# Designer City: Empire Edition — Design and build your empire

> Offline city-building game to design and construct a historical empire. (iPhone/iPad app by Sphere Game Studios Ltd.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city-empire-edition/id1511050675 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Sphere Game Studios Ltd](https://appshunter.io/developer/866988823)
- Category: Games, Simulation, Strategy
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.90/5 from 912 App Store ratings · 52 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 13.0 · 111 MB
- Languages: American English, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, European Portuguese, Russian and 1 more
- Released: 2020-05-15
- Data updated: 2026-09-05
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city-empire-edition/id1511050675/reviews.md

## What is Designer City?

Embark on a journey to construct a historic town that evolves into a thriving metropolis and ultimately transforms into an expansive empire spanning millennia. Immerse yourself in this free-to-play offline city-building game, devoid of wait times and restrictions!



To establish a flourishing empire in this free historical city builder, entice inhabitants by erecting houses, villas, and opulent mansions for their residence. As with any construction game, provide employment opportunities by constructing businesses and industries once they've settled in.


Erect expansive markets, libraries, educational institutions, and military structures to ensure the safety of your empire. Enhance the well-being of your citizens by introducing various amenities such as bars, restaurants, theaters, stadiums, and other entertainment facilities. Create grand sporting arenas and amphitheaters to host spectacular events. Commence with a modest Roman city and expand to include diverse civilizations, encompassing ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Byzantine, Persian, Norse, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cultures. Unleash your creativity in this laid-back tycoon simulation game.


Empire City, a delightful casual offline city-building game, grants you absolute autonomy to design and construct your town without the hindrance of wait times. Plan and evolve your city as you desire, shaping your ideal metropolis and bringing your remarkable empire to fruition. Enjoy the game offline or online, as no internet connection is required to play Empire City.


Ensure your residents dwell in an unpolluted environment by thoughtfully zoning your city and adorning it with waterways, trees, parks, and iconic structures from ancient civilizations. Manage power and water supplies, implement effective waste removal, and cultivate the land to produce food for your city. Contented citizens will contribute to your income, empowering you to further enhance Empire City. Revel in the freedom to construct your empire according to your vision.


Note: Designer City Empire Edition is completely free to play, with some entirely optional in-game items requiring payment, such as the purchase of game currency.

## Key features

- Build historic towns and sprawling empires
- Design and construct without wait times
- Manage resources and citizen happiness
- Develop diverse ancient civilizations
- Offline play supported
- Create entertainment and amenities

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Giant mixed bag | $24.99 | one-time |
| Large mixed bag | $11.99 | one-time |
| Medium bag of gold | $18.99 | one-time |
| Small bag of gold | $8.99 | one-time |
| Small mixed bag | $6.99 | one-time |
| Teeny bag of gold | $1.99 | one-time |
| Tiny bag of money | $3.99 | one-time |
| Tiny bag of gold | $3.99 | one-time |
| Tiny mixed bag | $4.99 | one-time |
| Teeny bag of money | $1.99 | one-time |
| Unlock all land | $19.99 | one-time |
| Large bag of gold | $44.99 | one-time |
| Medium bag of money | $18.99 | one-time |
| Small bag of money | $8.99 | one-time |
| Large player level boost | $18.99 | one-time |
| Small player level boost | $4.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Designer City?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Great game
- 🚀 Addictive gameplay
- 💡 Constant building additions
- 👍 Easy to play
- 👍 Enjoyable experience
- 👍 Good graphics
- 👍 Excellent support from developers

**Cons**

- 🐛 Buildings disappearing
- 🐛 Crashes and freezes
- 🐛 Compatibility issues with iOS 15
- 🔍 Lack of design variety for services
- 🔍 Inconvenient item management
- 🔍 Limited landscaping options
- 🔍 Lack of city naming/renaming

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Buildings disappearing
- Crashes and freezes
- Compatibility issues with iOS 15

