Luca Das, a 19-year-old second-year Aston University student from Birmingham, has built a virtual replica of his home city inside the online gaming platform Roblox, and the project has now amassed 63.6 million visits. The game, called Birmingham Vehicle Simulator, has more than doubled its audience in nine months, growing from 26 million visits in January to its current figure, with 2.5 million monthly players.
A City Built Brick by Brick
Das began constructing the Birmingham-based game in 2023, working on it alongside his team: Zaheeb, 20, and Will, 19. The trio has recreated the city centre, including iconic landmarks such as Snow Hill Station and Moor Street Station, and has expanded the playable area to Hockley and parts of Aston. Players can interact verbally and travel virtually across the city, taking on jobs and socialising with friends.
Das told BirminghamLive that the inspiration came from a gap in the market. "No one's done a Birmingham game," he said. "I'm interested in cars and I'm from Birmingham, so I thought the two could match together and it's come out quite well." While Das and Zaheeb focus on the development side, Will acts as the community manager, ensuring safe gameplay.
Record-Breaking Growth
On October 12, the game reached a new milestone with 6,003 people playing simultaneously across 312 servers. Das described the achievement: "It's really cool to see because I join now and then and I see people like road raging on voice chat and driving around in cars. It's quite cool to see."
The team has also improved the game's visual quality, moving to Roblox's high-fidelity avatars and refining the overall professional look. West Midlands icons are next on the list, with travel services such as Crown Cars and LandFlight set to be added to the game.
Balancing Studies and Development
Das is not just a developer but also a full-time university student, and he admits the balancing act is challenging. "It's quite difficult [to balance] to be fair," he said. "It's really time consuming. I do Roblox stuff during the night. I don't do anything during the day. I think it helps a bit, I guess."
Looking ahead, Das confirmed that once he graduates, getting into game development would be "a really fun thing to do." The continued growth of Birmingham Vehicle Simulator suggests his virtual empire is far from finished.
