SC27🚌W1 🚂✈️ Let's Play OpenTTD 🚢🚁
So today, I’m very glad to present my first lesson. ✨
✨ Install and set up
✨ Game Options
✨ Creating the Game
✨ Saving and Loading the Game
✨ Towns
✨ Transport Companies
✨ Transparency
✨ Landscape
✨ Homework
✨ Rules for Participation
✨Install and set up
Now, let’s download&install this game and take a look at its main and important elements.
On the main website, openttd.org you can download the latest stable version 14.1
here or here’s a direct link to the exe file for Win64-bit
The installation process is straightforward: just run it, click Next, Next, Finish.
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 | However, what gets downloaded initially is only the code, without any game data — no graphics, music, or sounds. Here, you need to agree to download the graphics, otherwise the program won’t run. |
 | Next, the program will ask about usage statistics — you can answer as you like. This question mostly concerns collecting data on game modifications, which we won’t be using. |
Let’s also download the necessary components — graphics, sounds, and music tracks.
Click Check Online Content
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NewGRF — do not download; I don’t use it myself, so you won’t need it in the early stages!
Using the search term “fx”, download the basic graphics and basic sounds.
You can choose aBase or zBase graphics and music — these are optional, based on your preference.
After this, the game will have sounds and a few types of graphic sets available.
If, for some reason, you are unable to install the game, please reach out.
You can use online emulators of the old game Transport Tycoon: Transport Tycoon Online link1, Transport Tycoon Online link2, Transport Tycoon Online link3
The old original game will, of course, look primitive compared to OpenTTD, but you will still be able to complete the tasks.
Those interested can compare Transport Tycoon and OpenTTD.
You can also find the game OpenTTD on the Google Play Store. Naturally, it’s more convenient to play OpenTTD on a computer.
✨Game Options
Next, go to the options and select the language and currency. This game has already been translated into many languages. As soon as multilingual support was added, I translated it into Ukrainian in 2006, when the game version was 0.5.0. If you enjoy the game and your rare language isn’t on the list, you can contribute a translation — although I believe most languages are already included.
For now, select English and USD so that I and other participants can easily follow along in your screenshots.
🚌Graphics✈️
Depending on your monitor size, choose a multiplier for the font size. Also, select the Base graphics set — currently, it’s set to OpenGFX, but the graphic packages you downloaded in the previous step will also be available.
🚌Sound✈️
Since you downloaded additional content, specifically sounds, in the previous step, you can select them here as well.
✨Creating the Game
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Select the game parameters exactly as shown in the picture. You may choose more complex biomes — not 1, but 2 or 3 — this will give a small bonus to your overall score. Do not select the fourth “toy” biome.
Do not change any other settings. Choose your biome wisely, as in the next lessons you will continue on this same map.
Click Generate
The game is now fully created.
✨Saving and Loading the Game
Let’s master a few simple but important actions for the future — saving and restoring the game.
So, the game is created, and at the top, you can see the toolbar. The first feature is that when selecting a menu item with the mouse, you shouldn’t release the button right away — instead, keep it pressed while moving through the menu. The items will highlight as you hover over them, and you should release the mouse button on the item you want to choose.
So, click the fourth button — the floppy disk icon 💾 — and, without releasing the mouse button, move the cursor to the Save option.
From there, it’s simple: enter a file name for your save and click the Save button.
Loading a game works the same way.
By the way, there’s an Autosave folder where saves may appear automatically from time to time.
The game automatically saves your progress at intervals of 1, 3, or more months, depending on the game settings.
✨Towns
The sixth menu item refers to towns.
You can sort the list of towns — let’s sort it by population growth.
When you click on a town, the main window will move so that the selected town is centered on the screen.
I chose Bashill.
When you click on a town, an information window will open,
where you can also rename the town.
✨Transport Companies
The tenth button, showing a man’s portrait, opens the Transport Companies menu.
Choose your character’s face and a color scheme. Enter your Steemit name here (for example, @sergeyk, like me) and choose a name for your company.
Do all this with your city in the background.
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Next, click “Build HQ” and place your company headquarters somewhere near the city.
✨Transparency
Trees in the game are, of course, beautiful — and it’s nice when they grow — but in practice, they often get in the way of construction.
That’s why I’d like to mention the transparency options. You can find them in the corresponding menu under the third button on the toolbar.
The first row controls the transparency itself, and the buttons below it determine whether certain types of elements are displayed or hidden.
✨Landscape
For creating the game, we chose a flat world — there are no large mountains or deep valleys here.
Still, there might be occasional use of slight terrain modifications.
All actions related to terrain alteration, construction, etc., when performed while holding the Shift key, will only display the cost of that action instead of executing it.
