Intro
Hi, I'm Michael Gruar, a.k.a. Chappington on various parts of the internet. (I've also gone by Splime awhile back, that username is shamelessly ripped off from Neopets.) This is a collection of things I've worked on, but hosted on its own website.
Games
Iron Village is currently in very early production. You have founded a small outpost to supply the expanding railroad, which will also symbiotically grow with your town.
Iron Village is being built as a learning excerise for the Godot engine and indie game development - design, build, and release a relatively small (but complete) game.
Starting in 2024, weekly dev diaries are planned detailing my experience. Progress will be slow, as this is not a full time job, but hopefully you'll find it interesting.
Latest: April 2024 Dev Diaries
YouTube Videos
My most recent series on YouTube is Skrælige, an alternate history series where the Norse settled further into North America, and managed to stick around - on one island anyway. I use Cities: Skylines to present the history of these islands, starting from the Norse settlement of Skrælingborg in 1042 CE, as well as previous Norse settler history and a bit about the indigenous Abenaki. Chapter 16 is the most recent and final entry, covering the expansion from 1815 to 1836.
The history of is also written on skraelige.world, as an alternative format to video. (Personally I always preferred written city journals to making videos, but the audience just isn't there.
Cities: Skylines Assets
These assets are mainly here to facilitate Skrælige, but should work in a lot of historical (and some modern) settings.
Omnibus
Available on the Steam Workshop
The Horse-drawn omnibus was the first vehicle that we would consider a public bus - no prior booking was required, and passengers could request to be let on or off at any point. Apart from 1662-77, when a similar service was developed by Blaise Pascal in Paris, the first bus lines began in 1824 in Machester. Wikipedia for more details.
This asset is based off of George Shillibeer's first omnibus in London, although I tweaked the height to make the proportions look a bit less odd.
Also available as an airport express omnibus for very silly reasons.
Skrælig Colonial Houses
Available on the Steam Workshop
The Skrælig Colonial Houses are a set of buildings used to make a 16th century North American colonial settlement. While they are fictional, they are roughly based on colonial houses throughout New England from the 17th and early 18th centuries. What I did was standardize them into sizes that would fit well in Cities: Skylines, both as detached and wall-to-wall buildings, and make variants to cover all types of zones.
Medieval Manual Crane
Available on the Steam Workshop: Generic Industry, Industries DLC Ore Extration, Vanilla Ore Extraction
A giant wheel attached to a pulley, with room for one poor soul to move the wheel. Very useful for construction and heavy industry.
Viking Longships (Snekkja)
Available on the Steam Workshop
A viking longship, specifically the smallest kind used for warfare. This asset can be used to replace all of your naval vehicles.
Medieval Hand Carts
Available on the Steam Workshop
This is definitely a low quality asset, but very useful for replacing vehicle traffic in your older cities.