Cities: Skylines 2 Developer Switch: Iceflake's Major Updates [2025]

Introduction: A New Era for Cities: Skylines 2

Back in November 2025, something unexpected happened in the city-building game world. Paradox Interactive announced that Colossal Order, the longtime developer behind the beloved Cities: Skylines franchise, would be stepping away from the series. The split was described as "mutual," but the decision still sent shockwaves through a passionate community that had been waiting for fixes and improvements since the game's challenging 2023 launch.

Then came the news that Iceflake Studios, the team behind Surviving the Aftermath, would take the helm. For many players, this raised immediate questions: What happens now? Will the game get better? And most importantly, what's actually being fixed first?

Iceflake answered those questions in late January with a City Corner Developer Diary that revealed exactly what the team is prioritizing. Spoiler alert: the focus is on visual improvements, a complete UI overhaul, and making the game look and feel more alive than ever before. This isn't about game-breaking features or massive mechanical overhauls. It's about addressing the polish, the presentation, and the user experience that have frustrated players since day one.

What's remarkable about Iceflake's approach is what it says about the state of Cities: Skylines 2 and the gaming industry's relationship with live-service city builders. The original game launched with significant performance issues, missing features from the first game, and a user interface that players described as confusing and unintuitive. Nearly two years later, these foundational problems are still being addressed by a new team. But rather than seeing this as a negative, many in the community view Iceflake's roadmap as a breath of fresh air.

This comprehensive guide breaks down everything Iceflake is planning, what it means for the game's future, and how it compares to what the community has been asking for. We'll explore the visual improvements, the UI redesign, the weather system overhaul, and the mechanical updates coming down the pipeline. We'll also examine why these changes matter, how they'll impact gameplay, and what remains to be seen.

TL; DR

• UI Overhaul Coming First: Streamlined onboarding, clearer icons, and context-aware toolbars designed to reduce confusion for new and veteran players
• Visual Improvements Are Priority: Custom building colors, realistic snow coverage on rooftops and lawns, and better weather system controls launching in initial patches
• Weather System Redesign: Players will control cloud cover directly, affecting lighting and fog dynamically, with snow falling more realistically on boreal maps
• New Encyclopedia Feature: Searchable in-game information system (coming in later patches) to help players navigate complex gameplay systems
• First Major Patch by February: Iceflake aims to release its first substantial patch by mid-to-late February if all goes well, followed by mechanical and gameplay updates

This timeline highlights the release of Cities: Skylines 2 in 2023, the announcement of Colossal Order's departure in 2025, and the planned first patch by Iceflake Studios in February 2026. Estimated data.

The Context: Why Iceflake Inherited a Troubled Game

Understanding Iceflake's update priorities requires context. Cities: Skylines 2 didn't launch in a state that matched fan expectations. The original Cities: Skylines, released in 2015, was a beloved indie city-builder that captured hearts with its accessibility and depth. When Paradox Interactive announced Cities: Skylines 2 was coming, the community eagerly anticipated a modern, powerful version of their favorite game.

What they got instead was a game hampered by serious performance issues. Cities didn't scale properly, systems struggled under load, and features that players loved in the original—like detailed traffic flow mechanics—felt watered down. The user interface was confusing, onboarding was steep, and the overall polish felt rushed.

Colossal Order worked on improvements throughout 2024, but the foundation was already set. Players formed expectations about what the series should be, and those expectations weren't being met. By the time Paradox and Colossal Order announced their split in November, the community was divided: some were frustrated with the pace of fixes, while others appreciated the effort to improve what was there.

Iceflake comes in with an advantage: they're not starting from scratch, and they're not defending decisions made before they took control. They can look at the community feedback, identify the most glaring issues, and tackle them methodically. The decision to focus on visual polish and UI first is strategic. It addresses player frustration without requiring massive architectural changes to the game's systems.

Understanding the User Interface Crisis

If there's one thing players consistently complained about since launch, it's the user interface. And Iceflake acknowledged this directly: the UI "can sometimes be a bit confusing when it comes to communicating things." That's a diplomatic way of saying players were lost.

City builders are inherently complex. You're managing traffic, zoning, utilities, budgets, policies, and a dozen other systems simultaneously. The original Cities: Skylines succeeded partly because it presented this complexity clearly. Players understood what each tool did, what icons meant, and where information was located.

