Paradox Interactive announces Cities: Skylines, an urban planning simulation in development at Colossal Order (Cities in Motion) for release next year for Windows, Linux, and OS X. They debuted the project at Gamescom with this reveal trailer, and there are also some screenshots on the game's newly minted official website. Here's the deal:

Paradox and Colossal Order invite players to create the cities of their dreams in Cities: Skylines, a massive city simulator from the creators of the Cities in Motion series. Vast backdrops and maps provide players with countless ways to improve and expand their cities, building from humble beginnings up to beautiful, cloud-hugging structures and unique architectural marvels.

Cities: Skylines will Feature:

• Designed to Impress: Massive map sizes and deep, detailed design controls allow players to construct the cities of their dreams, running everything from road building and zoning to public services and taxation – and, yes, public transportation
• Policy and Progress: Set a series of civic policies to guide the city’s growth; fine-tune the placement and direction of local districts
• Local Beautification: Admire the vastness of your city in a polished visual style and manage a living, breathing city, all the way down to realistic water flow in the irrigation systems
• The Sky is Not the Limit: Strive to build up a city towards jaw-dropping endgame “wonders,” and then go beyond what is possible with built-in game modding tools