Construction and Management Simulations (CMS) are games about processes. A player must build, expand or manage an entity or project with limited resources. The interface and controls associated with CMS are often similar to Turn Based or Real Time Strategy genres, but their focus is different. The tools within a CMS are focused upon two activities:
¨ Building – an interface that enables the player to allocate resources onto a surface such as a geographical map or grid. The resource will interact with other items present – for instance, it could be a building entity as the player grows a city or a factory or a road in an economy simulation.
¨ Managing – an interface that enables the player to manipulate and change values and properties within the simulation – for example, to change the level of funding for a public department within an economy simulation.
As with all types of sim focused upon strategic resource allocation skills, the player can make choices only within the overall rules programmed into the sim by the designer.