Cities: Skylines 2's interface broke this clarity. Icons weren't always intuitive. Menus buried important information. The onboarding process didn't properly prepare new players for what they were about to face. Veterans of the original game found themselves looking for features in the wrong places. The result was a game that felt less accessible than its predecessor, which is the opposite of what a sequel should accomplish.

Iceflake's solution involves three key components.

Streamlined Onboarding Process

First, the onboarding is being redesigned from the ground up. New cities will have a guided introduction that actually teaches players how to play instead of just showing them buttons. This sounds basic, but it's crucial. A good onboarding process determines whether a player sticks with the game or bounces after 30 minutes.

The pressure on onboarding in city builders is intense. Too simple, and veteran players feel insulted and bored. Too complex, and newcomers feel overwhelmed. Iceflake's approach seems to involve tutorials that scale: players who've played city builders before can skip ahead, while newcomers get structured guidance through the first hours.

Icon and Visual Clarity

Second, icons are becoming "more expressive and context-aware." This means icons change based on what the player is doing. If you're in zoning mode, zoning icons are more prominent and clear. If you're focused on traffic, traffic-related icons surface. Colors are being standardized so players develop mental associations: this color means zoning, this one means traffic, this one means utilities.

This is borrowed directly from how professional software works. Video editing software like Premiere Pro uses color-coding extensively. Strategic Resource Management tools like Excel use cell coloring to guide attention. Iceflake is applying these proven principles to a game that desperately needed them.

Enhanced Information Architecture

Third, toolbars are getting clearer colors and visual style. There's less visual noise, more hierarchy, and better visual distinction between different tool categories. The goal is that within minutes of launching the game, a new player has a mental map of where things are.

Iceflake Studios is prioritizing visual improvements and a UI overhaul for Cities: Skylines 2, with less focus on new features. Estimated data based on developer insights.

The New Encyclopedia: Knowledge at Your Fingertips

One of the most exciting features Iceflake has planned isn't coming in the first patch, but it deserves attention because it fundamentally changes how players learn the game.

A new in-game Encyclopedia will let players search through information about different gameplay topics without leaving the game. Want to know how education mechanics work? Search it. Need to understand traffic flow? Look it up. This is huge for accessibility.

Right now, if a player has a question about how something works, they need to either experiment (which takes time and can lead to city failure), or jump to the wiki (which breaks immersion and isn't always accurate or up-to-date). An in-game Encyclopedia eliminates that friction.

This feature is particularly valuable for complex systems in city builders. Did you know that in Cities: Skylines, citizen happiness is affected by over 20 different factors? Most players don't, because figuring it out through trial and error is tedious. An Encyclopedia makes this knowledge immediately accessible, improving the game's approachability without dumbing it down.

Custom Colors: Recoloring Buildings, Props, and Vehicles

One of the most surprising things about a city-builder is how much visual aesthetics matter. A city that looks beautiful is a city you want to spend time building. A city that looks drab, no matter how well-optimized it is mechanically, feels depressing to manage.

Cities: Skylines 2 launched with relatively limited color customization. Buildings had fixed colors, vehicles had fixed colors, props looked uniform. This led to a sense of aesthetic monotony. Many players felt their cities looked lifeless, like they were building plastic models rather than living breathing cities.

The community responded by creating a "recolor" mod that let players customize colors for buildings, props, and vehicles. Mods that directly improve aesthetics are often signs of a game feature gap. Iceflake recognized this and decided to integrate custom recoloring into the base game.

The Recoloring System

Players will be able to set custom colors for buildings, props, and vehicles directly in the game without needing mods. This opens up enormous creative possibilities. Want all your residential buildings to be a particular shade? Done. Want your transit authority vehicles to be a consistent brand color? Done. Want to create districts with distinct visual identities based on color theme? Absolutely possible.

Later patches will expand recoloring to include trees, plants, and other environmental props. This matters because environmental variety is what makes a city feel real. A city where every tree is the same green looks artificial. Give players control over tree colors, and suddenly you can create neighborhoods with distinct visual personalities.

