Have you ever been using one of the many ride-sharing services such as Lyft or Uber and thought to yourself ‘I wonder if I could do this?’ or waiting for food delivery and said ‘It wouldn’t take this long if I was driving!’ Well, besides signing up for any of those apps and doing it for real, there will soon be a way to simulate the professional driver experience. Urban Venture, an upcoming driving and tycoon simulator, is currently in development by Simteract. The Polish studio has previously worked on Train Life: A Railway Simulator, so they aren’t newcomers to transport simulation.
With Urban Venture, Simteract is being truly ambitious. They plan to feature an open-world, 1:1 recreation of Barcelona, Spain, using advanced city building, real-world data, and complex AI traffic simulation systems. The player will assume the role of a driver who starts working in the ride-hailing industry, with only a cheap car and a few jobs from some existing companies. Eventually, you can open your own company and compete with the others for market share, drivers, and customers. Customize your car's looks, brand, and cabin/exterior for more love from your customers. These customers will rate the cleanliness of the car and any extra services, but you can’t forget to pay for the upkeep of your car! Make sure you take it to a repair shop before you spruce up the inside.
As a sandbox game, Urban Venture will let you play out your modern-taxi fantasy as you roam the streets to earn money and experience, or check out the other challenges while roaming the streets in “free drive.” As you learn more about how the streets and the business work, you can even step back from driving and take more of a leadership role within your startup, managing your employed drivers, company finances, and real estate.
While the scope of this game is truly ambitious, it is still early days yet. Urban Venture is coming to Steam Early Access at the end of 2022 or early 2023. Check out the Steam page, and keep an eye on GameTyrant for news and updates.
