Hawaii isn't the only place where homebuilding is virtually impossible

Sim Nimby is an online game in which winning means giving up any hope of building any sort of structure for any reason

from Grassroot Institute, January, 2023

You thought homebuilding in Hawaii is difficult. Well, it is. But it could be worse.

For example, try to build a home or anything else in Nimbyville and you will be thwarted at every turn.

Nimbyville is the neighborhood featured in the online game Sim Nimby, developed by Brooklyn-based copywriters Steve Nass and Owen Weeks.

Reason magazine described the pair as "fed up with anti-development sentiment." Archinet News said they intended the game as "a tongue-in-cheek commentary on what they view as 'NIMBYs' (Not In My Backyard neighbors) opposing new urban housing developments."

The game also has been reported on by Bloomberg ("The Building Game That Doesn't Let You Build"), reddit.com ("Sim Nimby, a version of Sim City where it's impossible to build stuff for increasingly stupid reasons") and boingboing ("Sim Nimby, the game where you cannot build anything and you cannot win"). A YouTube video of the game is here.

A similar but more complex game applicable to Hawaii was developed by the creative folks at Honolulu Civil Beat, which you can view here. You can't really win playing that homebuilding game either.