This is a feature that has zero impact on game mechanics but enormous impact on player satisfaction. It's the difference between a city feeling like something you built and a city feeling like something you're managing. Iceflake clearly understands that cities are as much about aesthetics as systems.

Weather System Overhaul: Realistic and Customizable

Weather in the original Cities: Skylines was simple and mostly cosmetic. It rained sometimes, it didn't affect much. In Cities: Skylines 2, weather is more mechanically involved but still feels disconnected from the city itself.

Iceflake is taking weather seriously. The new weather system will be easier to customize and will create distinct looks and feels based on location. More importantly, snow behavior is being completely reimagined.

Snow Coverage and Boreal Maps

Snow will now fall more realistically on boreal maps, coating rooftops and lawns with solid white blankets. This might sound like a purely visual change, but it's actually quite sophisticated. Snow needs to accumulate realistically: it piles up on flat surfaces, slides off steep roofs, melts at different rates depending on exposure to sun.

Implementing this correctly requires calculation of surface angle, accumulated depth, melting rates, and wind effects. It's computationally more demanding than simple rain, which is why most games don't bother with it. Iceflake is bothering, which suggests the team understands that visual polish is part of what makes a city feel real.

Boreal cities in the original game didn't feel particularly boreal. They were just cities with snow falling occasionally. The new system will make winter feel like a distinct seasonal experience. Snow will affect visibility, change the color palette of the city, and create a visual atmosphere that makes sense for subarctic climates.

Direct Cloud Cover Control

Players will be able to directly control cloud cover, and this control will have a direct visual effect on lighting and fog levels. This is crucial for aesthetic control. A city under gray overcast skies feels melancholy. The same city under clear blue skies feels vibrant. Giving players this control is empowering.

More importantly, it creates gameplay scenarios. Want to create a noir-style industrial city with perpetual overcast? You can. Want to build a tropical beach resort with perpetual clear skies? You can. Weather becomes a tool for creating atmosphere, not just a random occurrence.

Estimated data shows that feature expectations were the highest concern, followed by performance issues and UI/UX challenges. Update efforts were appreciated but scored lower.

Visual Polish: The Often-Overlooked Foundation

When developers talk about updates, they often focus on features: new buildings, new mechanics, new gameplay systems. Iceflake's focus on visual polish might seem less ambitious, but it's actually strategic and correct.

Visual polish is the foundation that everything else sits on. A game with great mechanics but rough visuals feels cheap. A game with polished visuals but basic mechanics feels premium. Cities: Skylines 2 launched with good mechanics but rough presentation. Iceflake is fixing the presentation first because it affects every single play session.

Every time a player opens the game, the first thing they experience is visuals. If the sky looks wrong, if the lighting doesn't match the time of day, if buildings look flat and lifeless, the player subconsciously feels that something is off. These things accumulate. By the end of a play session, the player feels tired because the environment was visually taxing.

Conversely, when visuals are polished, players lose themselves in play. They don't think about the rendering. They think about their city. They get immersed. This is why visual polish often has a multiplier effect on player satisfaction that vastly exceeds what metrics suggest.

Mechanical and Gameplay Updates: Coming Next

Iceflake has explicitly stated that mechanical and gameplay updates are coming in a separate developer diary and will roll out after the visual improvements. This is important because it suggests a clear prioritization: visual polish first, then mechanics, then features.

This sequence makes sense for a game in Cities: Skylines 2's position. The community isn't asking for new mechanics first. They're asking for the existing mechanics to feel good and look good. Once those foundations are solid, new mechanics can be added on top of something stable.

What might these mechanical updates include? The community has been vocal about several issues: traffic flow mechanics that don't match the original game, insufficient depth in some systems, bugs that cause cascading failures in cities. Iceflake will likely address these in subsequent patches.

The Timeline: First Patch by Late February

Iceflake's target is to release its first major patch by the second half of February 2026, "if all goes well." That phrase matters. It's a hedged commitment, acknowledging that development timelines are unpredictable.

Second half of February is aggressive. That's roughly 4-5 weeks from the developer diary date in late January. For a patch that includes UI redesign, weather system overhaul, and building recolor systems, that's a tight timeline. It suggests Iceflake has been working on these changes since taking over, perhaps even before the official announcement.

