When Andrew Chino hopped into his girlfriend’s grandfather’s Caterpillar 320 excavator at a sprawling ranch in California, he was overwhelmed by a combination of its brute power and surprisingly smooth controls.
“It was something I had never done before,” he said.
“Just thinking about being a kid and all the kids around me playing with Tonka trucks in the sandbox. It kind of gave me the idea for something that would be cool to have on mobile devices.”
Chino, CEO of Yawsum LLC, is the mastermind behind Scoop — the latest simulation game that takes users inside the cockpit of an excavator.
The game takes players through different tasks that allows them to learn how to drive the excavator while combining its other controls as well.
A recent update features a revamped sandbox feature which is the free play mode so users can drive and dig without any time restrictions or objectives.
The player can control the movement of the machine with two joysticks at the bottom corners of the screen as well as by tilting the mobile device.
“The other games out there don’t even have digging in them,” he said.
“I think we really nailed our controls as far as being as realistic as you can make them for mobile devices”
Chino says future updates could include the addition of new attachments and machines.
The game’s depiction of operating an excavator is so realistic that, Chino admits, it can be challenging on the first try.
“I was kind of initially trying to think, ‘okay, even though I designed this, I’m struggling mentally to figure it out.’” he said.
“It was the same exact sensation I had when I was actually in the real excavator…It’s really scary when you start rocking a 25-ton machine. We don’t have that part replicated but it’s the same sort of confusion.”
Despite its degree of difficulty, Chino says they are trying to create ways to encourage users to not give on learning the game by facilitating some of its controls.
Its creators are aiming to push the game to a broader audience which will be key if it wants to play a role in closing the labour gap.
Chino says the game has received positive feedback from the construction industry who also see it as a potential tool to address the skills shortage in the United States and Canada.
“It’s something we want to exploit in the future and figure out how we can help that problem,” he added.
“If we can inspire younger people to want to work in those fields and give them a taste of it even if it’s in a limited edition, that’s great.”
Scoop is available on the App Store and Google Play for $1.99.
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