Changing the terrain or building tunnels can be extremely expensive, so it’s best to estimate their cost first by pressing Shift.
If you carry out too many earthworks within a city’s limits, the city may prohibit building stations on its territory. This will become a serious problem — you’ll have to wait an unrealistically long time for permission. You can slightly improve the situation by planting trees within the city’s boundaries.
Experiment to see what happens when you press Ctrl.
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✨Homework
First of all, read the lesson once again, as it provides useful hints for completing the homework.
Your work should be an engaging and exciting guide on how to play, or how you played. Include illustrations and explanations. If you wish, you may also add a short or long video to your story.
🚂Task 1✈️
Install and set up the game. Choose English and USD.
Create a game, save it, and exit the game.
Then launch the game and load the previously saved game.
Your game session may be interrupted, so it’s important that you can continue the game rather than starting the task from scratch.
Have you played train games before, or did you have a railway in your childhood?
🚂Task 2 ✈️
There are 26 buttons on the toolbar. Describe three of them. Avoid buttons with overly simple functions.
Describe the windows used in the program. Open a window — for example, the Cities window — and explain the purpose of its buttons, since the buttons are unusual for Windows.
🚂Task 3✈️
Choose a city with a small population of around 500 inhabitants and rename it to your Steemit name, adding a suffix such as -town, -vill, -vale, -mouth, -land, -hill, -ton, etc.
For the next lessons, the city should be chosen not too far from some industries or another large city.
Find a nearby large city and rename it Capital, or the capital of your country, or another well-known city in the world.
Give a name to your company, choose an owner avatar, select a color, and place the office within your city.
Save the game to a file named homework1 — this file will be used in the following lessons.
🚂Task 4✈️
Test the Landscape tool. Clear an area, and use mounds or depressions to draw some text. Plant different types of trees.
Demonstrate that you can use Transparency — show and hide certain elements.
🚂Task 5✈️
Explore resources and industries independently. Locate resources on the map: forest, ore, oil — preferably near your city. Select one type of resource. Where do you think it should be transported? If you figured it out and found it, show it.
✨Rules for Participation
🚌 Title of your work: SLC S27 Week1 - Let's Play OpenTTD
🚌 You can publish your work in any language, in any community, or simply in your own blog. Add the link to your work below as a comment.
🚌 To help me quickly find, review, and evaluate your work, leave the link in the comment under this text, and in your work, use the tag #openttd-w1, your country tag, and your club status tag
🚌 Plagiarism and the use of AI are prohibited.
🚌 Participants must be verified and active users of the platform.
🚌All images used must belong to the author or be free of copyright. (Don’t forget to credit the source.)
🚌 Participants must not use any bot services for voting or engage in vote buying.
🚌 Recommend your 4 friends to participate.
🚌 Submission Period: From Monday (29 Sep 2025), to Sunday (5 Oct 2025).
🚌 Promote on social networks like X.
Rewards:
✈️ SC01/SC02 will evaluate posts across all participating teaching teams. Upvotes are not guaranteed for all articles.
✈️ Your work will be reviewed, commented on, and evaluated by me. Six best works will be selected. Participants who won last week will have a lower chance of being selected again, while those who did not win previously will have a higher chance if their work is well executed.
Good luck 🍀 on your task!
Excited to see the first lecture about the game. I am very curious to learn and understand how this game works. I am going to study it now and I hope I will find it an easy game.
In fact, the game is complex)) as it may seem at first. We will simply go over only the basics, only the minimum in this game during the lessons – and this will allow beginners to play this game. Start, and everything will work out!
I have already downloaded it. You are right at first it is looking complex for me. Let see how it goes out when I start playing it.
Thank you dear brother for discussing such a wonderful game. I am eager to play and learn this game. I hope I can learn about this game from you, dear brother. Although it may seem difficult at first.
Yes, if you start playing this game on your own, it may seem difficult. And we will not go too deep into this game, especially at the beginning. When my son was about 5 years old, I taught him to play this game, he was building roads and bridges. But at that time, he could not yet read or calculate economic profit, which prevented us from learning the game further. Now he is 12 and plays almost like me.
For the first lesson, I want to make sure that the game is installed, the first acquaintance has taken place, and the students are ready to move on.
I really enjoyed your words; they encouraged me. Your son has been playing this game since he was young. So why can't I do it? If I try, I will definitely succeed. I am blessed to have a trainer like you.
Yes, the game has a lot of buttons and windows – this may scare you off at first. In my lessons, I will only explain the basics, the minimum – this will allow you to play. It is like in life – to begin, it is worth making the first step. To start – and half of the work is done, as the saying goes.
I want to learn new spacial game and participate in this challenge. Hope for the best.
Start, and everything will work out!