Games Like Vending Machine Simulator

Vending Machine Simulator is a first-person business game. You have $4,000, a tired van, a rented garage and one refurbished snack machine in Millbrook, a town of 30 possible sites split across six districts. You walk the streets, drive the van, carry crates and open machine doors yourself. You also pay for everything: stock, fuel, repairs, power, rent, wages, insurance and tax. The aim is to keep a growing network of machines profitable while the weather, the town's events and a rival operator change the numbers. Play alone, or run one company with up to three friends over a LAN or through Steam lobbies.

Millbrook has a day and night cycle, four seasons and weather that rolls in ahead of time. Cold drinks sell in a heat wave and hot ones in the snow. There are 46 kinds of event, including market days, football matches, festivals, power cuts, health inspections and supplier price spikes. A rival operator, Vendo-Corp, already holds some of the best sites and will bid for yours. Districts open as your reputation grows, and the tablet in your pocket shows the map, the weather forecast, your accounts, your staff and your messages.

One person cannot be everywhere, which is the point. Up to four players share one company, one bank balance and one clock. One of you drives while another restocks. One fixes a machine while the other plans the next route. Co-op works over a LAN. The game also has Steam lobbies, with invites and Join Game from your friends list. LAN play does not need Steam.

As the company grows you can rent a home, and later buy one, and decorate it from a catalogue of furniture. You can also change your clothes at the clothing shop. The name you give your company goes on the vans and the machines.

The shady side

From stage 2 the game also offers a side business that is always available and always optional. It involves tampering with card readers, selling the data, laundering cash and hiding goods in the van. It comes with a cover and heat system: the more unexplained money you move, the more attention you get, and being caught costs you fines, closures and leases. It is cartoon trouble with numbers and odds. Nobody is shown being hurt, and you can play the whole game without touching it. In co-op, heat and fines hit the whole company, so by default the group is asked before anyone starts a new kind of side-business action. The host can change that to host only or anyone.

Notes on this version

The game is in English only. It runs on Windows. An optional feature lets the town's people talk back using a language model that runs on your own PC. It is off by default, needs a separate download and a recent graphics card, and the game plays the same without it.