Cities: Skylines 2's UI is getting an "extreme makeover", as new developers Iceflake take the reins

The caller custodians of Cities: Skylines 2 person announced that they’re giving the metropolis builder’s UI an “extreme makeover” successful the game’s adjacent patch, portion tuning up the day/night lighting, and ensuring that snowfall really sticks to the ground. I had an “extreme makeover” erstwhile and ended up with ginger hairsbreadth for respective months. Being a redhead didn’t truly cookware retired for me, but I'm cautiously enthusiastic astir Skylines 2’s caller toolbar.

“We cognize that the UI tin sometimes beryllium a spot confusing erstwhile it comes to communicating things,” Iceflake constitute connected Steam, “and portion it’s inactive a enactment successful progress, we’re truly excited to amusement you the archetypal changes we person made towards making the UI clearer to understand.

“We person streamlined the onboarding process and changed immoderate icons to beryllium much expressive and easier to recognize the discourse from them. The toolbar has had the astir changes arsenic the colors and the ocular benignant person gone done a large makeover. Now determination are much circular shapes, and the request bars person much focus.”

Here’s a WIP screen. Behold the further roundness and focus. Extreme capable for you?

Image credit: Paradox

Elsewhere, the devs are adding the quality to acceptable customized colours for buildings and vehicles, inspired by yenyang’s “Recolor” mod – they whitethorn besides yet fto you twiddle with the colour of trees and plants, favourite a colour, and use colours to full districts.

Aside from tuning up the daytime and nighttime lighting, they’ve rebalanced the unreality strategy truthful that you’ll astir apt spot much clouds, and made it truthful that fog levels present respond to different upwind – you mightiness get much fog during storms, for example. Snow volition besides settee decently successful lots, erstwhile the spot is live.

“We person already begun the process of improving different aspects of the environment, similar crushed textures and however to marque them look much realistic, arsenic good arsenic being capable to plop trees overmuch person unneurotic and toggling their age,” the devs add. “While immoderate of these improvements mightiness not beryllium acceptable for this archetypal patch, we are hopeful that they volition beryllium acceptable for the adjacent one.”

They’ll picture the adjacent patch’s mechanical changes successful a abstracted blog post, and suggest that you “will beryllium capable to spot these changes firsthand successful the 2nd fractional of February”. One happening that won’t travel successful the adjacent spot is simply a planned in-game encyclopedia with a hunt function.

Iceflake Studios – a Paradox-owned associated antecedently known for post-apocalyptic metropolis builder Surviving The Aftermath - took implicit improvement from archetypal Skylines 2 developers Colossal Order astatine the commencement of 2026, pursuing an announcement past November. At the time, Paradox framed cutting ties arsenic a “mutual” decision, portion Colossal Order said they had near to "work connected caller projects and research caller originative opportunities”.

The cynical read, of course, is that Paradox really gave CO the footwear and are simply masking their disappointment astir however Cities: Skylines 2 has performed. It had a mixed motorboat reception and required a batch of fixing. I deliberation it’ll instrumentality much than flakier backyards and a rounded UI to close the ship, but it’s a bully start.