What is GearCity?
GearCity is an automobile manufacturing business simulator, also known as a tycoon game. Although, it is more complex and in-depth than ordinary tycoon games.
You have one simple goal, stay in business. To do so you will need to build, design, sell, market, negotiate, and crush your competition.
When can I play?
You already can! There is a game turn limited demo. Or you can purchase and play the full version of the game from any one of these stores.
When was GearCity released?
Development started in January 2010. We released Open Betas starting in March 2013. It entered Steam Early Access in May 2014, and it exited Early Access on January 14th, 2022.
Minimum System Requirements?
1200MHz (x86 CPU)
1024MB RAM
128MB OpenGL 1.2 or DirectX 9 compatible Video Card
Windows XP or newer, OS X 10.7+, Linux glib 2.17
*This is bare minimum support for 32-bit build. We recommend you get something a little more powerful and 64-bit.
Are there tutorial videos?
The game has four and a half hours of video tutorials covering advanced topics in the game. We also have another two and half hours of interactive in-game tutorials that we suggest you try. You can find the video tutorials on our tutorials page or Youtube. The video tutorials are also accessable in game by clicking "Help" and then "Video Tutorials."
Where can I get the manual?
You can find the user manual in game by clicking "Help" and then "Wiki/Manual." Or you can find it here.
How does vehicle design work?
Vehicles in GearCity have three major components: Chassis, Engines, and Gearboxes. The player controls the selection of key parts of the components. You also set your desired dimensions, specs, and goals for your engineers to focus on.
After the components have been designed (and they all work together,) you can make a vehicle. The player selects a vehicle type, the chassis, engine, and gearbox. Then they select the body.
Once several months have passed, the engineers will complete the project, and the player has a useable vehicle.
We offer video tutorials on this and many other topics on the tutorials page.
How will the business side of the game work?
Essentially, the game is run hub style much like Detroit and Motor City. The office is the main connection point to the other parts of the game. It also is the focal point for human resources, union negotiation, charts/figures, news, lobbying, etc.
With the world map, you'll control vehicle production, distribution, and marketing.
There are hundreds of cities in the game. All of them have historical data figures from 1900 to 2018. This data includes but is not limited to: population, per capita, manufacturing capacity, infrastructure, growth rates, and tax rates. The game only allows one factory and branch per city.
Dealerships automagically appear based on the quality of your branch/service/sales. These dealerships are the front line to the population.
The "Realistic Economic Simulation Engine" processes vehicle and buyer pool, so customers find exactly the right car for them. The game also features approximately 300 AI competitors, a financial sector, and contracts/contracting.
Our fundamental goal is to create a realistic simulation of the economics that affect automobile manufacturers. We believe this will make the game harder and more fun than typical Tycoon style games.
We offer video tutorials on this and many other topics on the tutorials page.
Is there multiplayer?
The game was initially designed for multiplayer but went singleplayer only early in development. If we can raise enough funds post-release, then there is a chance we'll get multiplayer.
Where did this idea come from?
During the golden age of management games in 1994, Impressions Games released Detroit. The very next year, Max Design GesMBH released Motor City. Although neither game achieved blockbuster sales, they garnished a cult following and were moderately successful. These two titles allowed you to take charge of a car company. Both have their pros and cons. Sadly the cons generally outweighed the pros.
With the growth of 3d graphics, management sims slowly died out. For a brief period in the early 2000s, the success of Roller Coaster Tycoon brought forth a "Tycoon boom," which saw the market flooded with low-quality casual business sims. One of these tycoon games was Car Tycoon. Hampered by bugs and quality issues, the game was a major flop.
The lack of quality in the genre and feeling the need for a modern version of Detroit or Motor City, Eric founded VENT to create high-quality hyper-realistic business sims. GearCity is VENT's first product of hopefully many more.
What is VENT?
Visual Entertainment and Technologies LLC was conceptualized in August 2010, and incorporated in 2013, to fill the need for high-quality niche-market computer games. The company reincorporated in 2021 following relocation.
Unlike most other independent developers, we have no interest in building the next World of Warcraft or the next mainstream console FPS. Instead, we focus on genres of yore, the forgotten genres that have been overlooked by the glitz and glam of major publishers and studios.
What about the team?
Eric Jones - Owner, Programmer, Artist, etc...
Serhiy Pazelskyy - Contracted Artist
Amit Shaikh - Contracted Artist
Ashwin Menon - Contracted Artist
Jakub Kozak - Contracted Artist
Kristin Burdal - Contracted Composer
Bitquake - CC-BY Band
Kevin MacLeod - CC-BY Composer
Christoph Willibald Gluck - Long Dead Composer
Juan Crisotomo Arriaga - Long Dead Composer
Dmitry Morozov - Contracted Website Design
Andrey Zaichenko - Contracted Website Design
And countless number of people who helped translate the game. Sadly, I don't have all of their names or their permission to publish them.
© Visual Entertainment and Technologies LLC
2022