[HN Gopher] Subway Builder: A realistic subway simulation game
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Subway Builder: A realistic subway simulation game
Author : 0xbeefcab
Score : 137 points
Date : 2025-10-09 17:38 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.subwaybuilder.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.subwaybuilder.com)
| roscas wrote:
| Looks nice but will it have other cities around the world?
| sylens wrote:
| The rest of the world actually funds and builds public transit,
| making a simulation of doing so less necessary
| jeffbee wrote:
| That 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 wrote:
| well 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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| What tech did you go with here?
| 0xbeefcab wrote:
| Not my game, but the creator 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
| ivape wrote:
| He looks like he had a lot of fun with that. 3D maps like
| Google Maps/Mapbox/Maplibre can more or less serve as your
| engine if you have a game in mind.
| codyklimdev wrote:
| Saw 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 wrote:
| In this genre, Mini Metro is really fun, highly recommend.
|
| https://dinopoloclub.com/games/mini-metro/
| squeedles wrote:
| Seconded. Big fan of network optimization rail games like the
| Empire Builder series, but Mini Metro is just simple fun!
| ikamm wrote:
| Mini Motorways is also really good if you like solving traffic
| problems
| pm2222 wrote:
| This game got me hooked on a long-haul flight and it's so much
| fun.
| etrautmann wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| You're not alone.
| chasingthewind wrote:
| I 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!
| Y_Y wrote:
| I love Mini Metro, so chill, but challenging.
|
| One catch is that riders only need to get a particular "shape"
| of station (roughly analogous to residential, commercial,
| industrial, stadium, etc). That is to say, they normally don't
| insist on going to a particular station. Also and it's free in
| time, money, and political captial to change routes. The model
| is, I feel, slightly too simple to feel like real transport
| infra. That doesn't stop it being hella fun though.
| mdtrooper wrote:
| I love this game. And I have been waiting for the Mini
| Motorways for years...but for now it has not Linux version.
| bigyabai wrote:
| Mini Motorways is Platinum rated on Protondb, you should be
| able to play the Windows version on Linux just fine:
| https://www.protondb.com/app/1127500
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| IMO, Mini Metro is the far better game. In Mini Metro it
| always feels like the congestion can be solved, it's never
| hopeless... in Motorways the congestion does really feel
| impossible to work around, and then you lose. Not sure if
| that's due to my lack of skill or the difference between rail
| (discrete, must connect stations) and roads (continuous, can
| be drawn anywhere on the map)
| jstummbillig wrote:
| The moment I have been waiting for: Top 1% player in all
| scenarios, both Mini Metro and Motorways. AMA.
|
| No, they are both really fun (and highly addictive in my case).
| I like that you can do a scenario in 30-ish minutes (and even
| pause if you need to). I personally prefer Motorways over
| Metro, but alas, both highly recommended. Fantastic game
| design.
| arh68 wrote:
| Wow. AMA, you say? When do you prefer loops, or lines?
| Additional lines, or carriages? How much do you tear down at
| once? if you don't mind me asking
|
| I'm like median on Metro, ~60 hours over years (though
| perhaps just the one hour, 60x, &c). Never too late to learn
| _some_ strategy, I guess. Never played Motorways.
| PcChip wrote:
| no demo? just a link to pay $30?
| AndrewHart wrote:
| There are plenty of demo videos on Twitter:
|
| https://x.com/colin_d_m
| rocketpastsix wrote:
| that doesn't help people who aren't on twitter.
| kspacewalk2 wrote:
| here you go https://xcancel.com/
| gridspy wrote:
| Or more precisely https://xcancel.com/colin_d_m
| guywithahat wrote:
| Does it not? I could view the videos in incognito
| chpwssn wrote:
| Not 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
| gnarlouse wrote:
| I was similarly unimpressed by this rollout strategy.
| andbberger wrote:
| this is just worse NIMBY rails
| 0xbeefcab wrote:
| Not 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 wrote:
| The 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 wrote:
| At $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 wrote:
| This seems like a game with a niche audience, and I'm sure
| it'll be worth $30 to the right people
| shagie wrote:
| It's possible... but it's not as much of an impulse buy.
|
| 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/
| NIMBY Rails is at $19 (also in my library).
