There are all sorts of games for car enthusiasts in the market ranging from racing to action, but a young startup from Melbourne, Australia, called Camshaft Software, promises to offer something entirely different in the form of a game that will allow players to become car tycoons.
The game, which is still under development, is named Automation and it’s the creation of Caswal Parker, the Lead Programmer and Andrew Lamb, the Lead 3D Artist, with the additional help of Jayelinda Suridge, Games Engine Programmer, Bernardo Del Castillo, 2D/3D Artist/Programmer and Stephan Schutze, responsible for Sound Design/Recording.
The purpose of the game is to take control of a newly founded car company starting from the post-war era of 1946 and build an automotive empire. According to the two creators of the game, players will be responsible for developing cars from scratch choosing the chassis, engine specs and even the design of the vehicle.
Lamb and Parker have been developing the new game for quite some time now but they are doing it mostly on their free time due to a lack of funds.
“While we spend almost all our free time working on Automation, progress is still slower than we would like as we still need to work day jobs to cover our living costs,” they say in a release. “It would be a fantastic opportunity to get the funds to allow us to work full time on Automation for the next year.”
The gaming duo have already began beta testing and also plan to offer a demo version before the first release.
The idea behind the game certainly sounds interesting and we hope they can find the necessary funds to continue the development and polish up all of its the aspects in the very near future.
Story Sources: Automation Game via VWvortex
[From Camshaft Software]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.
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