Created by two college students from Davao City, Jeepney Simulator is a Filipino-made game that is exactly what you think it is.
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The thing about video games is that there probably is a simulator game out there for whatever aspect of life. Want to manage your own city? Download Cities: Skylines. Dream of traveling across Europe in a truck? There’s Euro Truck Simulator. Want to soars across the skies without having to go through the proper training? Microsoft Flight Simulator has got you covered. There even is Goat Simulator if ever you wanted to know what it was like being a goat, albeit unrealistically.
But there hasn’t been a game that lets you live out what it’s like driving the king of the Philippine roads, aka the jeepney, until now. Get ready to make some space in your hard drive for the Filipino driving simulator you’ve been waiting for, Jeepney Simulator.
LIFE OF A JEEPNEY DRIVER
Released on Steam early access last July 17, Jeepney Simulator is a simulation game about driving a jeepney. The basic gameplay has the player take on the role of a jeepney driver in the fictional Dabbo City (based on Davao City) as they pick up passengers, drop them off at their destinations, calculate change, deal with the realistic traffic of the game, and more. You have to go to gas stations to manage your gas and can visit money exchangers to swap cash for coins.
When you boot up the game, you’ll first have to go through a tutorial and then choose the type of jeepney you want to ride. Jeepney Simulator allows players to customize their jeepney, such as with its fuel efficiency and capacity. Aside from the main gameplay loop of jeepney driving, the game also introduces household management, with the player having to take care of their wife, Jennice, and son, Timmy. Players will have to manage their income between taking care of their jeepney and supporting their family, with the decisions they make affecting the outcome of the story.
TWO STUDENTS AND A JEEPNEY RIDE
The Filipino-made game comes from indie developer Spacezero Interactive, which is currently made up of two college students from Davao City, 21-year-old computer science student Joshua Renzie Bicoy and 20-year-old IT student Alvin Vann Arapoc. The idea for the game came when one of them was riding the jeepney and imagined what it would be like to drive one in a video game. The rest is history.
Joshua and Alvin had little to no budget for making the game (they were the ones who voiced the NPCs in the game), so they had to turn to creative means to promote their game, which meant TikTok. And in fact, some of their videos have gone viral on the platform, racking over a million views and more than fifty thousand followers, which led to a positive launch for the game on Steam.
MORE UPDATES TO COME
As of this writing, Jeepney Simulator is currently in early access, so it isn’t the complete package content-wise. So far, players have access to the tutorial, main game, basic customization, and a part of the story with a cliffhanger ending. But the developers did promise that more content is on the way. In particular, players can expect daily events, more customization options, the final story, which will involve the mysterious Hiraya Corporation and their shady work in Dabbo City, a boss fight, police chases, and more. They also promised to include the community in the game’s continued development with their feedback and other input, and have even included voice lines in the game from other players.
It’s not every day you find video games centered on the jeepney, so you may want to check out this student-made gem. If you want to try out the game for yourself, you can download Jeepney Simulator for 199 pesos on Steam.
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