POLIS — 2D + 3D
A city-builder for your browser

Build your city. Explore every angle.

Shape the landscape, grow neighborhoods and keep a city thriving. Plan in 2D, then explore your streets and skyline in 3D.

Play POLIS Watch 30 seconds

Free to play. No download. No account.

POLIS city with neighborhoods, parks, a waterfront and a commercial skyline
2D & 3D views5 difficulty levels6 scenariosSaves in your browser
See the city come to life

Small beginnings.
A bigger world.

From local shops to skyscrapers, see what a city can become in 30 seconds.

Play POLIS Free to play. No download. No account.
A world worth looking around

The same city.
A fresh perspective.

Switch between 2D and 3D at any time without leaving your city.

ONE CITY, TWO VIEWS
A coastal POLIS city in 2D: residential streets to the left, a commercial center and an industrial waterfront
2D · The isometric view.

Plan it. Then step closer.

Read the whole city in 2D. Rotate, tilt and zoom in 3D to explore the neighborhoods you built.

A city with its own rhythm.

Watch street life unfold, turn on day and night or seasonal weather, and choose a generative soundtrack to build to.

Shape & connect

Work with the land.
Or change it.

Raise hills, carve water and plant woodland. Connect your districts with bridges, mountain tunnels and elevated rail.

Build avenues for busier routes, add bus stops and rail stations, and give pedestrians their own paths.

How terrain and transport work

Raise or lower open ground, and fill water back into land when your plans change. Transit coverage reduces nearby residents’ reliance on driving; higher-capacity avenues help carry traffic between districts.

A passenger train entering a mountain tunnel beside the city in POLIS
Homes, jobs & public life

Small shops.
Big ambitions.

Grow homes, commerce and industry from small beginnings into denser neighborhoods and a taller skyline.

Make room for schools, hospitals, gardens and places to play. Build a city that works for its residents as well as its businesses.

What helps a district grow?

Demand, services and local conditions shape development. Keep jobs accessible, pollution away from homes and utilities connected. Larger projects include a university, medical center, stadium, botanical gardens and museum.

A hospital, civic buildings and planted courtyards beside commercial towers in POLIS
Make the decisions

A growing city.
A balancing act.

Build the next hospital now, or keep reserves for an emergency? Adjust taxes, fund services and weigh the cost of expansion.

Watch income, upkeep and infrastructure condition as your city grows. Loans can bring a project forward, with repayments to plan for.

Taxes, services and maintenance

Businesses need workers and demand to earn lasting revenue. Service funding supports coverage, and renewal funding pays for ongoing replacement. Cutting renewal saves money now but allows a maintenance backlog to build.

POLIS City budget interface showing monthly income, costs and funding controls
Enlarge budget screenshot
Choose your challenge

Your next city.
A different story.

Build at your own pace, or take on one of six scenarios with a goal and a deadline.

First Steps

Good first scenario

Learn the basics and grow a village to 2,500 residents with happiness at 60% or more.

The Housing Crash

Restore jobs and abandoned neighborhoods to bring the city back to 70,000 residents.

Blackout

Rebuild the failing power network and keep 195,000 residents fully supplied.

Aftershock

Clear earthquake rubble, reconnect utilities and rebuild to 60,000 residents.

The Flood Plain

Grow to 25,000 residents on limited land while recurring floods threaten the riverbanks.

Iron Budget

Start with §6,000 and no loans. Reach 15,000 residents with §50,000 saved.

Play your way

Difficulty and settings.

Adjust the economic pressure, change how your city looks and feels, and choose controls that suit you.

Five difficulty levels

Difficulty changes starting funds, income, upkeep and the pressures on growth and services.

Easy
More starting funds, stronger income and lower upkeep give you room to learn and experiment.
Normal
Build with a balance of growth, running costs and service needs.
Hard
Start with fewer funds and face slower growth, higher costs and greater fire risk.
Very Hard
Tighter resources and stronger pressures make every expansion a more demanding decision.
Kobayashi Maru
A survival challenge that keeps escalating. Keep the city running for as long as you can.

Display and controls

Turn on seasonal weather and the day–night cycle, enable edge scrolling, or use power saver to reduce rendering activity.

POLIS Settings panel with weather, power saver, day–night cycle, commute and edge-scrolling controls

The same streets, after dark.

Turn on the day–night cycle to watch the city’s lighting change.

Downtown commercial towers and civic buildings in daylight
Day
The same downtown camera view at night, with illuminated windows and streetlights
Night
Your first few minutes

Your first neighborhood.

Start with the essentials, watch residents move in, then follow what your city needs next.

  1. STEP 01

    Choose your starting point.

    Pick a map with open land and choose Easy or Normal. Name your city and select Begin. Pause while you plan your first streets.

    New city screen with map choices, terrain controls, difficulty and the Begin button

    Aim for one working neighborhood before a large city.

  2. STEP 02

    Connect roads, power and water.

    Lay a small road network. Add a power source, such as a solar farm, and a water tower beside connected roads. A water pump is another option, but needs a riverbank.

    A small road network connected to a solar farm and a water tower

    1 Solar farm2 Water tower

    Check the Power and Water map views: roads carry both utilities to nearby buildings.

  3. STEP 03

    Give people homes and jobs.

    Zone a few residential lots beside roads, then add small commercial and industrial areas. Keep industry away from homes. Resume time and let buildings develop.

    The same road network now growing homes, shops and industrial buildings

    If lots stay empty, check road access, power, water and demand before zoning more.

  4. STEP 04

    Let the city guide your next move.

    Open the Advisor for specific needs, then check the Treasury before spending. Add services or more zoning where needed, and expand a little at a time.

    City Advisor suggesting more homes and improvements to residential land value

    Your first goal: residents moving in, jobs available, utilities connected and money left for upkeep.

Check your connections in the Power view

Open Power in the map views. Supplied roads and developed lots are highlighted green in this example. Check Water too before adding more zones.

Starter neighborhood in the Power map view, with connected roads and powered buildings highlighted green
Play POLIS How to save your progress
Your saved cities

Keep building
where you left off.

Keep automatic and named saves in your browser. Export a save code to back up your city or move it to another device.

Where are my cities saved?

Saves stay on this device and do not automatically sync between browsers or devices. Export a save code before clearing browser data.

Can I play without a connection?

Once the game has finished loading and its offline files are cached, you can return to it without a connection.

Where can I find the controls?

Open Help & shortcuts inside the game for mouse, touch and keyboard controls.

What will you build?

A quiet riverside town. A busy downtown. Something entirely yours.

Play POLIS

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