Why a town’s price moves: the “Why?” screen explained

What makes a town’s price move?

Each town’s price follows signals from real life: transport, weather, road conditions, sport, local events. The game groups them into a City Score, built from components such as mobility, activity, weather, environment, events, road traffic and attention. When an event changes one of those components, the price moves.

It is a game, so the model is a simplification. The price follows the game’s own rules, and events are inputs that animate the simulation. Towndom does not guarantee that each source is accurate in real time, and its terms say so plainly.

What is the “Why?” screen?

On every town page, a timeline lists each move: when it happened, how big it was, and which events contributed, with the share each contributed. Tap an event and you open the “Why?” screen.

There you find a plain-language summary and the facts behind it, then the evidence: for each piece, the provider, the date it was fetched, how fresh it is and where to find the original. You also see four gauges, which say how reliable the information is, how relevant to the town, how surprising and how severe. Finally, the screen shows which towns are affected and how strongly, and how that effect fades over time.

Which real data sources feed the game?

Two public sources are connected today, both open data:

• OpenAgenda: the public agendas published by town halls, libraries and tourist offices. Fairs, markets, shows, workshops and forums in the next 14 days are fetched every hour and matched to the town. Their effect on price is small and positive, never a drop.
• Bison Futé: the national road traffic feed, with roadworks, accidents and closures. They are matched to towns within 3 km and can have a bounded negative effect on a town’s mobility.

What about the other sources?

More sources are planned: regional transport disruptions, weather alerts, tourism data and rail traffic. They are not connected yet, and this guide only describes what is. In the app, the Profile has a “Sources” section that lists each source, its licence and its latest update.

Some events, especially for larger towns, also come from scenarios written for the game rather than from live feeds. If you read an event in the app, check its sources and dates before taking it as a news report.

What does “unknown” mean on a town page?

If a data source is down or stale, the game does not pretend that all is well. A component with no fresh data is shown as unknown, in grey with hatching, and not as a neutral or reassuring green. Missing information is not the same as normal information.

Each town also shows its status (Playable, Limited stake or Watch only) and its coverage by domain, from transport to events to weather. Coverage and confidence in the data are two separate numbers, and they are never blended into one.

How fresh and reliable is the information?

Every piece of evidence on the “Why?” screen carries its provider, the licence it is published under, the date it was fetched and a freshness indicator. It also notes how healthy that provider was when the data came in. Sources are shown as attributions, which does not imply that they endorse the game.

Sources are also sorted into trust tiers labelled A to D, so not every source weighs the same. Alongside, the reliability gauge gives a one-line reading of how much to trust an event.

A short example shows how it fits together. A town’s public agenda lists a weekend market: the price gets a small push up, and the effect fades with time. Roadworks start on a national road within 3 km of a town: its mobility reading drops by a bounded amount, then recovers as the works end. In both cases, the “Why?” screen lets you see which event moved the price and by how much. If two events overlap, each is listed with the share of the move it explains, so you can tell the main cause from a side effect.

How can you use this to play better?

Reading the “Why?” screen before you buy or sell is the habit that makes the game richer. A festival that lifts a price a little is a different kind of event from a road closure that lowers one, and their effects fade at different speeds. You also start to see which moves come from solid, fresh sources and which rest on thin data.

It is also the clearest way to see how a price reacts to news, which is the main idea Towndom tries to make tangible. For a broader look at how the game works, start with the how-to-play guide, and for general tips see beginner tips.

Frequently asked questions

Can I see why a price moved?

Yes. Tap “Why did it move?” on a town page. Each move is explained by the events behind it, with their sources, dates and freshness.

Which data sources does Towndom use?

Two public open-data sources are connected today: OpenAgenda, for local events such as markets and festivals, and Bison Futé, for roadworks and closures. Other sources are planned but are not connected yet.

Are all events real?

Not necessarily. Some events can be scenarios written for the game, especially for large towns. Towndom is a simulation and does not guarantee that every source is accurate in real time.

Why does a component show as unknown?

Because there is no fresh data for it. Towndom shows it as unknown, in grey, rather than as neutral, since missing data is not the same as normal data.