If they hit this target, they'll prove that the developer change was the right call and that Iceflake brought not just enthusiasm but concrete progress. If they slip, it won't be shocking—software development timelines always slip—but it would be disappointing to a community that's been waiting for improvements for nearly two years.

Games with polished visuals significantly enhance player satisfaction, with an estimated 25-point increase in satisfaction scores. Estimated data.

What This Means for the Community

For players who've stuck with Cities: Skylines 2 through the rough launch, these updates feel validating. Their concerns were heard. The new developer is taking them seriously. For players who left, wondering if the game will ever be worth returning to, this is a compelling case to give it another shot.

The community has been divided. Some players argue that Cities: Skylines 2 was never broken, just different from what they expected. Others argue it was a clear downgrade from the original in multiple ways. Iceflake's updates aren't going to settle that debate, but they will make the game more objectively better.

A clearer UI benefits everyone. Customizable colors benefit everyone. Better weather benefits everyone. These aren't controversial changes. They're improvements that address legitimate complaints without sacrificing anything.

Industry Context: Live Service City Builders

Cities: Skylines 2's troubled launch and developer change isn't unique. It's part of a broader pattern in modern game development where ambitious games ship before they're ready, then improve over months or years of updates.

Sim City (2013) had a far worse launch, requiring an online connection that the servers couldn't handle. Anno 1800 had significant performance issues at launch. Even The Sims 4 shipped with features cut from The Sims 3. City builders, in particular, are computationally challenging, which often leads to optimization issues at launch.

The difference is how developers respond. Some, like Simcity, eventually gave up. Others, like Anno 1800 and The Sims 4, improved significantly over time. Iceflake is committing to the improvement path, and their roadmap suggests they have a clear vision of what needs fixing and in what order.

Comparison to the Original Games

How do these updates compare to what the original Cities: Skylines had at launch and what the community loved about it?

The original game focused on clarity of systems. If you placed a road wrong, you understood why because the UI showed you. The original game focused on accessibility. City builders could be daunting, but Cities: Skylines made them approachable. The original game focused on aesthetics. Cities looked beautiful, and players loved building them.

Cities: Skylines 2 lost ground on all three of these. Iceflake is reclaiming that ground. The new UI is about restoring clarity. The new onboarding is about restoring accessibility. The new colors and weather are about restoring visual beauty.

This isn't innovation. It's rehabilitation. But sometimes rehabilitation is exactly what a game needs.

Estimated data shows that while SimCity struggled post-launch, games like Anno 1800 and The Sims 4 significantly improved over time. Cities: Skylines 2 is expected to follow a similar path of improvement.

Looking Forward: The Roadmap Beyond February

Iceflake has committed to publishing another developer diary focusing on mechanical and gameplay updates before the first patch rolls out. This suggests at least two more substantial updates are planned relatively soon after the visual polish patch.

Beyond that, questions remain. What about gameplay features that Cities: Skylines 2 is missing compared to the original? What about mod support improvements? What about performance optimization? What about the late-game content that some players feel is thin?

Iceflake hasn't addressed these yet, likely because they're still prioritizing the roadmap. But they're on the community's mind. The developer change is an opportunity to reset expectations and address fundamental issues. If Iceflake squanders that opportunity, the goodwill will evaporate quickly.

Why Visual Polish Matters More Than You Think

There's a temptation to dismiss visual improvements as superficial compared to mechanical improvements. This is a mistake. Visual improvements affect the game's entire experience.

Consider: if you're playing a city builder and the sun position doesn't match the time of day, that creates cognitive dissonance. Your brain knows something is wrong, even if you can't articulate it. If buildings have mismatched colors, your city looks chaotic. If snow doesn't accumulate realistically, the winter season doesn't feel real.

These things matter cumulatively. A game with dozens of small visual issues feels half-baked. A game with those issues fixed feels complete. This is why Iceflake's focus on visual polish is not a sidestep but a direct path to improving player experience.

The Role of Community Modding

It's worth noting that the community has been providing visual improvements through mods for the two years since launch. The recolor mod that Iceflake is integrating into the base game didn't exist because players wanted to mod. It existed because the base game lacked customization that players felt was necessary.

