulation but city is not growing on its own without decisions from player.

I tried googling, posted https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/71627/village-town-city-simulation-growing-on-its-own-without-player-making-any-dec but so far I keep finding simcity, simcity clones or where you can't see how town/village/city grows.

[Robsoie]

OpenTTD has the option to add some AI (there are several type of AI that can be downloaded for it) on a map, so if you're not interested in doing it yourself you can just watch those AI building up the various industries with their road/rail/air/sea transport, and said industries will influence strongly the cities growth over time.

From there just let it play at max speed and watch how the cities will develop.

[mko]

Sadly OpenTTD ais build things that are really disappointing. I am author of one of them, so I know that it is hard to do something that works well.

But maybe someone smarter created a better ai? I need to check it again.

Cities actually grow on their own in OpenTTD, thanks for reminding me about it!

Though from I remember city layout was quite limited, due to game limitations like road=1 tile=1 building, roads only in cardinal directions etc. Game was not trying to be town growth simulator so forcing all buildings to use a single tile* and making impossible to have diagonal road was a good decision.

*Newgrfs were using some hacks to get around it, but still buildings were forced to strictly fit into square tiles.

[JWNoctis]

I'd almost recommend SimAnt, but that'd be stretching the definition just a little bit too far (...and it's also one of the greatest games of all time without a worthy successor, but that's off topic).

Otherwise let's plays and streams of someone else playing SimCity and clones might be the best you can get, for the moment.

(Do cities grow on their own in Transport Fever 1/2? Those are basically modern TT clones, I think.)

[mko]

My backup plan is to code my own, but I prefer to join an existing project if it exists already.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

My backup plan is to code my own, but I prefer to join an existing project if it exists already.

Go for it honestly. I feel like the time is ripe for a game like this--it's certainly a game I've been dreaming of (playing or making). While not exactly what you're looking for, check out both Ymir and Lands of Lords for an entirely human-driven version of the experience (in smarmy city-building fashion).

[Mesron]

Its not particularly in depth on the town building aspect but WorldBox does allow you to drop in a few people and they will build little Houses and roads. Probably a bit too simple for what your looking for but figured I would drop it in the thread.

[mko]

WorldBox is nice - you can do something without paying, no external ads (at least initially).

Villages are not complex, but look nice and generated paths make sense.

Certainly fits, thanks for a hint.

Btw, if either of you has a stackexchange account - feel free to post answers also there, I would be happy to upvote.

[Sanctume]

I'm wondering if Age of Empire allows an all AI vs AI.  It builds and it kills.

[Robsoie]

It probably must allow such ai vs ai setup as i remember there was a website dedicated to making ai for AOE and people making tournaments between the various ones
www.aiscripters.com

nowadays the website does not exist anymore as it only redirect to a forum that can't even be read without making an account, but you can check how it was with https://archive.org/

edit : noticed this video so it's indeed very possible :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHMjOEtJPGA

[Persus13]

That guy does a lot of AI vs AI vids, so yeah its definitely possible.

[Dostoevsky]

The game Kingdoms and Castles is currently working on an AI Cities update; depending on how well that goes it could be viable to then try for AI v AI. That said, it is pretty medieval.

[JWNoctis]

There are also old Ascaron titles like Patrician and Port Royale series, where cities can and will develop on their own, or by your AI competitors in the form of dwellings, industries, defences, and eventually things like longer city wall, a hospital, and a more imposing cathedral in the former's case. These are not strictly hands-off, but you could simply avoid that aspect and leave the AI on its own.

It certainly did well enough to maintain the illusion for the casual player.

[Stench Guzman]

Possibly the A-Train series.

[Vivalas]

I swear there's something like this on the back of mind somewhere, but I can't recall it. It also happens to be a project of mine I've wanted to do for a while as well.

I guess you could also look at timelapses of Simcity playthroughs, but some part of me tells me that simcity probably isn't the best simulator of realistic town growth.