Cities Skylines 2 Gets the Asset Editor Players Have Been Waiting For
Cities Skylines 2 has had a rocky journey since its 2023 launch. Performance problems, technical issues and delays to planned updates have frustrated a lot of city building fans on PC. But the game has been getting some real attention recently, and the latest update finally delivers something the community has been asking for since day one: an official asset editor.
After a long and technically challenging development, Colossal Order has released the asset editor for Cities Skylines 2. This tool lets players create custom buildings and other assets that are meant to feel just as polished as the official content. For anyone who loves modding or fine tuning the look of their city, this is a big deal.
The asset editor follows on from November’s so called bike patch, which added bicycles, scooters and the infrastructure needed to support them. Together, these updates are aimed at giving players more control over both the look and function of their cities.
How the New Asset Editor Works
Instead of being buried in a separate interface, the asset editor loads into a special Cities Skylines 2 map. This means you design and test your creations in a proper in game environment, not a flat menu screen. You can work on multiple assets at the same time which is handy if you are building a themed set of structures or props.
You can also choose different background scenes for your editing session. For example:
- A simple green landscape if you want a clean view of your work.
- A scene with roads and trees to help you judge scale and see how your asset will look in a real city layout.
This is particularly useful for beginners who are still getting a feel for the game’s proportions. It makes it easier to avoid assets that are far too big or small compared to existing buildings and roads.
The editor gives you flexible prop placement. You can place props, move them around, and tweak them as much as you like instead of having to get everything perfect on the first try. This matters if you want detailed plazas, believable industrial zones, or realistic residential blocks where small decorative touches make a big difference.
Large lots are also easier to handle now. Previously, you might have needed several different assets to represent a big complex. The new editor lets you define the depth and width of a lot for a whole building just by entering the numbers. That makes it simpler to build things like campuses, malls, or giant factories as a single asset without juggling multiple pieces.
To help new creators get started, the asset editor includes built in tutorials. These walk you through the basics of using the tools so you do not have to guess how everything works. On top of that, the official Cities Skylines 2 modding wiki has detailed written guides that go deeper into each feature. If you have never dabbled in asset creation before, these resources are there to keep the learning curve manageable.
The Future of Cities Skylines 2 and Its New Development Studio
The arrival of the asset editor is more than just another feature drop. It is also the last major addition Colossal Order is making to Cities Skylines 2 before development shifts to a new studio.
Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive are parting ways on the series. Neither side has gone into detail about why, but they have described the move as the best path forward for the franchise. Paradox has done similar handovers on other troubled projects, such as Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 and the paused Prison Architect 2.
From January, development on Cities Skylines 2 and the overall series will be taken over by Iceflake Studios, the team behind Surviving the Aftermath. For players, that means the game’s long term future is in new hands. The direction for upcoming patches, performance work and content updates is not fully clear yet, but Iceflake has said it will share its plans soon.
For PC gamers, modders and city building enthusiasts, this transition comes at an interesting moment. On one hand, the launch issues hurt confidence and delayed some players from fully committing to the sequel. On the other, the new asset editor finally unlocks the kind of community creativity that helped the original Cities Skylines thrive for years.
If Iceflake can stabilize performance, keep improving the tools and work closely with modders, Cities Skylines 2 could still grow into the deep, endlessly replayable city builder people expected at launch. The asset editor is an important part of that puzzle, giving the community a way to shape the game’s content and keep it fresh long after the official updates slow down.
For now, if you are on PC and enjoy customizing your games, the new asset editor is worth exploring. It lets you build detailed assets that fit your own style, test them in realistic scenes, and learn through tutorials and guides without needing professional level experience. Combined with the earlier transport and micromobility updates, it shows that there is still life in Cities Skylines 2 as it hands the keys over to its new custodians.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/cities-skylines-2-finally-gets-its-asset-editor-in-a-parting-gift-from-the-series-original-developers/