As Iceflake incorporates more community-driven improvements into the base game, it's reducing the mod dependency while still appreciating what modders have contributed. This is a positive relationship between developers and community. It says: we recognize the gap, we're fixing it officially, thank you for showing us what was missing.

Performance Implications: Will These Updates Slow Things Down?

One concern players might have: will more detailed weather, more customization options, and improved visuals hurt performance? Cities: Skylines 2's launch was hampered by performance issues, and the community is sensitive to anything that might make them worse.

Iceflake hasn't addressed this explicitly, but the fact that they're shipping these updates suggests they've optimized for performance. Modern engines like Unity (which Skylines 2 uses) are sophisticated enough to handle increased visual fidelity without proportional performance hits, especially if you're optimizing for it.

Snow coverage, in particular, could be computationally expensive if implemented naively. The fact that Iceflake is confident enough to ship it suggests they've found an efficient implementation. Cloud cover adjustments and weather customization should have minimal performance impact if they're just adjusting parameters.

The Broader Question: Is Cities: Skylines 2 Worth Playing Now?

That depends on what you want. If you're looking for a deep, mechanically sophisticated city builder that respects your time, the original Cities: Skylines is still the better choice. If you're looking for a modern city builder with potential, Cities: Skylines 2 with Iceflake's updates coming soon becomes a legitimate option.

The decision to switch developers suggests Paradox Interactive believes in the game's future enough to invest in a new team to improve it. That's a strong signal. Games that are abandoned don't get new developers. Games that are abandoned get turned off and delisted.

Give Iceflake until late February, see what they deliver, and reassess. If they hit their targets and the updates are substantial, the game becomes worth trying. If they slip or disappoint, you've lost nothing by waiting.

Expert Perspectives on City Builder Development

Developers of city builders understand that player investment is emotional. Players aren't just managing systems; they're creating something. When a city builder fails to capture that creativity, players feel it viscerally. When a city builder succeeds, players become evangelists.

Cities: Skylines succeeded because it respected player creativity. Cities: Skylines 2 has been struggling because it hasn't always done that. Iceflake's updates are about restoring that respect: respecting your desire for visual customization (colors), respecting your need for clear communication (UI), respecting your desire for atmospheric immersion (weather).

This is foundational thinking for live-service games. You ship, you listen, you improve based on what you hear. Iceflake seems to understand this, which is why their roadmap is resonating with the community.

Potential Risks and Uncertainties

Not everything is certain. Iceflake could ship the visual patch and have it introduce new bugs. The UI redesign could alienate players who've gotten used to the current interface. The weather system could have unexpected performance implications. The custom colors could break with certain mods.

These are normal development risks, not unique to Iceflake. What matters is how the developer responds to problems when they arise. Do they patch quickly? Do they listen to feedback? Do they iterate based on community input? These are the real tests of a good developer handoff.

Conclusion: A Fresh Start for a Troubled Game

Cities: Skylines 2 had a rough start. It launched incomplete, performed poorly, and frustrated a community that loved the original. Nearly two years later, it's still not the game players expected it to be.

But developer changes can be turning points. Iceflake is taking over with clear priorities, a specific roadmap, and a focus on addressing legitimate complaints. The decision to start with visual polish rather than chasing new features shows a team that understands the game's actual problems.

The first patch by late February will be telling. If Iceflake delivers on their promises, Cities: Skylines 2 has a future. The updates they're planning aren't revolutionary, but they're necessary. They're the difference between a game that feels half-baked and a game that feels complete.

For the community that's been waiting, hoping, and sometimes despairing, Iceflake's roadmap is good news. It's not a guarantee. It's a commitment. Whether they follow through will determine whether this developer change was the reset the game needed or just a lateral move.

Either way, it's worth paying attention. Cities: Skylines 2 matters to millions of players who love building cities. Iceflake seems to understand that responsibility. Let's see if they can deliver on it.

FAQ

What is Cities: Skylines 2?

Cities: Skylines 2 is a city-building simulation game released in 2023 by Paradox Interactive. It's the successor to the acclaimed Cities: Skylines and allows players to design, construct, and manage entire cities with complex systems managing traffic, utilities, citizen happiness, and more. The game launched with significant performance issues and missing features compared to its predecessor.

