7 ms·
Subway Builder: A realistic subway simulation game
- roscas 11mo agoLooks nice but will it have other cities around the world?
- sylens 11mo agoThe rest of the world actually funds and builds public transit, making a simulation of doing so less necessary
- jeffbee 11mo agoThat was my first reaction ... does it simulate having a federal executive that randomly cancels your funding? A nonzero chance that the local authority demands you cooperate with the "personal rapid transit" huckster?
- em-bee 11mo agowell it would be interesting to compare european and american cities wrt. population density and building costs. the claim is that american cities are not dense enough to be worth while. in a simulation you could set the parameters so that you can specifically look at the population density as a factor.
- 0xbeefcab 11mo agoI think the dev said maybe in the future, but currently (i think) all the population simulation stuff is tightly coupled with US Census data so this initial release doesn’t support international cities yet
- ivape 11mo agoWhat tech did you go with here?
- 0xbeefcab 11mo agoNot my game, but the creator https://x.com/colin_d_m?lang=en https://x.com/colin_d_m?lang=en posted a lot of tweets with technical details, also his website I think has some info. He had some pretty interesting methods for 3D building transparency and stuff like that
- codyklimdev 11mo agoSaw a lot of buzz about this on Twitter, looks fun! I'm hoping there's some good mod support so I can add in my hometown.
- tantalor 11mo agoIn this genre, Mini Metro is really fun, highly recommend. https://dinopoloclub.com/games/mini-metro/ https://dinopoloclub.com/games/mini-metro/
- squeedles 11mo agoSeconded. Big fan of network optimization rail games like the Empire Builder series, but Mini Metro is just simple fun!
- _vqpz 11mo agoMini Motorways is also really good if you like solving traffic problems
- pm2222 11mo agoThis game got me hooked on a long-haul flight and it's so much fun.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- etrautmann 11mo agoI like it but it always felt like there was an escalating kill screen that happens way too quickly. Either that or I'm bad at it.
- andrewblossom 11mo agoYou're not alone.
- chasingthewind 11mo agoI am also bad at mini Metro but the thing that makes me crazy is that when the game ends it says something like “your city shut down.” That makes absolutely no sense and the endgame message should’ve been “you were fired!” Such a missed opportunity!
- 11mo ago
- PcChip 11mo agono demo? just a link to pay $30?
- AndrewHart 11mo agoThere are plenty of demo videos on Twitter: https://x.com/colin_d_m https://x.com/colin_d_m
- rocketpastsix 11mo agothat doesn't help people who aren't on twitter.
- kspacewalk2 11mo agohere you go https://xcancel.com/ https://xcancel.com/
- gridspy 11mo agoOr more precisely https://xcancel.com/colin_d_m https://xcancel.com/colin_d_m
- guywithahat 11mo agoDoes it not? I could view the videos in incognito
- chpwssn 11mo agoNot a demo necessarily but Miles In Transit - a delightfully nerdy public transit YouTuber - did a live stream playing the game early a couple of days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3RrlV9YrS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3RrlV9YrS4
- em-bee 11mo agojust released here is another one by City Planner Plays, someone with professional experience in this area: https://youtu.be/YrIpaZQAkFg https://youtu.be/YrIpaZQAkFg
- andbberger 11mo agothis is just worse NIMBY rails
- 0xbeefcab 11mo agoNot too familiar with any games in this category, but I’ve been vaguely following development of this game on Twitter and one of the more interesting features is the passenger demand stuff is based off of current US census metrics about commuting methods, so I imagine this is probably better than NIMBY rails in that regard
- richwater 11mo agoThe price point on steam is a little expensive for what (seems like?) might be an early access game by a single individual. Looks interesting though..
- shagie 11mo agoAt $30, I've got a lot of expectations. At $40, I've got a lot more. Neither of those price points are the impulse buy for "it might be a nice game that I could waste a few hours on." It's competing with things like Satisfactory and Factorio for promise of enduring in my library gaming. This feels something closer to Puffin Planes ($12), Rail Route ($25), Station Flow ($18). The difference between $25 and $30 isn't too much, but there's another significant hurdle to get up to a perceived $40 value. It does look interesting, but for a purchase at that price point, I'm going to need to feel that its worth more than a weekend or two of gaming and something that will be a game that I want to pick up again after a month or two away from it.
