'Permit Pending' is a city simulator where, instead of freely developing cities like a god, you listen to the demands of the citizens and construction plans require parliamentary approval.
In city simulators like
Permit Pending: build the city of your dreams, subject to approval
https://permit.petercai.com/
Permit Pending is a city simulator where you play as an elected mayor, constructing apartments and factories, holding public hearings to explain your plans to citizens who oppose them, and even facing lawsuits. When you build new housing or factories, some citizens will inevitably object, and you must deal with these issues while aiming for re-election in the mayoral elections held every four years.
Permit Pending can be played in your browser. Click 'New game' on the top page.
In Permit Pending, you can choose from four city sizes: 'Blank Slate (200 inhabitants)', 'Small Town (2000 inhabitants)', 'Booming Suburb (25,000 inhabitants)', and 'The Unaffordable Metropolis (300,000 inhabitants)'. You can also change the mayor's name and disable certain rules. This time, I chose the smallest city, 'Blank Slate,' with the default settings, and clicked 'Take office' to start playing.
The game screen looks like this.
The bottom of the screen displays information about the game, including the city's name, date, citizen approval rating, budget, and population.
On the left side of the screen are tools for urban development. 'Inspect' allows you to view information about the land and buildings you click on. 'Zoning' allows you to select how you will use the land. 'Roads' allows you to build roads. 'Power' allows you to build power plants. 'Services' allows you to build public services such as police stations and schools. 'Rewards' is a feature that becomes available as the number of citizens increases, allowing you to build things like the mayor's house, a new city hall, and a stadium. 'Demolish' is a function to destroy buildings, and 'Data views' is a function that allows you to display additional information on the screen, such as land prices and population.
On the far right of the screen are 'Inbox,' where you can receive requests and other information from citizens; 'Budget,' where you can check expenditures, income, and budgets; 'City,' where you can check annual housing information, labor market, and history; 'Mayor,' where you can check your approval rating and information about the next election in detail; and 'Permits,' where you can check support and objections regarding buildings you have decided to construct.
For example, select 'Police station' from the 'Services' section of the tool.
Locations where a police station can be built are shown in green, while locations where it cannot be built are shown in red.
Clicking didn't immediately construct the police station; instead, it displayed 'Under Review.'
Checking 'Permits,' I found a police station among the planned construction projects. The '17%' on the far right represents the percentage of public opposition.
Create several construction projects, etc., and click the play button in the lower left corner of the screen. Time will then start moving.
Immediately, a petition arrived. It was a request for permission to close the roads during the summer festival. The mayor can either accept or reject the petition, but some of the options involve expenditures. Various applications and petitions are delivered to the mayor, and each time the player is forced to make a choice, which affects the budget, the approval rating of the citizens, and so on.
While the number of residents has increased over time, the budget has drastically decreased. Public support remains stagnant.
Just over three years after its launch, the budget was reduced to zero. And approval ratings have also been gradually declining.
Once your term ends, your achievements during your term will be displayed as follows:
Then the results of the upcoming mayoral election are displayed. This time, I was soundly defeated. The reasons for my defeat are listed in detail, so I can use this to improve my gameplay.
When I actually started playing, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information and didn't know where to begin. Budget management was also difficult; I wanted to start new projects, but my budget quickly ran out. Before I knew it, I was spending my days just reading through citizen requests, and I couldn't even imagine how long it would take to build my ideal city.
There's no concept of 'clearing' in Permit Pending, so you can experience the daily life of a mayor overwhelmed with daily tasks, aim for your ideal city development, or simply extend your term by repeatedly getting re-elected. The game can be enjoyed in any way the player likes. If you're interested, give it a try.
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