Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, SimCity: combine them all into one board game and you’d get something like the board game City.

City is the brainchild of U of M climatology master’s graduate Ryan Smith.

The game can be played between two and five players and usually lasts a little more than an hour. Players choose random tiles and place them to create their cities, and populate them with workers and construct roads to expand to claim new resources and generate income. Cities must be built with a balance, as unemployed citizens or a lack of workers will limit income and growth opportunities.

The available supply of resources is finite, so a rush to develop ensues, with players quickly occupying key resource tiles. Planning, and strategic thinking are required to outsmart your opponent with no “dice luck” elements involved.

The allusions to Settlers of Catan will be quite apparent to anyone who has played the game or who loves casino games, but that doesn’t bother Smith, who grew up playing the game, click on the following link for more info.

“I know a lot of people who play Settlers, and who have been looking for that next thing. This brings in great elements from some of my favorites – like Carcassone and SimCity. I’ve had great feedback from people, and am pleased with how it plays [ . . . ] the games varying each time you play.”

The popularity of so-called “Euro games,” such as Settlers of Catan, has seen the board game market expand quickly in North America. However, Smith doesn’t expect to make money.

“I just kept going and refining because it was fun. I wanted to see if I could create something new. Now it’s been refined down to something that I would love to play over and over.”

Smith has partnered with Winnipeg board game producer Castle Games, and is raising money to have a 1,000 copy print of the game made.

“We’re not going the traditional route. It costs about $20,000 to publish your own game. So instead of getting a bank loan and doing that, because there’s a lot of risk – and you can’t really make money in board games – we’re going the Kickstarter route.”

A $55 donation will get you a copy of the game with free shipping if the campaign is successful. “Think of it like pre-ordering a game, except it helps to get the whole project off the ground,” Smith told the Manitoban.

The Kickstarter campaign for City will be active until March 1 and can be found here.