Our colleagues at GameVideos have posted an 18 minute 1Up video of SimCity Societies. (Don’t be confused by the Settlers Commercial in the middle, the interview continues afterward!)

In the video Garnett Lee of 1Up gets a demo of SimCity Societies. Senior producer Matt Williams of Tilted Mill introduces us to city where he’s modelled a society of obedience a la 1984, with its own Ministry of Thought. Design director Jeff Fiske remarks that societies are often shaped by the way their rulers (in this case: the player) react to problems, and that Tilted Mill’s goal is to give people a lot of options for doing just that.

We also get a close-up view of how buildings are placed. There appears to be something like “spheres of influence” around them that are shown as buildings are positioned on the grid.

Lighting effects are a major part of showing what type of society you’re currently playing: Orwellian states are dark and gloomy, whereas Candy Cane happy societies have a bright Sun shining down on them.

Something that remains from previous versions of SimCity is pollution. Each type of building has its own unique set of emissions. According to Matt, CO₂ emissions increase the rate of global warming, which in turn increases the chance of tornadoes visiting your city.

The demo shows clearly that SimCity Societies is more focussed on Societies than on Sim(ulating) cities. With that in mind, it’s clear to see SimCity Societies may appeal to a large audience. It may be other than the traditional SimCity folks, but still: there’s a lot of people out there dying to see “what kind of evil combinations one can use to mould society”.