As a three year old wee lad, my fascination with cars began to manifest itself by me knocking on tires of parked vehicles. Even though I could not yet read, I knew the difference between a Ford, Mercedes and BMW just by their logos.

Until I was 15, I had no conclusive idea about how an engine works, but the idea of steering an automobile to where ever I wanted to, as fast as I wanted to, was very fascinating.

A reoccurring dream of mine was running my own car company, I called it Limosan, Mazda was my arch-enemy (I loved them). I drew concepts, wrote down how much power the latest engine had, how much fuel it consumed. It was all in my head. Wasn’t before the year 2012 however, that I drove a car myself without supervision and with a drivers license.

At this time, the guys and girls from Camshaft Software, Andrew, Caswal and Jayelinda had already been working on Automation for about two years. They share the same passion for these four-wheeled steel boxes and have a very particular set of skills, skills that make them the right people for this job.

Caswal being the programmer, Andrew the designer and Jayelinda developer of the homemade graphic engine, that Automation uses.

Born was the idea for a car tycoon game, which is what Automation aims to be, in a way that has not been there before. Recognized by the industry, Camshaft Software was decorated with an award for technical innovation in 2012, when the engine designer as first part of the game, was still in early stage of development, but firing up a 5 liter V8 sent chills down my spine already.

The team grew, when it became evident that a car tycoon could not be realized without the help of a German. Even if said German, Robert, drove a Twingo. His organizing skills helped the team to work with great focus on smaller details and soon the car designer allowed for “marriage” of engine and car body and thus for people like myself, to build their own cars for the first time since ever on screen.

Anyone fascinated by automobiles, not just as a way to get from point A to point B, but as reminiscent of a long gone era, a peak at future technology, a vision by a genius, or a memory from your childhood, will find pleasure in playing the game. Automation allows for you to become the creator of your own ideas or builder of something indistinguishable from the original.

As unique as the game, is the relation between creators and consumers. Car enthusiasts from all over the world began enriching the Automation Forum not only with their own designs, they were soon planning challenges and competitions, by using complicated spreadsheets and secret formulas to determine who built the best, fastest or most efficient car.

All the knowledge gained by the community, who were soon more skilled at building engines than the developers, was used to continuously improve the game in all areas, together, as many users decided to help out as Beta-Testers.

By now, forum members have created the first fan sites for Automation, release monthly reviews for cars in printed and video form and come up with new ideas for community competitions on a regular basis.

My honour as self-made engineer has been challenged more than a few times already, and even though I could not compete with those who have 100 RON fuel running through their veins, it’s still a lot of fun to try.

While most games today act out the story for you, Automation encourages players to come up with their own history of car and companies alike. I myself wrote several pages of how my Russian self brought an old car-brand back to glory during the times of the Soviet Union.

With the inspiration buzzing all over the community, more than a few guys also began experimenting with 3D modeling, supported by Cas and Andrew, to bring new fixtures and car bodies (including a bus) into the game and only to chase them around tracks like f.e. The Green Hell. For this purpose, a track editor was developed by skilled fans of the game. (shout out to DerBayer, BitTwiddler and Cobaltgirl07)

Since March 12th, Automation is available as Early Access Steam version with a completed Engine- and Car Designer. An in-depth multiplayer mode, with the goal of enabling more community events and of course, the tycoon part will be the next upcoming milestones on the way of completion.

Now, I will go back to my own car company, Romanov. Got to come up with a cheap, but reliable family car to somehow make it through the oil crisis in 1973. Actually scratch that, I am going to build a fancy coupé with an Inline six, because I can.

Links:

www.automationgame.com (For all the competitions, cars and the fun.)

Automation on Youtube (First source for all future updates)

Camshaftsoftware (The creators)