Districts: painting Willow Heights at night

About this game

Developer: Colossal Order · Publisher: Paradox Interactive · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Realistic 3D · Screen type: Government / Policy / Laws

More Cities: Skylines screens in the Gallery

What to study

Districts are drawn, not listed: a translucent white wash with a soft irregular border is painted directly over the lit night city, and the district's name, Willow Heights, sits as a label inside its own territory. The bottom palette reduces the whole system to paint and erase district tools alongside the normal city HUD, so applying local policies starts as a geography gesture rather than a form. Frame at about 0:55 in the Trailer 2020 (Steam).

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

map-overlay district-painting

Components

Parts on screen.

Toolbar Resource bar

Screen inventory

• painted district outline
• district name label Willow Heights
• district paint and erase tools
• city HUD bar with date, city name and population

Top 3 colors

#221c18 24%#46433d 22%#5e5b52 16%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive, Cities: Skylines screenshot: Trailer 2020 (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Paradox Interactive.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-20. verified 2026-10-20: frame extracted from the official Trailer 2020 (Steam) and inspected visually; real game UI (district outline, district tools and city HUD) confirmed visible

Paradox EULA Section 6: free access, own commentary required

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.