Click to Harvest!

City of Wonder developer Playdom continued fleshing out the game’s mid-level tech tree this week, adding two more technologies for players to research: Hydraulics, and Fine Art.

Hydraulics requires level 14. It takes 26 hours to research, and unlocks a variety of water-themed buildings, including aqueducts, and water fountains. On the tech tree, it follows Irrigation, and provides another pathway to Steam Power.

Fine Art requires level 19. It can be researched in 30 hours, and unlocks the Louvre wonder. It follows Art on the tech tree.

City of Wonder developer Playdom has added a handful of buildings and decorations, to celebrate the impending Labor Day holiday. Players can now purchase: Mess Hall, Lake, Fishing Hole, and Picnic.

The new Mess Hall costs 20 Gold Bars, and provides +40 Attack, and +80 Defense. The Lake costs 13 Gold Bars, and provides +1300 Happiness, and +130 Culture. The Picnic Provides +830 Happiness, and + 83 Culture. Finally, the Fishing Hole costs 6,900 coins and provides 316 Happiness and 32 Culture.

Playdom flipped the switch on a brand new town building game this week: City of Wonder! The new game differentiates itself from Social City and other town building titles with its historical theme. Players begin the game with a very small stone-age village, but by researching new technologies, it is possible to advance through the ages, and eventually build modern structures.

At its core, the game isn’t radically different than Social City. Players will build and place housing structures, which slowly add to a player’s total population over time. A player’s total population is capped according to how many cultural buildings they have placed. Finally, players can place businesses in their village to earn extra money. So in this way, City of Wonder ensures players have an even mixture of every building type as their village grows and evolves.

City of Wonder’s other key pillar seems to be researching new technologies. Each technology learned unlocks access to new buildings and decorations, as well as even more advanced technology options. Learning Mysticism allowed us to construct Stonehenge, for example.

We’ll have more on City of Wonder, including an examination of the game’s military and expedition system, in a future post.