An 18-year-old student from Romania turned quite a few heads last month when he released a very early version of PC Building Simulator, a game he developed that focuses on building a computer from scratch. While in rough shape and in definite need of some tweaking, it showed promise. Now it has a better shot of living up to its potential, as it's been picked up by The Irregular Corporation, the newly formed London-based publisher behind the sailing sim Sailaway.
PC Building Simulator was conceived and built by Claudiu Kiss, a student by day and an independent developer whenever he has the time. He uploaded a free pre-alpha demo on itch.io and it quickly went viral. We gave it a whirl and were able to build a virtual system in just a few minutes, which is obviously far less time than it takes in real life. But despite being rough around the edges, what stood out to us was that it presented a relatively realistic experience of piecing together a system.
Apparently there was a publisher out there that felt the same way.
"With this only being his first title, Claudiu has demonstrated a real knack for game development. He has put real focus on building a tool that’s in-depth and educational, while keeping a sense of fun with traditional gameplay elements," said Stuart Morton, producer at Irregular. "He’s created something really unique, and we’re looking forward to working with Claudiu to help build the game into a more polished and rich experience for players."
This is exactly what PC Building Simulator needs. With a team of programmers fleshing this thing out, this could turn into a fun way for inexperienced builders to get their feet wet without diving into the real thing. And if they follow through on the Career mode that's teased in the main menu, there could be something here for experienced builders, too.
We're excited to see how this develops. In the meantime, you can give the pre-alpha a spin by downloading it here.
