Cities Skylines on Nintendo Switch 101

2025-12-28T19:00:00+01:00

It's Christmas time! Meaning I get to play with my Nintendo Switch!

I'm a big fan of Cities Skylines. In this article, I collect a few tips and tricks I learned over the last few years, after many hours spent playing this amazing game.

Road hierarchy

Although not always necessary, it's nice to have some sort of road hierary. To make cities less boring, I do not strictly follow these guidelines, only sometimes.

Source

Residential + commercial zoning

1 length = 10 tiny blocks.

Superblocks (à la Barcelona)

3x3 districts surrounded by 4 or 6 lanes (two or one way). So 30x30 tiny blocks.

A superblock as seen from above

Side view of a superblock

Savannah-inspired - Oglethorpe Grid

In real life

Also known as an Oglethorpe ward.

Google Maps

Wikipedia

A ward is made of a central park + 4 commercial blocks (the closest to the park) and 4 residential blocks (bigger than commercial, 2 are north, 2 are south). We ignore the lanes in the middle of the residential blocks.

Around a ward are 2 arterial roads (north and south) and 2 collector roads (west and east).

Around the central park are one-way streets that go anticlockwise.

The street that is north of the park is a one-way street that goes west, the one that is south of the park is also one-way, to the east.

Optionnaly, the two streets on either side of the park can be made one-way (towards the park).

In City Skylines

We place in the middle the regular "park with trees". We surround it by a 2-lane one-way street, going anticlockwise. The neighboring streets may optionnally be turned into one-way streets:

The one above goes west
The one underneath goes east
The two streets on either side of the park go towards the park

The whole ward is surrounded by 6 or 4-lane roads (ideally 6-lane roads north and south, 4-lane roads west and east).

How to build a Savannah ward

Multiple wards as seen from above - mostly surrounded by 6-lane roads

Multiple wards as seen from the side

A city made of Savannah wards

Zoning in a Savannah ward

XL version

The central park is slightly bigger than the regular park. It's a 2x2 block. You can add a small park in there, plus a couple of pedestrian paths.

The original lanes in the middle of the residential blocks have been added back, as 2-lane roads (both ways).

An XL version, with the additional lanes in the middle of the residential blocks

Combining Superblocks and Savannah wards

Not recommended. It makes massive blocks. But at least I've tried.

A combined block

Industrial zoning