Playdom launches City of Wonder, a Civilization-themed city game

City of Wonder
Playdom is whipping out games left and right these days, and hot on the trails of Fanglies and Market Street is a Civilization-themed city builder named City of Wonder. This game just launched today, so now is your chance to hop in and be one of the first to try out this brand new title.

If you're not a big fan of Social City, you probably won't love City of Wonder. The game is an improvement on the original, but uses the same core mechanics and has a familiarity that Social City fans will feel right at home with. The main goal is to build a city, research technologies, and become wealthy. Players have "goods" which are basically similar to the contracts in Social City. Players research new technologies and have advisors that tell them which ones to pick. Researching new technologies unlocks different decorations and buildings. Population is increased just how it is in Social City, and everything else feels just about the same. Visiting neighbors gives bonuses when you find your 'embassy' within their city.

While I haven't had the chance to dig in too deep yet, there does seem to be some interesting new game ideas. Once you reach level 5 you can take part in "expeditions", which we suspect are for attacking and trading. There are also "Legends" which appear to be characters that give you bonuses such as faster research time. We'll be covering this game more in depth in the future.

Want to be one of the first to try out City of Wonder? Play it on Facebook now!

City of Wonder kicks off India Week with four buildings

Russian Week has come to an end in City of Wonder and it's time to jumpstart a new theme. This week's exotic vacation is to India, where great food and costumes are aplenty and beautiful buildings are abound. We're being promised a whole week full of new items and gifts, but for now there are four new items available to celebrate India Week.

The first is an Indian House, which requires Masonry research but gives 110 population every 2 hours. The second is a market - the Indian Bazaar which requires Trade and gives 55 coins every 2 hours. Third, you will find the Victoria Terminus from Mumbai, a large gothic train station cultural building. Finally, the Qutub Minar is a huge tower straight from Delhi that gives 1340 happiness and 134 culture.

This is a pretty interesting theme because the architecture in India is so unique and varied and should make for a beautiful city in City of Wonder. So far, we're not too impressed with the selections but we're sure that plenty more will be coming soon as the week has just begun.