- jezzamon 11mo agoThis seems like a game with a niche audience, and I'm sure it'll be worth $30 to the right people
- shagie 11mo agoIt's possible... but it's not as much of an impulse buy. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1124180/Rail_Route/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1124180/Rail_Route/ is pretty niche (and is in my library) ... and its $25, which is a fair bit less than the $40 price point planned for Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1134710/NIMBY_Rails/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1134710/NIMBY_Rails/ NIMBY Rails is at $19 (also in my library). It could very well be a great game... though that price is one that's setting the expectations for it high.
- lmm 11mo agoMaybe it's worth it, but currently it's very hard for those people to distinguish it from a game that's not worth it to them.
- cptcobalt 11mo agoI’ve been following this game on twitter, and I’m probably going to lose my entire weekend to playing it. We need more sweaty simulators like this—the genre doesn’t have enough entries.
- KolibriFly 11mo agoThere's something incredibly satisfying about diving deep into systems that actually make you think and optimize
- markus_zhang 11mo agoRealistic? Does it contain corruption, bribery, backstabbing and other political stuffs? OK nvm my congratulations to the game designer!
- gs17 11mo agoYeah, I was expecting a gag game where you, e.g. try to build a subway but get told you don't have enough budget to do anything.
- all2 11mo agoThen you have to have dinner with an influential member of the city's planning committee and promise that the residential zoned real-estate that your company currently holds will be on offer to the committee before it is publicly offered. Also that you'll stay announcements of the new platform locations until they've bought the properties.
- vgr-land 11mo agoWell, I recognize this is a joke. I would enjoy having a simulation where you inherit and hold poorly maintained subway system like the Boston MBTA and have to bring it back to health with all the challenges these systems face
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- mauvehaus 11mo agoIsn't the principal problem with the MBTA that it's been underfunded for decades and has a maintenance backlog of about a gazillion dollars? I realize it's getting better on the rolling stock front, but it sounds like the track is still a challenge despite some real efforts to address some of the problems. I do kind of miss riding it though. For the last couple years I was living there, I got to ride the Ashmont-Mattapan trolleys as part of my commute. That was a treat. One of the last weeks before we moved to Vermont, my wife rode down to Ashmont with me and rode the trolley to Mattapan, then back to Ashmont to take the Red Line back to her office.
- jasonephraim 11mo agoWindows/Mac/Linux?
- jasonephraim 11mo agoAhh I had to look on Reddit. Mac and Windows
- saas_man 11mo agoand linux
- xeetzer 11mo agoYes: https://www.subwaybuilder.com/download https://www.subwaybuilder.com/download
- maxsich 11mo agoWas hoping this would be a sandwich art simulator:’)
- aizk 11mo agoColin is a friend of mine - a really wonderful self taught programmer. Subway builder gets a thumbs up from me.
- Krasnol 11mo agoTell him that asking for 30/40$ without delivering even a single video is asking too much. Especially for such a minimalistic game.
- awithrow 11mo agoIs there a demo I'm missing or is this just a link to buy the game site unseen?
- noer 11mo agoI've seen a few youtube videos about it and the developer has been posting about it on his twitter for a few months: https://x.com/colin_d_m https://x.com/colin_d_m
- q_andrew 11mo agoNote to the dev - FYI one of Steam's terms is that your game can't be sold cheaper somewhere else. Not sure if they enforce that though.
- noer 11mo agoReally? I've noticed a few games that are cheaper via apple's app store than they are from steam. It's not a big difference, usually ~$5.
- guywithahat 11mo agoIs there a steam version though? I don't see it on there
- ZekeSulastin 11mo agoIt's mentioned as upcoming in the FAQ under "How much will it cost?": "$30 on subwaybuilder.com and $40 on Steam (page is coming soon). The Steam launch won't happen for a few months after the launch on subwaybuilder.com."
