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After trying our best to make a few safe journeys through the idyllic town of Emberville we chatted with Bus Bound's lead designer about everything to do with buses, simulators, and why the pair are so popular.
"Hello everyone, I'm Alex here with Gamereactor. I've just been checking out Busbound. I'm here with Marlon. Marlon, how was my driving?
Quite alright, I think, you know, nothing Nothing tragic happened. I think, you know, you made it on time. You placed well at the stops. I think, you know, The city still drives, you know, all traffic is flowing. So good. I think you're being too kind I think we had some awful things by the end I was getting very turning into full bus driver mode, one hand on the wheel, honking the horn way too much But anyway, what can you tell me about people who are playing Busbound properly?
And how are they going to be excited about this new simulator that you guys are bringing out? Well, I think The main thing that makes us stand out is actually what your colleague earlier said You're gonna really feel like the city is reacting to you, right?
You had that experience too, you drive quickly over a speed bump You place badly at the stop, people are going to be a bit upset and it kind of slows down your progress inversely if you Behave well, like you drive safely, you take care of your passengers, you look around for traffic Then you're gonna have a smooth ride and you're gonna progress much faster And is that sort of the narrative setup of this game or we expected to sort of be kind of a bus hero?
I guess to the people of this fictional town of Embervale. That's a Cool observation the original title or like a working title of this and the concepting phase a few years ago was everyday hero That's kind of what we're going for. So Absolutely. Yeah, we're going to tell like the story of how an everyday person How you can step into that person's shoes and you know change the city Talk to me a bit about the mechanical depth that you're offering here. In your presentation You talked about going back to sort of bus simulations routes But how are you taking that next step to sort of bring it up to I guess more modern standards and beyond of what people might expect from a simulator Well, I think what we've seen in simulators specifically is Lots more management features and I think that kind of takes Players away from what it's actually about, you know simulating As I said, you know being the bus driver being in the vehicle on the road in the city Interacting with everything and having everything reactive. And so I Mean, I think that answers the question So it's me as well a little bit about you showing before the depth of customization How many buses can players expect sort of how Much you rewarding the people who are really really into their sort of travel sims and their transport sims and specifically bus sims right, so well first question, there's going to be 17 buses, they're all American buses and Because you're driving in American City has to be sort of authentic and there's going to be more buses post-release Sorry, the second question was about how do Sim fans get into this and I think Well, one of the big things obviously we have the new flyer brand. It hasn't been in games before, you know I know simulations fans really like the representation of that and So we're proud to add that we also have a completely new brand in the tender, which also hasn't been in any game It's a quite unique bus, you know, it has some unique features. It can actually drive sideways I haven't shown you that but it has like steering back and forth But it has like steering back axles. You have a button in your cockpit You can map it to the steering wheel and you can drive sideways a bit You know like so the authenticity has to be there. Obviously, there's a lot of stuff there I guess it brought it and building off on that. What do you think?
It is that draws people to these types of simulators where you're doing a job and you're doing the job Well, you know when people I think look at games Sometimes they'll always say it's sort of an escape from the everyday But there are millions and millions of people who like and getting in the bus and being the everyday hero What do you think draws people to that? I think Just my gut feeling says you want the sense of like Normalcy like everything is fine, right?
And I think that's what these games give you. I think at Gamescom It's very busy If you come here you sit down play this game put your headphones on and I think you can relax a little bit you focus On the little things, you know, are you?
But maybe a bit too Quick around that turn. It's not a racing game You can take your time and it's actually encouraged because people want to feel safe in the bus and you can take that with you All and thank you so much for your time When can people expect to see bus bound and where can they see it on? There's no concrete release date It's gonna it's set for 2026 and it's going to be on PC PlayStation 5 Xbox series X and S Yeah, everything we need. Thank you Marlon. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you"
