Build and manage your own building company!
Construction Simulator is a career simulation game developed by weltenbauer and published by astragon entertainment and released in 2015 on Steam. In the game the player takes on the role of an employee that has just taken over a construction company. As the game begins, they must learn how to operate the company's heavy equipment. Afterwards the player is able to take on contracts to build various different buildings and also to manage and operate the construction company. Operating the company includes hiring new workers and making sure they are paid. In addition, the player must proper pay workers for their work.The game has three sequels made. Construction Simulator 2 released in 2017 included the ability to create female players and employees, and Construction Simulator 3 which released in 2019 moved the game's setting over to Europe. The latest installment, simply titled Construction Simulator was released in 2022 and features both a scenario taking place in the U.S. and another in Europe.
Tropes found in all games:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality:
- Asphalt will never cool off before you can roll it and concrete will never set until you finish pouring, making it easier to manage these types of jobs in single player.
- Moving items via crane will always snap into place when released once the highlight turns green, meaning you don't have to spend time lining up pallets or pieces and orienting them the correct way.
- In the 2022 game, you're allowed to use Euro trucks in the U.S. scenario and vice versa.
- An Entrepreneur Is You: The primary goal in the game is to own and manage a construction company. Money must be managed in the form of making good contracts, paying employees, and buying and maintaining equipment.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The ability to set your job scope in the 2022 game, meaning you only have to do a fraction of the work on "Low".
- Autoloading materials onto the flatbeds of your vehicles for no additional fee or just having them directly transported to the job site for a delivery fee.
- Construction View highlights vehicles, cargo, and the terrain of the construction site that still needs work (i.e. bulldozing topsoil or excavation).
- Artistic License – Physics: A rather nitpicky one but the Hape bobblehead in the "Car & Bobblehead" pack for the 2022 game bobbles based on speed rather than acceleration, resulting in the head leaning when cruising at a steady speed rather than doing so when you accelerate, turn, and brake.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Heavily Downplayed in the 2022 game, the pause option to quit to the title in English is "Return to start" which, while descriptive, is a bit unusual from the expected "Quit to title".
- Character Customization: Starting in the second game, the player had a more in-depth ability to create not just their player character, but also workers. Along with choosing their gender, the player can pick from a series of avatars and then customize their skin color, facial features, and favorite color.
- Construction Is Awesome: The whole point of the series! Your contracts often involve making structures from the ground up from laying and compacting the gravel, pouring the concrete foundation and so forth.
- Hard Mode Perks: High job scopes in the 2022 game take a lot more time and effort but pay handsomely in credits and experience for each step completed.
- Product Placement: Different real-life brands of construction equipment appear in the games including the big-name brands like Caterpillar, Liebherr, and CASE Construction as well as lesser known brands such as Doosan, Bomag, etc.
- Reduced-Downtime Features: The 2022 game a few of these features such as fast-travel which costs a minor fee and the "Construction Helper" which lets you empty or refill bulk materials for your machines instantly without having to travel to the quarries to do so.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It is not specifically stated where each of the games takes place. The first game takes place in an unspecified American city. The second adds an unspecified desert, tropical city, and snowy city, and the third takes place across Europe but with no specific city mentioned.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: The four games take place in an open world but with different contract locations opening up as the player unlocks them.
