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.


http://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.




And a video of all the valvetrains for an inline 4 (available in the upcoming demo)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqgLO32o ... r_embedded

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.

sounds pretty sweet, will this be sold or will it be a free game?

dam that looks like good fun. please be free. I saw a VTAK cam, booo

No VTEC cam in that picture, but there will be VVT and VVL eventually.

Sadly it won't be free, as by the time it is complete we will have invested tens of thousands of dollars on software licences and paying contractors, and spent a few years of our life working on this game.

It will however be cheap, sold via digital distribution, most likely for under $20USD.

I think I saw it in one of the demos.

This looks like one to look forward to. Ive been waiting for like a real car game, building engines and fine tuning a car. I hope it is more than generic addons like "stage 2", but rather what parts and how extreme.

This might be a stupid question, but this is only a computer game right?

I'm so down for this.

Anyone remember Gearhead Garage or Car Tycoon?

Yes it will be quite a lot more in depth than pretty much anything I can think of, it makes Forza Motorsport's upgrades seem very simple for example.

Also because you are designing engines from scratch for your car company to produce, you have a lot more design decisions than you would modifying an engine in a racing game.


And still no, no VTEC in any of the demos or trailers or anything

Yep, PC only


Edit: Yep, we remember Car Tycoon, the disappointment in that is a major reason we started this project - Automation will be like Car Tycoon only not... bad :P

This is really cool. I'd love to see an implementation of VVEL or Valvetronic in it, just so I can watch the magic work.

I want this. Naow!

Ha. It reminds me of what I really wanted Motor City Online to be.

That was my first MMO. And I got into it about two months before they shut it down. Way to go me.

This won't be like Need for speed will it?

Not at all...

Amays U G37S wrote:This won't be like Need for speed will it?

In what respect?


I'd say in most respects it won't be anything like need for speed

Any word on a release date? Or a trailer?

Also this is going to be a "automobile manufacturing simulator" correct?

This seems like a more polished version of Street Legal with more features and flexibility. Will the cars be drivable?

Im getting more curious to play this game

Release date = when its done - hopefully before 2012.

Trailer: Not quite, but some little development videos on our youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/AutomationGame

Driving your own cars: Not unless we make a lot of money and can afford to to a proper world class driving physics engine.

An "automobile manufacturing simulator" is exactly what it is, aka a Car Company Tycoon game.

Interesting. How detailed will the simulator be?

• For instance will you be competing VS other large manufacturers?
  Could you have a racing division and develop track vehicles as well as consumer models?

I guess I am asking...
How deep does the rabbit whole go?

Yep, you'll be competing against other car companies.

You'll have to design your cars taking into account different buyer requirements, different national preferences and regulations etc.
You'll also manage its production, marketing, distribution and sales.


No motorsport yet, but its planned eventually, in a possible expansion you'd run a factory motorsport team, and your victories would add to the company's reputation

Get this to work and...

Take my MONEY!

how have you gone about replicating engine sounds? Also is how much design is applied to the game (IE can we design chassis and body, tune suspension, and choose fuel and drive types)? I guess what I'm asking is would it be possible to design and build AWD turbo diesel saloon cars or build a super duty pickup truck? What are the limitiations of this sim?

If it comes out top notch I can think of a few auto manufacturers who could use this to improve their current lineup.

Chaotic_Warlord wrote:how have you gone about replicating engine sounds? Also is how much design is applied to the game (IE can we design chassis and body, tune suspension, and choose fuel and drive types)? I guess what I'm asking is would it be possible to design and build AWD turbo diesel saloon cars or build a super duty pickup truck? What are the limitiations of this sim?

Engine sounds will be from a bunch of cars we strap to the dyno and get our talented sound guy to record


Any real car you should be able to get close to replicating, though not 100% sure if diesels will make it into the first release of the game, we'll see.


You'll be picking chassis size and type, engine location and drive type, suspension type, suspension stiffness, gearbox, etc etc etc. and designing the body to some extent

I am really interested in this game, played Car Tycoon and as lame as it was I was hooked to it.When is this game coming out on PC?

When its done :P

We'll hopefully be starting preorders in a few months, and if lots of people preorder we might be able to quit our day jobs and get more work done!


Hopefully be finished early 2012

aww, I cant wait that long

It's usually the part time jobs / hobbies of professionals that have the largest attention to details.

daffyflyer we are counting on you, you're our only hope!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIrLD2Nv ... r_embedded[/youtube]

Awesome work so far!

Loving the opensource for modding. Any wind tunnel performance figures based on car shape modifications?

Will we be able to change wheel width and camber?