Being a bus driver is difficult enough without having to enforce a constantly changing list of rules, deal with badly behaved passengers, and somehow stick to a schedule. In Thank You Bus Driver, however, customer service comes with a rather unusual perk. If somebody refuses to behave, you’re allowed to slap them, and if that doesn’t work, you can throw them off the bus entirely.
Launching on Steam today, Thank You Bus Driver is a chaotic, roguelite-tagged driving game from Double Fine Productions, where getting passengers to their destinations is only half the job. You’ll need to keep everyone under control, take some questionable shortcuts, and collect as many Thank You’s as possible.
Your Bus, Your Rules, Your Very Unhappy Passengers
Every shift comes with a set of rules that passengers are expected to follow. The problem is that those rules can change from day to day, and the depot isn’t shy about adding new ones. Some passengers will inevitably decide that the rules don’t apply to them, leaving you to deal with the situation while attempting to drive an actual bus.
Fortunately, Thank You Bus Driver gives you a fairly direct disciplinary system. Catch someone breaking the rules and you can deliver a slap to remind them who’s in charge. Repeat offenders can have their bus privileges revoked altogether, which means physically throwing them out.
Of course, spending too much time policing your passengers creates another problem. You’re still supposed to be driving, and the people sitting behind you aren’t going to appreciate arriving late because you were busy dealing with somebody’s terrible behavior.
The Highway Code Is More of a Suggestion
Getting to the next stop before your passengers lose patience is one of your main responsibilities, although Double Fine’s interpretation of responsible driving is rather generous. You’ll need to navigate through town, check your map, and find the quickest route to your destination. Sometimes that might involve following the road. Other times, driving straight through a cornfield could be considerably more efficient.
Traffic, pedestrians, and inconveniently positioned fences are all things you’ll encounter along the way, but avoiding them isn’t necessarily your highest priority. Your passengers are primarily concerned with reaching their stops on time, even if your chosen route makes the journey considerably more terrifying than it needed to be.
There’s also the small matter of trying to spot rulebreakers while you’re concentrating on the road. Keeping your eyes on everything at once should make for some particularly unpleasant shifts.
A Little Gratitude Goes a Long Way
Unlike most driving games, Thank You Bus Driver isn’t interested in how carefully you handle your vehicle. What really matters is whether your passengers appreciate the service. Every successful journey can earn you Thank Yous, which serve as both your reward and a rather important resource. The more gratitude you collect, the more time you’ll have to reach your next stop. That makes keeping passengers happy essential, particularly when the schedule starts getting tight.
Thank Yous also contribute toward unlocking additional bus decorations, known as tchotchkes, along with different town variants and other rewards. It’s an unusual progression system where being thanked for doing your job helps you become better at doing that same job, even if your driving methods would probably get you fired from any real transportation company.
You can grab this small yet fun rogue game on Steam for PC and at just $4.99 at the time of writing.