‘There can be a Chirper, for positive’ in Cities: Skylines 2, says Colossal Order CEO

When Cities: Skylines launched in 2015, one of many earliest well-liked mods for it was a killer. Actually. The mod assassinated Chirper, the noisy little bluebird who serves as town builder’s in-game, onscreen social media notification system.

Clearly, a variety of gamers did not like Chirper—myself included—however on reflection it feels a bit imply to assassinate the little blue birdie with a mod. Chirper is simply making an attempt to assist, in any case, passing on messages from the tiny residents of your metropolis. Chirper’s chirps might clue you into issues like blackouts and climate occasions, and share your citizen’s opinions on the look of town, the state of site visitors, or player-enacted metropolis insurance policies.

However identical to the precise social media app it is based mostly on, Chirper may be fairly annoying and typically you simply need it to close the heck up—Colossal Order even patched the game so gamers may conceal Chirper’s chirps while not having a mod. Alternatively, as we see with different annoying digital assistants like Microsoft’s Clippy, over time a passion for an annoying entity can kind. I’ll not likely like Chirper, however eight years later… I type of additionally love Chirper?

We do not have all that many particulars about Cities: Skylines 2 but, and Colossal Order has mentioned it is not able to reveal far more than we already know till nearer to the sequel’s launch later this yr. However whereas talking with Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen earlier at present in regards to the authentic Cities: Skylines, I could not resist making an attempt to extract a bit of details about the sequel. Vital, world-shaking data. I needed a Chirper scoop.

“Chirper has sort of turn into the mascot of the game,” Hallikainen mentioned. “Unintentionally. It was not deliberate in any respect. I believe it is one thing that brings that component of humor and enjoyable within the game that’s outdoors of town constructing expertise. And it is positively a part of the Cities: Skylines world, of the universe.

“So, yeah. It is going to see its personal iteration. There can be a Chirper, for positive” in Cities: Skylines 2, Hallikainen revealed.

Hallikainen additionally advised me she was the one who got here up with Chirper within the authentic Skylines. “The characteristic was my concept,” she mentioned. “So I’ve very robust emotions about it.” (I imagine her, as a result of I as soon as noticed her being interviewed whereas sporting a shirt with an image of Chirper chirping the phrases “Give me an opportunity!”)

“It is one thing that was my solely contribution—after which I believe somebody commented that it is good that CEOs do not participate in game improvement, as a result of that is the outcome,” she mentioned.

However Hallikainen clearly has an excellent humorousness about Chirper, and does not appear to thoughts that not everybody was on board with the noisy little mascot.

“I believe actually, really, the mark of a profitable game is that whenever you launch the game, and the one factor folks complain about is the tiny bluebird, you might have performed one thing right,” she mentioned. “So, no exhausting emotions.”