**Most requested features**

- Add geysers, hot springs, and volcanoes
- Implement military-based gameplay with different branches and vehicles
- Add more historic buildings like the Parthenon, Maximus circus, and Roman amphitheaters
- Introduce a day/night cycle
- Allow building in all four directions, not just two
- Make 1x1 parks act like roads
- Add neighboring city building with a special bridge connection
- Implement defending territories from raids and capturing neighboring villages

## Recent user reviews (10 of 52)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city-empire-edition/id1511050675/reviews.md

### 4/5 — Boring to me. I miss SimCity 2000.  This still seems good, just not my style.

*2026-07-14*

I was bored from the get go. This is not Sim City. It’s very bland to me, others love it. I can tell it’s a game that gives you tons of freedom to be creative with your city creation, almost too much.  I played a few minutes, but the 3D angle I’m not a fan of, personally.  Others love it.  Because I personally;y don’t like the game, yet I can tell it’s a good game, but gives no option I saw for 3D perspective to change the view, I have rated it.

**Developer response:** Empire City is intentionally a very different experience from SimCity 2000, with a Roman-era setting and gameplay focused on building an ancient city rather than a modern metropolis. We appreciate that it won't be everyone's style, but we're glad you gave it a try and recognised that others enjoy it.

### 3/5 — Good game

*2026-04-11, version v1.26a*

It is okay. here is what you can do to make the game better: can you make modern empires like American empire or Korean empire etc, the players should also be able to make more than one empire like the Egyptian empire, the Greek empire, and the Roman Empire all in the game, can you also make it a bit more territorial which means there can be invasions and defences etc, to be able to choose your weapons for your army and you

### 5/5 — Money money money game

*2026-03-15*

I played this game all day for 4 days straight. Taking time off to sleep of course. I thought if I played long enough with nothing I would slowly build up something. NOPE!  If the game is not being used non-stop it shuts down. But I was there. I was waiting for money to build up so I could play.  I gave it 96 hours and I still did not have enough to upgrade a tree being as it was like 6 million to upgrade. So I deleted the game and am now heading out to delete empire city 2 (same kind of game) I have already deleted aquatic city for the same reason.  I live on 800p/m SSI. So, moral of the story is, if no money, they don’t want u to play their game. I have asked them a number of times to lower prices. I even gave them an economics lesson and they do not listen to an economics major. Too bad so sad for them. I talked my son into not playing their game cause of how stupidity they R. I’m not rich because I fell off a mountain at 20 and broke my back. So I am now handicapped. But oh well, their loss..

### 4/5 — It's a wish

*2025-09-24*

I would like an animation of a person entering a building. I apologize if it sounds unnatural because it is a translation.

### 5/5 — Great !

*2025-03-14*

So I love education and I wanted to find a game about building and history but never found one then in 2022 I found the Designer City Games and in Dec of 2025 I found this game and finally found what I was looking for!

### 5/5 — Amazing

*2025-02-26*

This is a wonderful game!!! I love the constant additions of buildings! Two ideas i wish the 1x1 parks acted like roads and two i wish you could flip buildings in all four directions not on,y in two!

### 3/5 — Improvement ideas

*2025-01-31*

Fun, but if you’re OCD, these changes would be helpful to not drive you nuts …
1. Needs more designs for services.   Each building needs fire, police, church and education to be near, but there is no match for many buildings.  It looks stupid to have a Chinese buildings with Greek buildings.  It doesn’t make sense.  
2. If you pull something out of your warehouse, auto take from the warehouse if you have more than 1 building.  It’s a pain to find an item, place it and then find it again for each item.

**Developer response:** Buildings don’t need coverage, but they do benefit from it. As for styles, the mix is up to each player—some enjoy blending cultures, while others keep them separate. Your warehouse suggestion isn’t practical—if you have thousands of an item, auto-taking could be chaotic. The game already remembers your last position in the warehouse, making it easy to place multiple items.

