A NEON ARCADE GAME

METER DOWN

An auto-rickshaw driving game set in a pixel Chennai. Take fares, haggle, dodge cows, beat the rain, and get home before the meter does.

Genre
Arcade driving, fare management
Release
12 March 2027
Platforms
Steam (Windows, macOS), Nintendo Switch, iOS
Wishlists
41,286 on Steam

Announcement trailer, Day of the Devs, June 2026. Music: “Marina Loop” by Divya Ramesh.

Four screens from build 0.9.2.

Marina Beach Road, 6:40 pm. First fare of the evening shift.
Ranganathan Street at 10 pm. Signboards, two autos, no gaps.
Velachery in the north-east monsoon. Double fares if you make it.
Kaapi break at Mani's stall. Health restored, ₹15 spent.

What you do in it.

Fourteen kilometres of pixel Chennai

Thiruvanmiyur to T. Nagar by way of the Marina, Mylapore and Anna Salai. Every stretch has its own traffic, and the cows are hand-placed.

Haggle before the meter drops

Three seconds to agree a fare. Quote too high and Selvi walks. Quote too low and the shift runs at a loss, and the mechanic still wants paying.

Weather that changes the job

The north-east monsoon floods Velachery in November. Drive through it for double fares, or stall in it and push.

One shift is twelve minutes

Sixty shifts of story, then an endless mode with the leaderboard split by city. Chennai players are top at the moment, which feels right.

Fit the auto out

A Bluetooth speaker, an LED strip, a Rajini sticker, a bigger horn. Each one changes who flags you down.

Chiptune Carnatic

Twenty-two tracks by Divya Ramesh, mridangam and veena written for a 2A03 sound chip. The kaapi break theme is already on Spotify.

Three characters. One of them is a cow.

Murugan

THE DRIVER. YOU.

Nineteen years on the road, khaki uniform, a moustache that has its own fan account. Knows which lanes flood and which cops are lenient.

Selvi

THE REGULAR.

Second-year at Anna University, always late, always haggles. If you treat her fairly for ten shifts she starts giving you shortcuts.

Lakshmi

THE COW.

Stands in the road near Mylapore tank. Not playable. Cannot be moved. Waiting behind her is the only correct move.

Price

Regional pricing on Steam. The Switch and iOS prices are set by their stores and include tax.

StoreIndiaUS
SteamWindows, macOS₹499$9.99
Nintendo SwitcheShop, all regions₹649$12.99
iOSiPhone 11 and later₹299$4.99
Players
1 player, 12-minute shifts
Languages
English, Tamil, Hindi, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese
Rating
PEGI 3, ESRB E
Engine
Custom, C++ and Lua

System requirements

It is a pixel game. Almost anything from the last eight years runs it.

PC and MacMinimumRecommended
OSWindows 10 64-bit, macOS 12Windows 11, macOS 14
ProcessorIntel i3-6100 or Apple M1Intel i5-8400 or Apple M2
Memory4 GB8 GB
GraphicsIntel HD 520, 1 GBGeForce GTX 1050 or any Apple Silicon
Storage600 MB600 MB
Display1280 × 7201920 × 1080, 120 Hz supported
  • Nintendo Switch. 480 MB download. 1080p docked, 720p handheld, 60 fps on both. Pro Controller and Joy-Con.
  • iOS. iOS 16 or later, iPhone 11 or later, 520 MB. Touch controls and any MFi or Bluetooth controller.

Out 12 March 2027. Wishlist it and Steam will tell you.