The Beautiful Chaos of OpenTTD

     In the modern era where we have games like The Sims 4 and Cities: Skylines, I found it hard to find a game that made me feel like there was a true meaning behind what I was doing. That is until I discovered OpenTTD, an open-source "business simulation game" where you take on the role of a business owner in a large (or small) procedurally generated map with a simple goal. Transport stuff, and make a ton of money. While the premise of the game is very simple, the actual execution of it can be a tad difficult at times, not to any fault of the game but to my own lack of understanding of basic economics. The game itself can be played either by yourself for a very relaxed and at-your-own-pace kind of gameplay, while also featuring a multiplayer mode to play on servers and compete with other players or personal friends. It offers a unique type of gameplay that might not appeal to everyone, but what does?

    When you're first thrown into the game (after choosing some preset game modes, or configuring it out on your own), you are allowed to name your own company and also design your character. I decided to name my character "Richy Richington" owner of "Corrupt Corporation Co." in the small developing town of "FartWood" (I know, I'm mature). I figured that if was going to be able to grow my company, I needed a humble start. Straight away I began deciding how I was going to make my money, and I figured it would be smart to do something that would allow my town to grow. It was obvious that I had to do something to improve the lives of these humble townspeople.
    

    One of the neat features of this game is the construction mechanic. Depending on how much you build, and how much you demolish, your ratings with towns can go up or down, seeing as I wanted to be in good graces with the city officials of FartWood, I did the most logical thing I could think of; I of course started bombing the towns outer surroundings to build roads for easier transport. I then started building bus stations and a bus depot to get some revenue flowing and I sat back and watched the money come in. It felt great to watch my money start to grow from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Really made me appreciate the simple things of this game.

    This game brings a nice and relaxing experience to people who just want to be able to have some fun and take a crack at how well they can not only become adventure capitalists but also be able to work around problems and discover new solutions to niche situations. My friends and I all found different points of this game to be both frustrating and hilarious as I feel the multiplayer aspect of this game is one of its many core features that I definitely recommend people try at least once. OpenTTD is an open-source game and can be found for free at their own website here, for a separate installer or if you're more of a library gamer and want to be able to have both cloud saves and local saves the game can also be found free on Steam here.