### 4/5 — サンドボックスモードが欲しい

*2024-12-31*

サンドボックスモードが欲しい

### 3/5 — Love it but need more room

*2024-10-10*

Getting bored as love the game but keep deleting buildings so I can still play as no room more tiles

**Developer response:** Have you considered a reset and a new building challenge?

### 4/5 — Remedy for City Building addiction

*2024-03-27*

Although simple and with what most people would consider inferior graphics, this game blows Sim City build it out of the water. If you find yourself not being satisfied enough with this version,try their new version entitled Designer City: Medieval Version

## Frequently asked questions about Designer City

### What kind of game is Designer City: Empire Edition?

Designer City: Empire Edition is a free-to-play offline city-building and empire simulation game. It allows players to design and construct a historic town that evolves into a thriving metropolis and an expansive empire across various ancient civilizations.

### Can I play Designer City: Empire Edition offline?

Yes, the game is designed to be played offline, meaning no internet connection is required to enjoy building your empire. You have complete autonomy to design and construct your town without any online restrictions.

### How does monetization work in Designer City: Empire Edition?

Designer City: Empire Edition is free to play. While the core game is free, there are optional in-game items available for purchase, such as game currency, which can enhance your experience.

### What are the key features of this city builder?

Key features include the ability to build and evolve a city from a Roman town to an empire spanning multiple ancient cultures like Egyptian, Aztec, and Chinese. You can manage resources, provide employment and amenities for citizens, and design your city layout without wait times.

### What civilizations can I build in the game?

The game allows you to expand your empire to include diverse civilizations such as ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Byzantine, Persian, Norse, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cultures, starting from a modest Roman city.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### v1.26.5 — 2026-05-26

Improved city rendering
lower memory usage
Improved analytics and city stats
Various fixes and performance enhancements

### v1.26b — 2026-05-23

Improved city rendering
Improved analytics and city stats
Various fixes and performance enhancements

### v1.26a — 2025-11-19

Added a new city advisor screen to quickly see all the problems in your city.
New stats tab in city info screen.
Improvements to upgrading/downgrading paths and roads. Upgrade an entire road with a single tap.
Heatmap improvements.
Added a buildings log to the city advisor - see everything you've recently built and removed.
Warehouse capacity increased to 200.
Performance improvements.
Number formatting now matches your language.
We've added difficulty levels to the chess mini-game so you can play at whatever level you are.
Many fixes and improvements.

### v1.26 — 2025-09-25

Added a new city advisor screen to quickly see all the problems in your city.
New stats tab in city info screen.
Improvements to upgrading/downgrading paths and roads. Upgrade an entire road with a single tap.
Heatmap improvements.
Added a buildings log to the city advisor - see everything you've recently built and removed.
Warehouse capacity increased to 200.
Performance improvements.
Number formatting now matches your language.
We've added difficulty levels to the chess mini-game so you can play at whatever level you are.
Many fixes and improvements.

### v1.25 — 2025-03-28

New forest tool to easily zone vast areas of trees.
Advanced mode features now available on heatmaps.
Added a city reset preview to improve city resets.
New font to improve text readability.
Quick build menu for adding transportation.

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## More apps by Sphere Game Studios Ltd

- [Designer City](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city/id1021092114)
- [Designer City 2](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city-2/id1383676844)
- [Designer City: Medieval Empire](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city-medieval-empire/id1627280505)
- [Designer City: Idle Merge Game](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city-idle-merge-game/id6446098564)
- [Designer City: Aquatic City](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/designer-city-aquatic-city/id6476619384)

All apps by Sphere Game Studios Ltd: https://appshunter.io/developer/866988823

## Related topics

[empire city](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/empire-city) · [ancient city](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ancient-city) · [empire builder](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/empire-builder) · [empire builders pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/empire-builders-pro) · [sphere game studios](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/sphere-game-studios) · [civilization building](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/civilization-building) · [designer city 2](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/designer-city-2) · [designer city](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/designer-city)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-05.*