Automation - A car company game

[Daffyflyer]

Hi, I am currently working on a car company tycoon game. We are a small firm of just a few car enthusiasts but are also video games industry professionals.


Www.automationgame.com

Here is a picture of the parts spread of the upcoming engine designer demo



And a screenshot of how it currently looks.



Here is our blurb about the game, sorry for it sounding like an advert!

Automation is a Car Company Tycoon game.

Within Automation you will take the reigns of a car company and manage it by yourself, with or against up to 15 friends. Starting post WWII, the world is rebuilding and they want cars. It will be your job to run a successful car company, striving towards a variety of different goals. To win you will have to design cars to meet various market demands and needs. Produce a large, powerful sedan for the americas, small hatchbacks for the europeans or hypercars for the super rich. This is just a small selection of what you will be able to produce. Challenge yourself to successfully manage your company through various oil crises, changing consumer demands and ever stricter regulations. Run your company how you want to, start a budget car manufacturer, a quality luxury marque, Europe's best supercar manufacturer or anything in between.

Automation aims to be as technically accurate as possible, the engines you will be able to design have simulated torque and power curves, emissions, fuel economy values and more. You will be able to see the components you choose come together and watch your engine start up and run for the first time. You will be able to design a anything from a small efficient supercharged 3 cylinder to a huge, rumbling thirsty V12.

You will be able to design cars by choosing different chassis types, sizes, suspension configurations and engine positions with the ability to tweak the setup to your requirements. Car bodies can be sculpted into all manner of designs, then finished with a selection of headlights, mirrors and other trim pieces.

Whilst it will be quite a complicated and technically focused game, clear explanations and prebuilt designs will assist new players to both learn about cars and the game.

We are a new startup company, and as such until we can acquire funding we still need to work around our day jobs, however we still manage close to full time hours in our free time and aim to release before the end of 2011

Feel free to contact us with any feedback, and suggestions on what you would like to see out of the finished product.

[Sledgehammer]

Its like SimCity for the autoworld!

[Daffyflyer]

Originally Posted by Sledgehammer

Its like SimCity for the autoworld!

That's the theory

[coolieman1220]

gizmo's and gadgets? anyone remember that game?

[Ferrer]

High levels of want, if it gets finalised.

[Commodore GS/E]

That's amazing! I would definitely buy this.

[thebrochureman]

This is my type of game. I would definitely buy this game if it came out.

[RacingManiac]

need cellphone integration so it can be played remotely also...

[TVRs4eva]

Sounds like a great idea, I'll definitely buy it and support the cause. I think one of your biggest challenges (aside from the grunt work of programming etc ) will be in striking an appealing balance between:

1. People like me, who are knowledgable about the car industry but are about as mechanically proficient as a newborn child, and

2. The opposite; the gearheads who could build an engine from scratch without directions, but who couldn't give two shakes about what company is buying out Saab etc.


Both are true automotive enthusiasts, and both are potentially interested in this type of game, but you have to be careful about how you appeal to both demographics and the types of game directions you provide.

Good luck though! You've found a good source of feedback with this forum.

[Matra et Alpine]

I think it has scope to be a fun tool in education.

I've done role playing and "business games" with school and universities for 20 years now and the BIGGEST challenge is finding somethign that engages the males !

Think this could have a role there and may be worth bundling an education/training version. ( Contact me and I'd be happy to work with you on that and setup contacts )

[Daffyflyer]

Firstly, thanks for all the positive comments!


TVRs4eva - Yep, this is one of our big goals - our solution so far, is to make everything mechanical in a very straight forward wizard sort of format, with good explanations of what each part does etc as you go through the process.

It pretty much assumes that you are interested in cars and want to learn, but don't necessarily know a lot about them.

Business wise, it will try to be as straight forward as possible, with options to automate some business functions.



Matra et Alpine: Sounds like a very interesting prospect, we'll aim to be an accurate representation of running a business, but biased towards fun, not sure how usefully it would be or otherwise!

Please drop us a line at Automationgame@gmail.com and let us know what your thoughts are

[f6fhellcat13]

Wow, this sounds quite cool! I have always wanted to get a basic knowledge of the way parts of a car interact with each other... and have always wanted to stuff V16s into superminis.

It looks promising, keep us updated!

[digitalcraft]

Well, it sounds like an advert because it is, literally, an advert. :P That is ok though! This game sounds like a great idea and I'll definitely be following it.

The only thing I would say is that many games I was looking forward to recently were a huge letdown and it was primarily caused by the marketing department setting a firm release date, and ended up releasing on that date even though the game wasn't really in a place to be released. Blizzard on the other hand will put off a game until it is ready and consequently constantly releases high quality games. Much better approach.

[LHamilton_w]

Ain't gonna lie, this looks pretty awesome.

Make it Happen!

[ruim20]

I do hope you guys finish this, and please don't go half hearted into it.

Don't forget a sandbox mode