Why did Colossal Order stop developing Cities: Skylines 2?

Paradox Interactive announced in November 2025 that Colossal Order and the publisher would part ways in a "mutual" decision. The reasons weren't fully detailed, but it came after nearly two years of the community expressing frustration with the game's launch state, performance issues, and missing features. Iceflake Studios took over as the new developer.

What are Iceflake's first priorities for the game?

Iceflake is focusing on visual improvements and user experience enhancements first. Priority updates include a complete UI redesign with streamlined onboarding, clearer icons, and better information architecture. They're also overhauling the weather system with realistic snow coverage, adding custom color options for buildings and props, and creating a new in-game Encyclopedia. Mechanical and gameplay updates are planned for subsequent patches.

When will the first patch from Iceflake be released?

Iceflake is targeting the second half of February 2026 for their first major patch, "if all goes well." This is an aggressive timeline from their January announcement, suggesting the team has already been working on these improvements for some time. They plan to publish another developer diary about mechanical updates before the patch launches.

How will the custom color feature work?

Players will be able to set custom colors for buildings, props, and vehicles directly in the game without needing mods. Later patches will expand this to include trees, plants, and other environmental elements. This feature was inspired by a popular community mod and addresses the complaint that cities looked visually monotonous at launch.

What improvements are coming to the weather system?

The weather system is being completely redesigned for easier customization and more location-appropriate behavior. Snow will now accumulate realistically on rooftops and lawns in boreal maps. Players will be able to directly control cloud cover, which will dynamically affect lighting and fog levels in real time, allowing for greater atmospheric control and visual variety.

Will these visual updates affect game performance?

Iceflake hasn't explicitly addressed performance implications, but the fact that they're confident in shipping these updates suggests they've optimized for it. Modern engines handle increased visual fidelity efficiently, and features like weather customization should have minimal performance impact if implemented properly. Performance was a major issue at launch, and the new developer likely prioritized this.

Is the new Encyclopedia feature coming in the first patch?

No, the in-game Encyclopedia that will let players search gameplay topics is planned for a later patch. It didn't make the cut for the first update, but it's on the roadmap. This searchable information system should help with the game's onboarding and accessibility by making complex mechanics easier to understand without leaving the game.

How does this compare to what the original Cities: Skylines offered?

The original Cities: Skylines succeeded through clarity of systems, accessible interface design, and beautiful visuals. Cities: Skylines 2 launched with a more confusing UI, steeper onboarding, and less visual customization. Iceflake's updates are essentially restoring what made the original successful by improving clarity, accessibility, and visual appeal. This is rehabilitation rather than innovation.

Should I play Cities: Skylines 2 now or wait for these updates?

If you want a city builder now, the original Cities: Skylines is still the better choice. If you're willing to wait until late February to see what Iceflake delivers, Cities: Skylines 2 could become worth trying at that point. Give the developer time to prove they can execute on their roadmap, then reassess. The decision to switch developers suggests Paradox believes in the game's future enough to invest in improvement.

What happened to features from the original game that are missing in Skylines 2?

Cities: Skylines 2 shipped with simplified versions of some systems compared to the original, which frustrated longtime fans. Iceflake hasn't yet addressed this specific issue in their published roadmap, but they've stated that mechanical and gameplay updates are coming in a future developer diary. Whether they'll restore all missing features or design new approaches to those systems remains to be seen.

Can I still use mods with these new features?

Iceflake hasn't provided details about mod compatibility with the new features, but integrating popular community features (like recoloring) into the base game is generally a positive for modding ecosystems. It eliminates dependency on certain foundational mods while making room for more creative mods on top of the improved base game.

Key Takeaways

• Iceflake Studios is prioritizing visual improvements and UI redesign over new features, addressing the game's most immediate player frustrations.
• Custom building colors, realistic snow coverage, and weather system customization launch in the first major patch targeting late February 2026.
• A completely redesigned onboarding process with clearer icons and streamlined tutorials aims to restore accessibility that was lost from the original game.
• The in-game Encyclopedia feature will help players understand complex systems without leaving the game, improving long-term engagement.
• This developer change represents an opportunity for Cities: Skylines 2 to rehabilitate its reputation if Iceflake executes on their roadmap.

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