|
| It could very well be a great game... though that price is
| one that's setting the expectations for it high.
| lock1 wrote:
| Yeah, I think it's way too expensive if you're not using USD.
| It's +70% more than the price of the current Factorio steam
| price in my local currency. And with 40$ for the steam release,
| it has to be higher than Factorio post-conversion (current
| Factorio USD price is 35$).
|
| It's a hard sell for me, considering Factorio has a ton of
| actively developed mods ( _cough_ Space Exploration 0.7 _cough_
| ), a demo, and in early access era it's cheaper and insanely
| polished.
|
| From a quick glance, I'm not sure whether it's a fun game or
| not, as realism tends to be _not fun_. Requiring an internet
| connection for map tiles also sounds not good for offline play.
|
| Well, I'll wait for reviews when it's out before deciding then.
| cptcobalt wrote:
| I'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.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Realistic? Does it contain corruption, bribery, backstabbing and
| other political stuffs?
|
| OK nvm my congratulations to the game designer!
| gs17 wrote:
| Yeah, 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 wrote:
| Then 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 wrote:
| Well, 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
| mauvehaus wrote:
| Isn'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.
| cwmma wrote:
| Under Eng it has apparently turned around in the last year
| or so.
| 0xbeefcab wrote:
| yeah its been surprisingly usable this year. a lot less
| delays and a decent amount faster
| nixpulvis wrote:
| I rode it a lot from 2011 to 2019, and still do though
| less frequently. I don't presonally feel things were ever
| as bac as point like to claim they were, and I'm not
| really sure what's been "improved" so much.
|
| The biggest changes are that you can pay with tap to pay
| everywhere, which is nice, and the trains drive a lot
| more cautiously, which irritates me because they feel
| considerably slower now.
| xp84 wrote:
| You can already play that game, just put a static picture of
| the system map on your screen, then click all over the place
| and watch nothing improve
| al_borland wrote:
| This was my first thought when it stressed realism. Dealing
| with red tape, bureaucracy, zoning issues, opposition from
| citizens and local officials, etc.
| jasonephraim wrote:
| Windows/Mac/Linux?
| jasonephraim wrote:
| Ahh I had to look on Reddit. Mac and Windows
| saas_man wrote:
| and linux
| xeetzer wrote:
| Yes: https://www.subwaybuilder.com/download
| maxsich wrote:
| Was hoping this would be a sandwich art simulator:')
| aizk wrote:
| Colin is a friend of mine - a really wonderful self taught
| programmer. Subway builder gets a thumbs up from me.
| awithrow wrote:
| Is there a demo I'm missing or is this just a link to buy the
| game site unseen?
| noer wrote:
| I'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
| q_andrew wrote:
| Note 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.
| Etheryte wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| In 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.
| noer wrote:
| Really? 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.
| jsnell wrote:
| Their 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.
| guywithahat wrote:
| Is there a steam version though? I don't see it on there
| ZekeSulastin wrote:
| It's mentioned as upcoming in the FAQ under "How much will it
| cost?": "$30 on subwaybuilder.com and $40 on Steam (page is
| coming soon). The Steam launch won't happen for a few months
| after the launch on subwaybuilder.com."
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| Mindustry is paid on Steam but free on Itch.
| Etheryte wrote:
| This looks great, I hope you can include European capitals at
| some point. I've always wondered what the actual cost and layout
| would be in some of the cities I've lived in that don't have a
| subway.
| gnarlouse wrote:
| Put it on steam please
| artemonster wrote:
| please add "super hard mode in germany" - you want to build new
| station? fill out 120423423 forms, 10 years of waiting, 35
| lawsuits from NIMBY retirees, 312 lawsuits from environment
| protection agency, and after thats passed you run out of money or
| baloon your initial budget 10x.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| I like the idea.
|
| But this is a very weird way to sell a game.
|
| 1st, we have Steam. That's where I and most people buy games. 30$
| 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 wrote:
| In 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
| mcdonje wrote:
| >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 wrote:
| No reason they can't provide a way for users to add this.
|
| I'll wait on the Steam release.
| roundRiver wrote:
| How about support for offline tiles? Portable and private.
|
| https://www.openstreetmap.org/about
| mjrpes wrote:
| Anyone 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.
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