Hi guys, so I just thought about sharing how I discovered Automation. As I share my story, I’m also interested to know about how you discovered or found out about Automation.
So here’s mine:
Early in 2017, I was looking for MacPherson Strut suspension animations, because I wasn’t familiar with different types of suspensions. In Youtube, when I searched for MacPherson Strut suspension animation, I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oul5FTwstsE Next, I took a look into the channel that uploaded it, which was the channel for Automation, and then when I get there, I realized that it was a channel for a video game. I then clicked the link to the official website of the game, and when I read about the game in the website, I just love the game at that point.
Sometime in 2015, I was playing with the tools on http://hpwizard.com/index.html then, I was looking for something more complex, and googled car design simulator, and after several pages and results (most of them pay tools) I landed in a gameplay on youtube from some one playing automation (can’t remember the name of the channel) at like 2am. Next day I decided to give it a try to the Demo, but for some reason I was unable to download it, so I downloaded an illegal copy of the game (don’t judge me, I had no money). I liked it so much that I saved money for a month and bought it on Steam.
I also learned about it in 2015. I was really starting to venture into the automotive sphere of Youtube for the 1st time, and came across the promo they did with The Smoking Tire. I was pretty intrigued, so I downloaded the demo as soon as I saw it. Bought the full game a week or so later.
Back in 2011, one of the Automation devs posted a thread in the /o/ board saying something along the lines of “Hey, we are making this game about building cars and everything, you should go check it out”. I naturally checked it out, downloaded the demo and immediately got my mind blown. The engine builder was not much back then, still just a humble inline 4 engine designer, but it was arguably one of the first of its kind. Was intending to become a silver member back then, but being a penniless teenager me, I instead stuck around for some time, got bored, resorted to orbiting the Automation news for some months, and briefly forgot about it altogether.
Until 2016, that is, when I finally purchased the game.
Late 2014 / early '15, some kids related to me (not my own) kept installing things on my parents computer, so I would keep removing them, until I find out what Automation was about. My dad (in his late 60’s now) now has the occasional play as well.
I was searching for something to do with automobiles …I kept trying to find games that I was familiar with but then realized I was searching a decade out of date. I was looking for modern versions of Indy 500 and Formula One but at the same time wanted something to express my creative nature. I tried some game connected to the motor city (I grew up near Detroit). It had promise but made design so difficult it could take me an hour just to get one wheel looking like I wanted it to look. Worse, the factory component of the game was very confusing. I came upon Automation because Steam suggested it was similar to other games I played. I tried it and deleted that other car game …what was it again …motor something?
I was looking specifically for this type of game.
I played Detroit when it 1st came out on the Commodore Amiga and in 2011 I was searching the internet because somebody somewhere must have made a “spiritual successor” since.
My searches came back with Automation and Gear City. Even though, at the time, Automation was less developed (you could only build engines) it looked to me to be the game with the best potential for fun and so I pledged.
7 years later I am actively involved in it’s creation and Dev tool crashes notwithstanding I have enjoyed every minute of my association with the game.
Mid 2014, feeling bored and listless, I was trying to abuse the hell out of that weird entity called NFS Shift 2, maxxing out as many of the cars as I could and racing an M3 E30 with a V10 S85 swap boosted to over 1400hp (lol). Made me think “what does it actually take to build an engine like that”, which led to me thinking about all the years I spent drawing and designing cars and wondering if there was truly a game that would let me explore all of this.
Lo and behold this came up on the search.
The game I was actually thinking about before was Supercar Street Challenge but I’m glad I didn’t find that until much later…
about 2012-2013 i was looking for a street-rod type game, because i was looking up a whole bunch about this sort of “street rod 3” abandoned fan game, and I came across automation, and forgot about it for a while. I got it for $30 a few years ago, i guess 2015-2016 after reading all the forum posts i wanted to do my own thing because i liked all the rp lore posts.