- Etheryte 11mo agoI wonder how the terms of that work exactly in practice. For example I'm pretty sure Humble Bundle includes games that are on Steam every now and then, with a pretty solid discount if you consider what you get for your money.
- burnhamup 11mo agoIn practice it means Steam reviews the key requests you make for third party bundles and sales. If they decide the deal is too generous, they may deny the key requests until you've offered the game for a comparable price on Steam.
- jsnell 11mo agoTheir terms are that you can't sell *Steam keys* for cheaper than the game is listed for on Steam. There is a class-action lawsuit on this that's been ongoing for half a decade now, but as far as I can tell the plaintiffs have not been able to produce any actual contract text supporting this claim. The closest their filings come is some random customer support rep.
- Etheryte 11mo agoThis looks great, I hope you can include European capitals at some point. I've always wondered what the actual cost and layout would be in some of the cities I've lived in that don't have a subway.
- gnarlouse 11mo agoPut it on steam please
- aldonius 11mo agoIt's coming to Steam in a few months, apparently.
- artemonster 11mo agoplease add "super hard mode in germany" - you want to build new station? fill out 120423423 forms, 10 years of waiting, 35 lawsuits from NIMBY retirees, 312 lawsuits from environment protection agency, and after thats passed you run out of money or baloon your initial budget 10x.
- brewdad 11mo agoLaughs in American. You can do all of that and one Karen who lives 300 miles from the project site and who has time to attend a 10am meeting on a random Tuesday gets the whole thing shut down.
- rsynnott 11mo agoPft. Dublin's first underground metro (you could maybe vaguely argue that the surface-level/elevated DART is a metro-alike; it fits into the same not-quite-commuter-rail category as an S-Bahn) just finally got its railway order (planning permission), 24 years after it was first proposed and 17 years after the first application (though the south surface portion will not be built, as it would have required the closure of like three level crossings of the existing tram line that it would have used, and enough people complained that they gave up). All going well, it will be done around 2035, but realistically there will probably be a judicial review or two which will knock it back to 2040. All this is assuming that there isn't another recession; if there is funding will of course immediately be withdrawn.
- 999900000999 11mo agoI like the idea. But this is a very weird way to sell a game. 1st, we have Steam. That's where I and most people buy games. 30$ for a random exe is going to be really inconvenient. Launch it on Steam at the same time, or at a minimum promise a key. It's also not clear why it's just a bunch of American cities, if you're pulling the data from Google anyway, any city ( within reason) should work. If you need additional data, let users add it. Maybe on steam I'll buy it
- ReliantGuyZ 11mo agoIn the FAQ they explain that they use US federal data for the population simulation, including home and workplace locations, college student counts, and flight information from the FAA. https://www.subwaybuilder.com/simulation https://www.subwaybuilder.com/simulation
- mcdonje 11mo ago>why it's just a bunch of American cities They said they pulled commuter data from the census and another source. They'd need to get a few datasets from other countries to pull it off that aren't in google maps.
- 999900000999 11mo agoNo reason they can't provide a way for users to add this. I'll wait on the Steam release.
- xboxnolifes 11mo agoIt will be on steam, says on at the bottom.
- brewdad 11mo agoFor $10 more. I get that Steam takes their pound of flesh but this feels shortsighted given how games are consumed these days. I like the concept and am intrigued but at this price point I'll wait for reviews from people who have played it extensively.
- roundRiver 11mo agoHow about support for offline tiles? Portable and private. https://www.openstreetmap.org/about https://www.openstreetmap.org/about
- mjrpes 11mo agoAnyone know how big the bay area map is? Would be neat to build dream BART, including north bay and San Joaquin valley. EDIT: Nevermind, purchased and answered my own question. Outer cities included going clockwise from north bay: Novato, Vallejo, Benicia, Brentwood, Livermore, Santa Teresa, Los Gatos, the full peninsula northward starting from Half Moon Bay. So a good amount, but missing some outer commuting areas like Santa Rosa, Fairfield, Tracy, Gilroy.
