One of a billion preview pieces, based on the current Steam Game Festival, I had the chance to tinker with Builder Simulator, by Live Motion Games and published by PlayWay S.A.
In case you can’t surmise from the title, this upcoming game is a building simulator, in that you literally lay the foundations of your home – proper hard graft and all that, and comparable to titles like House Flipper.
With this demo, obviously in development, you’ve already secured a site on where to build your new home and have lay in the foundations, supports and fill with concrete. Pumping the visuals up to ultra, Builder Simulator is a beautiful game.
Builder Simulator Preview
I can’t say the same for some of the animations at the moment. After manually placing all the supports ready for the concrete, you have to mix everything in the cement mixer, but physics don’t apply to the mixture. A noticeboard on the right indicates the perfect mix, so you shove it all in there and wait for the gauge to fill.
…despite the criticisms, Builder Simulator is one to watch, offering so much potential, and added to the wishlist.
Grabbing a wheelbarrow, you ride on up next to the mixer, and again, manually pour the mixture in, only it doesn’t matter where you place the wheelbarrow as it steadily fills up. That said, I abused this and ended up cementing my hose to the floor.
With the cement ready to go, you have to fill the foundations, you can only tip it on one side, and it’s not very accurate. Worst of all, the mixture doesn’t last, and you have to repeat the mixing steps once more and, dare I say, it’s a bit tedious.
Still, once that’s done, I can then access an online catalogue and purchase some breeze blocks, but just as I start laying them, a warning dialogue indicates that the Builder Simulator is at its end. Bugger, I was just getting into it.
Building The Blocks Of Creativity
Despite the ad nauseum of picking up cement, adding to the mixer, then the sand, then the water, fetching the wheelbarrow, and so on… I’m genuinely looking forward to Builder Simulator. The steps to complete a task are interesting if the cement bit was a little dull.
It will be interesting to see what flexibility we will have when the game is released. Without any actual evidence, I would anticipate that this would be high on many wishlists as we all fantasise of a dream home, right?
One thing is for sure; the music will be muted. It was reminiscent of one of those daytime infomercials or timeshare parodies you see, that invoke you to go to your nearest boat shoe supply store to fit in with the mood. It was pretty corny, but despite the criticisms, Builder Simulator is one to watch, offering so much potential, and added to the wishlist.
