Traffic congestion is one of the biggest problems for bustling metropolis like Moscow, Mumbai, Istanbul, Tokyo and many others. Few solutions have been proven to work, and even fewer have been implemented. But what if you could be the decisive factor when it comes to planning the entire traffic infrastructure in your favorite city?
Dinosaur Polo Club’s new game, Mini Motorways puts you in the role of a road network planner, but without all those pesky responsibilities that usually come with such a job in real life. Contrary to what you might think, Mini Motorways is not a racing game, but rather a strategy simulation game that puts players' creativity to test.
In Mini Motorways you build roads that connect large buildings to houses. The main objective is to commute as many passengers as possible before the time runs out. Every major building on the map generates “pins,” which are basically the passengers that you must commute to the buildings in your city. It’s game over if your cars don’t arrive to pick up the passengers in time.
Everything is automated in Mini Motorways, so apart from drawing roads, adding traffic lights, roundabouts, tunnels, bridges and basically trying to maintain a smooth traffic using all the tools the game puts at your disposal, you don’t have to do anything else.
Every level starts slow as new buildings and houses that you must connect are added each week. Not unlike in reality, decisions that may seem obviously good at the beginning of your planning might prove to be really bad on the long run. But do not worry, in Mini Motorways you can redesign some of your roads and motorways to get everyone where they need to go, you’ll just have to the necessary resources.
Photo: Autoevolution
All buildings, houses and cars are differentiated by colors. You start with two different colors and each week you get new ones alongside new resources and tools to expand and maintain your road network. It’s an addictive loop that may lead to some, let’s say interesting results, especially later on when you have to commute passengers from opposite parts of the city.
Mini Motorways is a game especially design to make you relax. The minimalistic look and soothing soundtrack help a lot achieve that goal, but Mini Motorways is chill … until it isn’t. Having to juggle with a dozen different colors might be relaxing for a while, but when you’re continually introduced to more and more buildings to connect with roads, Mini Motorways certainly becomes pretty hectic.
Maps in Mini Motorways are named after major cities, but they don’t actually have anything to do with the real-life topography of those cities. The game has weekly and monthly challenges with different rules that are very fun to tackle.
Since everything is automated in Mini Motorways, I feel like I should talk a bit about the AI, but there’s really not much to say. While I do believe that some tools like Roundabouts do a much better job at keeping the traffic flow than Traffic Lights, I find everything else pretty well balanced. The cars will always take the short route to their destination, so I’d recommend trying to design your road network accordingly.
Photo: Autoevolution
Conclusion
For obvious reasons, Mini Motorways and iOS/Apple are a great combination. Both are going for the same minimalistic design and relaxing sounds. What’s really amazing about Mini Motorways is that it does so many things right with a very simple idea: drawing roads. I totally enjoyed the aesthetic and the vibes.
In Mini Motorways, you can challenge yourself trying to go for the leaderboards, or you can take it slow and chill while building a traffic network, one road at a time. Not to mention that everything is so simple and intuitive. A little bit of warning though: Mini Motorways can be addictive and frustrating at the same time.
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