Developer Diary — Skyscrapers Creator Pack (by REV0)
Hello everyone — I’m REV0. This developer diary walks through the design goals, artistic direction, and technical choices behind the new Creator Pack: Skyscrapers.
Overview
Skyscrapers contains a collection of 15 signature buildings inspired by renowned towers and city landmarks. Most signatures include upgrade paths that convert portions of the tower into functional service modules. In total the pack ships with 17 distinct building models, 23 upgrade modules, and two dedicated service buildings to expand your city’s vertical footprint.
Store page: Cities: Skylines II — Creator Pack: Skyscrapers
Concept
From the outset I pursued two aims: to convey a convincing sense of vertical scale, and to explore intensive vertical use. Modern urban design increasingly favors multifunctional towers—residential, commercial, and recreational spaces stacked within a single structure—so the pack emphasizes buildings that behave like compact, mixed-use neighborhoods.
The upgrade system in Cities: Skylines II made this design possible: it allows signature buildings to host one or more service modules, amenities, or leisure spaces within the same footprint. Using upgrades, the pack offers towers that are visually iconic and functionally integrated.
Art Direction
The skyscraper emerged as an architectural form in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through innovations like steel framing and elevators. Over time it became a symbol of economic ambition and civic identity. For this pack I leaned into the International Style and mid-century modern influences—an aesthetic progression from my earlier Mid-Century Modern pack—because its restrained geometry and planar surfaces suit both the visual tone and the game’s performance constraints.
Contemporary skyscrapers often use curved glass and parametric façades that look spectacular in reality but are expensive in polygons and shader complexity. The International Style’s rectilinear vocabulary allowed me to preserve a polished, modern look while keeping polygon counts and shader interactions manageable.
Technical Features and Decisions
Mesh optimisation
Tall assets covering large lots demand careful triangle budgets. Instead of a single, heavy mesh, I modeled modular components (frames, windows, panels) in high detail, baked them to low-poly variants, and assembled buildings from those parts. This mix of modeled detail and baking allowed dramatic reductions — some assets dropped from ~2,000,000 triangles to ~150,000 while retaining perceived detail.
Color variations
A consistent palette ties the collection together: each asset uses a predefined color order applied to structural zones, which makes it easy to achieve coherent districts while offering visual variety across the roster.
Balancing
Because the skyscrapers are unique, one-off placements, balancing was essential. I compared base-game and regional pack values and tuned each asset’s size, functions, and price points to fit comfortably into typical city economies and progression.
How to Use the Assets
For believable skylines, treat skyscrapers as regulated, high-impact buildings. In real cities air-rights and planning controls limit how skyscrapers cluster; replicate that by staggering heights across districts and integrating signature towers into a gradual progression of building scales. Thoughtful placement will preserve sightlines, pedestrian flow, and a credible skyline.
Building Roster
The pack includes 17 physical building models plus 23 upgrade modules. Upgrades range from additional placeable structures and rooftop amenities to integrated service modules that transform the tower’s function.
Westmont Tower
Westmont Post Office is the pack’s most compact tower at 105 meters. It has two major upgrades: an enhanced postal function and a rooftop restaurant. The restaurant supplies meals and boosts well-being within a 2 km radius.
Arroyo Seco
Arroyo is an International Style office tower (110 m) designed to sit within generous greenspace. Its upgrade converts lower floors into a police headquarters with a sunken vehicle parking area and adds two rooftop helipads when upgraded—improving public safety while preserving office capacity.
Bell Creek
Bell Creek is a residential signature tower (120 m) that can be upgraded to include a police station in a secondary tower, complete with service parking.
Emerald Towers
Emerald is a mixed complex with commercial podiums and two residential towers (130 m). One upgrade places an elementary school inside the footprint, granting bonuses to entertainment, well-being, and indoor recreation.
Seaworth
Seaworth is a compact International Style office tower (~150 m) with welcoming public spaces. Upgrading converts it into a functional city hall with the same in-game benefits as the base city hall.
Docklands
Docklands is a 150 m mixed-use tower with integrated green pockets and ground-accessible terraces. Upgrade it to include a fully functional fire station module and rooftop helipads, sized with realistic bay dimensions to keep gameplay balanced.
Long Wires Tower
Long Wires is a brutalist office signature engineered to be highly resilient. It has three upgrades: a substation module (accepts above- and below-ground high-voltage lines), a Communications Relay that provides local internet coverage, and a disaster bunker that converts parking into a refuge.
The Coruna
The Coruna is a slender 160 m office tower with a university upgrade path. The upgrade adds an auditorium (placeable multiple times to scale student capacity) and a research wing that boosts electronics industry efficiency and reduces waste.
Finanzturm
Finanzturm channels 1980s European office design and pays tribute to the original Cities: Skylines Skyscrapers pack creator. At nearly 200 m, it delivers city-wide effects: reduced loan interest and improved import/export efficiency.
Lighthouse Pointe
Lighthouse Pointe is a residential pair of towers (tallest at 205 m) with a Wellness Center rooftop upgrade that adds recreational facilities and promotes resident health.
Grandview Heights
Grandview Heights is the pack’s largest footprint: a cluster of five towers linked by parks and walkways. A major hospital upgrade is elevated between towers and includes parking and two helipads; an optional sixth tower adds disease control capabilities for emergency response.
Kansai Tower
Kansai is a modern commercial tower designed to host malls and retail operations, including a rooftop restaurant. A high-school upgrade integrates secondary education into the tower footprint.
Aurum Spire
Aurum Spire is a futuristic office tower (340 m) intended as a hub for engineering and research firms. In-game it reduces city pollution and increases software industry usage.
Hurston Yards
Hurston Yards is a large mixed-use redevelopment combining a mall with two residential towers. An observation-deck upgrade turns it into a tourist draw, and a secondary upgrade adds a placable third commercial tower that slightly increases imports/exports (with a modest rise in garbage output).
Terminal City Bank
Terminal City is a landmark financial tower (350 m) meant to anchor downtown districts. Its upgrade includes a 4-platform subway station module, and as a city bank it provides interest-rate bonuses within the Administration tab.
The Great Tower of Commerce
The Great Tower of Commerce is the pack’s centerpiece at 546 m. As a commercial landmark it supports a ground-level shopping mall, public parking, and an accessible rooftop greenspace for citizen recreation.
Silver Dragon
Inspired by contemporary Chinese skyscraper design, Silver Dragon is the tallest tower in the pack. The observation-deck canopy evokes dragon-scale patterns. Upgrade options include a multi-placeable college campus and a Geotechnical Institute that improves ore and oil deposits.
Props
The pack also contains three in-game props and one editor-only prop. Benches are provided for public plazas and include subtle citizen markers to suggest seating orientation. The editor prop is a rooftop cleaning unit intended for decorative placement on high-rise roofs.
Conclusion
Building the Skyscrapers pack was a balancing act between aesthetic ambition and technical restraint. Tri-count budgets, glass and parallax shader behaviours, and pedestrian flow constraints all required practical solutions without sacrificing style. I enjoyed pushing beyond familiar boundaries, and I’m grateful to Paradox Interactive for the opportunity to contribute this content pack.
Thank you for reading this developer diary — I hope you enjoy placing these towers as much as I enjoyed designing them.
