Just stumbled across this yesterday, City Bus Manager on Steam.
First thing to note is that it's an Early Access game so many features won't be included yet and the developers will add things in the future, there's also a feature request button within the game so you can view community requests as well as include your own.
It uses a similar system to rail based game that was mentioned on here a few times in the past (Nimby Rails) where it basically takes real world data from OpenStreetMap to show roads, bus stops and points of interest. You then select your starting location anywhere in the world (except China) before building/expanding a depot, buying buses, hiring staff and creating new routes before tweaking your timetables.
The implementation of the real world data is fairly good and the road networks in the areas i've dabbled with are fairly accurate. In some locations the bus stops were near enough spot on, in some locations they were missing entirely but you can also add your own as you develop a route and name them accordingly. One downside is that buses sometimes take a less than desirable routing between bus stops so waypoints would be a good future addition, these have already been requested. The map also isn't that big when you start so many real routes cannot be recreated but as you progress you can research and unlock further areas adjacent to where you are. Again this currently seems to be limited to ten unlocks in total and is also requested to be made larger by the community, there are also apparently some guides on Steam to hack this but I haven't dabbled yet.
There are several buses when you start the game and more to unlock but i'm not sure whether they are real or are just based on actual models and given different names, it will no doubt spawn a modding community that bring out other models. You can also repaint and add logos in the game but this is a bit crude currently. The Steam workshop also has plenty of real world repaints already, i'm using Arriva for example in my current save.
I've added some screenshots below showing the start of my save with a basic depot. As i've not currently unlocked any further parts of the map i'm restricted on what real world routes I can duplicate so i've got some sort of town service going at a 15 minute frequency.
Unfortunately I don't have a great deal of time to play games these days but I can see some good potential in this. Hopefully older bus models make their way in with historic liveries and bigger starting maps. Although i'm not hugely into buses I would like to recreate networks from the eighties and nineties where I grew up using multiple (another feature request) local depots.
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*An edit several hours later.........*
So despite not having older bus models I decide to have a little go at the repainting anyway. As I said it's a bit crude but they look a bit like what I wanted them to, at least livery wise. Now to build the company, expand the map and get some real life services trundling around County Durham.
First thing to note is that it's an Early Access game so many features won't be included yet and the developers will add things in the future, there's also a feature request button within the game so you can view community requests as well as include your own.
It uses a similar system to rail based game that was mentioned on here a few times in the past (Nimby Rails) where it basically takes real world data from OpenStreetMap to show roads, bus stops and points of interest. You then select your starting location anywhere in the world (except China) before building/expanding a depot, buying buses, hiring staff and creating new routes before tweaking your timetables.
The implementation of the real world data is fairly good and the road networks in the areas i've dabbled with are fairly accurate. In some locations the bus stops were near enough spot on, in some locations they were missing entirely but you can also add your own as you develop a route and name them accordingly. One downside is that buses sometimes take a less than desirable routing between bus stops so waypoints would be a good future addition, these have already been requested. The map also isn't that big when you start so many real routes cannot be recreated but as you progress you can research and unlock further areas adjacent to where you are. Again this currently seems to be limited to ten unlocks in total and is also requested to be made larger by the community, there are also apparently some guides on Steam to hack this but I haven't dabbled yet.
There are several buses when you start the game and more to unlock but i'm not sure whether they are real or are just based on actual models and given different names, it will no doubt spawn a modding community that bring out other models. You can also repaint and add logos in the game but this is a bit crude currently. The Steam workshop also has plenty of real world repaints already, i'm using Arriva for example in my current save.
I've added some screenshots below showing the start of my save with a basic depot. As i've not currently unlocked any further parts of the map i'm restricted on what real world routes I can duplicate so i've got some sort of town service going at a 15 minute frequency.
Unfortunately I don't have a great deal of time to play games these days but I can see some good potential in this. Hopefully older bus models make their way in with historic liveries and bigger starting maps. Although i'm not hugely into buses I would like to recreate networks from the eighties and nineties where I grew up using multiple (another feature request) local depots.
Save 20% on City Bus Manager on Steam
Build your own bus depot from scratch and create your personal bus routes in City Bus Manager. Play in your own hometown or any famous city in the world with real map data. Buy buses, maintain them, take care of your staff and lead your bus company to become the #1 in town!
*An edit several hours later.........*
So despite not having older bus models I decide to have a little go at the repainting anyway. As I said it's a bit crude but they look a bit like what I wanted them to, at least livery wise. Now to build the company, expand the map and get some real life services trundling around County Durham.
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