- tobwen 11mo agoWarning: There are no sandwiches in this simulation :)
- Mario970 11mo agoAre there NIMBYs protesting about the Character of the Neighborhood™? If not, it's not fully realistic.
- KolibriFly 11mo agoLike SimCity meets OpenTTD but with a laser focus on subway logistics
- sorenbs 11mo agoI've had a lot of fun playing this the past weeks. And very happy to learn the game uses Prisma on the backend :-)
- hatsuseno 11mo agoI'll be entirely honest here, this kind of game is generally up my alley but I clicked off when I came across the list of available cities to build in being exclusively in the US. Not even a fictional playground for messing around in the engine, just "US primacy or bust", doesn't inspire confidence for a full release down the line. Not that I don't understand why it's like this, pulling the required real-world data is hard enough as it is, but it will limit the market I think.
- rjh29 11mo agoSame. I'm not American and outside of NY I don't have a lot of interest in building subways there!
- fragmede 11mo agoMaybe they'll come out with expansion packs.
- rsynnott 11mo ago> but I clicked off when I came across the list of available cities to build in being exclusively in the US. Huh. I feel like the average US city would require a very different _sort_ of metro to the average European or East Asian city, if it even had the density to make it work at all. Like, more diversity in city types would make it a more interesting game. Does any US city besides NYC even have a full subway network (vs one or two lines?)
- elijaht 11mo agoDC, Chicago both have good coverage (I lived in both without a car, although did need busses at times). Boston and SF in my limited experience have somewhat usable networks but definitely a step below
- frankfrank13 11mo agoBoston is very livable without a car, the T is just really janky and old.
- Shin-- 11mo agoI love these kind of games, but 40$ is incredibly expensive. I hope the price on Steam is at least region adjusted. As long as it is US cities I am out anyway.
- Krasnol 11mo agoMy thought also. RimWrld, a game with a small dev team but seemingly endless potential is $28.00 for the base game. I can't imagine how this game could justify those $40.
- gonzo41 11mo agoIt would be great if they had a version of this where you had to progress through sampling soil, union negotiations, working with city planners, and then the actual digging with all the delays of machinery, strikes, planning issues, NIMBY's and such. A great name for this game would be Hell.
- blinding-streak 11mo agoIs there a free demo? I might like this game, but I might not.
- fluoridation 11mo agoYep. $30 is a big ask (especially for such a visually simple game), and the prospective customer has to decide if they're interested based off a threadbare list of features and 6 screenshots.
- jrochkind1 11mo agoIs this game actually ready, or is it a pre-purchase where you pay now and get it when it's done? The splash page seemed to be giving me mixed messages, but dearth of screenshots/video makes me think the latter? A bit sketchy to take people's money for a pre-pay for an unfinished game without being entirely clear that's what's happening? Or it obvious to gamers?
- tetromino_ 11mo agoIt's an actual purchase of what appears to be a rather rough beta version.
- tetromino_ 11mo agoPaid, installed it on Linux and played for 5 minutes. Overall impression: game has potential but is early beta-quality at the moment, especially in UI. I will be waiting for updates to polish things up. * Map tile rendering is laggy; edges of map are constantly unrendered when rotating the view. * UI seems not very well thought-out, lots of modality for no good reason. Why do I need to turn off population density view before I can build a station? * Controls non-intuitive - where exactly do I have to click to connect two stations with a track? (It somehow worked once, and I was unable to repeat it.) * Undo / Ctrl-Z doesn't work (cannot undo deletion of tracks or station). * Tutorial hints for some reason always point to a fixed coordinate on your screen rather than a location on the map, so if you zoom or pan, the hint for where to build will now point to a completely different map location. With no way to return to the original location. Is that intentional? Why? * Can we get names of water bodies, major landmarks, major streets on the map? It would add a lot of character.
- seraphinaweiss 11mo ago[dead]