Updates
September 2026 Update
September 1, 2026 at 5:49 am
Synekism turns 16! In some places, it can legally drive now. Well, unlike prior years, I do actually have a chunky update.
Just came off from a 5 week vacation focused on Synekism. I'm quite happy with all that I managed to do. There was plenty of core engine work, but I also finally ported the original Synekism code over to the new engine. This means I'm finally back to the level I was 16 years ago. Progress!
Will try to maintain the momentum going forward now. I've said this before but that was before the golden age of AI agents.
Yes, like the rest of the world, I'm using agents for coding which greatly accelerated the work. Unlike most of the world though, I don't want to completely lose touch with my code. I think I found a sweet spot where I let agents loose but I don't let them commit. I still review every single commit.
Also, turns out, 16 years of "custom engine" work that focused on structure, wrappers, conventions, and lots of unit tests, paid off. It's almost perfectly set up for agents and it's how I got a few years' worth of accumulated todos done in 5 weeks.
August 2026 Update
August 1, 2026 at 12:05 pm
Vacation has now started and I've been ramping (back) up on Synekism over the last week. It's nice to be back. Still deciding on the goals but two priorities are: make it easier to get back and contribute after the vacation, and get Synekism back to 2010 level of functionality. Wish me luck!
July 2026 Update
July 1, 2026 at 1:21 pm
Preparations for my month off for Synekism are ramping up. Cleaning up the repo and going over AI code agent options (playing with local models). I will still write a lot of code by hand (that's always been the point of this project), but I also want to move forward as much as I can in the 4 weeks I have to focus on it.
June 2026 Update
June 1, 2026 at 8:39 am
Not much to report on Synekism this month. Trying to do all the other stuff before the time off that I'll spend on Synekism.
May 2026 Update
May 1, 2026 at 1:19 pm
Work has officially resumed! Just getting back up to speed right now, and yes, setting up the project to make AI agents have some clue on how to navigate this very bespoke code base. For context, I'm more or less forced to use AI at my day job. The upside there is that I have, for now, a very large token budget to play with and learn. For Synekism, my use will be far more reserved, not just because I have to pay for it myself, but because (surprise!) I actually like to code by hand. It's the main reason I'm still on this lifetime project.
Furthermore, I finally have some serious time off planned that I will dedicate 100% to Synekism coming up later this year. My goal until then is to get everything warmed up again and ready for focused work.
April 2026 Update
April 1, 2026 at 3:04 pm
Another non-update. That said, with the rate at which AI is taking over game dev, as soon as I get back to Synekism, I should be done in like a week or two! Anyway. April Fools theme aside, not that anyone asked or is even reading this, but my commitment is to only use AI for coding and never for content (images, models, textures, music, text).
March 2026 Update
March 1, 2026 at 6:06 pm
Nothing new to report. Still just getting a few minutes each week of looking at the code but no brain space to resume work. Things are still intense at the moment.
February 2026 Update
February 1, 2026 at 3:33 pm
Not sure how common this is but, while I'm trying to keep up with life and work, I get a huge general motivation boost just loading up Synekism's Gitlab repo page and staring at the file list. Been doing a lot of that lately. I really miss it. Things are still a bit crazy but I'm getting better at optimizing my time and making room.
January 2026 Update
January 1, 2026 at 6:54 am
Still in the middle of the new parent + day job storm. Didn't have much of a holiday vacation either. Side project work, when I have free minutes, with ample help from our new collective drug that is AI, I'm tending to my storage servers. A lot happened in 2025, both in my life and on Synekism. Aiming for less (new) life stuff and more Synekism for 2026.
Happy new year!
December 2025 Update
December 1, 2025 at 7:18 pm
Yep, still new parent fun times. On top of that, my day job workload just doubled. Life is fun. It's a temporary jump in distractions (from Synekism) but it should slowly get better going forward. Just in the middle of the storm at the moment.
About
Synekism is an attempt at a modern city simulator rooted in procedurally generated content. The project was started in 2010 to address some frustrations with the city simulation video game genre. It is actively developed on and currently in a purely alpha-experimental stage. Updates on the project are posted on the first of every month. Note that work on this project is more or less done by one person so progress will be slow, but steady.
The game is a sandbox where control is not explicit but indirect. The player can designate residential, commercial, industrial, and government zones and watch them grow, instead of explicitly plopping each building manually. The game tends to lean towards macro-management.
The key features of Synekism include grid less 3D environments and procedurally generated buildings. The lack of a grid results in total freedom when zoning and building roads allowing for more realistic looking cities. Procedurally generated buildings allows for more visual variability. Instead of querying a finite list of static models, a building is generated uniquely upon creation using local as well as city-wide conditions.
Contact Email:
Forum:
Follow Us On:
