I wonder if instead of making my own updated re-implementation of the original SimFarm, that I go isometric with it. Replicate the isometric pixel art aesthetic of SimCity 2000. (I am not a pixel artist; I would legit need someone else to create all the game assets for me.)
I'd still want to eschew a lot of realism to keep gameplay stuck to a grid, to make it look and feel like a classic style game.
Hell, I wonder if I could throw some *super basic* city sim into it as well. Nothing complex, as the primary focus should be on the farm, but like... I think it'd be nice if the player could have a bit more fine control over how the nearby town gets built.
The city sim would amount to nothing more than "These things exist in the town" with no mind paid to utilities management or traffic sim, again to keep focus squarely on the farm.