2026-02-02 16:45:01
Speaking of SimCity, Isometric NYC by Andy Coenen is part curiosity and part AI exercise.
Growing up, I played a lot of video games, and my favorites were world building games like SimCity 2000 and Rollercoaster Tycoon. As a core millennial rapidly approaching middle age, I’m a sucker for the nostalgic vibes of those late 90s / early 2000s games. As I stared out at the city, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would look like in the style of those childhood memories.
So here’s the idea: I’m going to make a giant isometric pixel-art map of New York City. And I’m going to use it as an excuse to push hard on the limits of the latest and greatest generative models and coding agents.
Tags: Andy Coenen, city, isometric
2026-01-30 18:11:07
In 2000, measles in the United States was declared eliminated by the World Health Organization, because vaccination coverage was high enough. This year, vaccination rates are down and cases are up. There was outbreak in Texas last year, and now there’s another in South Carolina. CNN shows the difference compared to 2023 and 2024, when more children were vaccinated.
As a reminder, vaccines help to stop the spread of infectious diseases. Vaccine good. Measles bad.
Tags: CNN, measles, South Carolina, vaccination
2026-01-30 03:43:15
To show shifts in net support for the president, the New York Times used a U-turn metaphor. The x-axis represents net support. The arrows start in 2020, move higher in 2024, and then turn back in 2026.
The alternative, more standard chart choices, such as a dot plot or bar chart, would have worked fine, but this approach gets to the point better.
Tags: New York Times, voting
2026-01-29 22:07:45
Most states gained population, but a few saw more people move out than move in, based on the newest estimates from the Census Bureau.
2026-01-29 22:06:32
Every month, I collect visualization and data tools and resources to work with and learn from. Here is what happened in January.
Become a member for access to this — plus tutorials, courses, and guides.
2026-01-29 02:45:01
If you’re a fan of SimCity, then you’ll appreciate IsoCity, an open source simulation game. The premise is the same. Start with land, build infrastructure, and try to maintain a thriving city. From the GitHub:
IsoCity is a open-source isometric city-building simulation game built with Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. It leverages the HTML5 Canvas API for high-performance rendering of isometric graphics, featuring complex systems for economic simulation, trains, planes, seaplanes, helicopters, cars, pedestrians, and more.
I’ve never been big into video games, but I spent many hours in high school playing SimCity 2000, building up my city of the future. I installed the game from a single floppy disk on the family 486. My city was eventually sustainable with those robot-looking Energy Domes, and I thought our own future looked bright. If I could do it in the game, then surely we could do it in real life.
IsoCity, which runs in the browser, is not as expansive, but it’s a fun throwback.
Tags: city, game, simulation
