As a young studio from India building rich simulation games we are actively developing our debut game – Model Trains, in public. We are doing this in two ways:
An early Playtest program
If you head over to https://playmodeltrains.com you can sign up for our early playtest releases, hop over to our discord and chat actively with our player community and development team and help us shape the product.
Monthly Development Updates Livestream
Last night, we went live to share a host of exciting updates from the game, giving our community a candid look at our development journey, recent feedback, and the much-anticipated roadmap ahead. This was a first of many livestreams – the idea is to showcase an update to the game every month and then release that to our Steam playtesters.
Here are the key takeaways from our first devlog:
Paving the Way: The Evolution of Track Laying
One of the core experiences in Model Trains is, of course, laying the tracks for your railway empire. We took a trip down memory lane to show just how far this system has come.
In the early days, we experimented with a spline-based, organic system. While it offered a certain flexibility, it presented challenges, especially when interacting with terrain. Our initial goal has always been to allow players to seamlessly deform the landscape as they build, creating cuttings, embankments, and eventually bridges and tunnels.
Today, the system is more structured and user-friendly. You can easily place starting points, snap new pieces into place, or pull extensions directly from existing tracks. While we’ve constrained it for now to improve the core experience, we haven’t forgotten the appeal of the more organic tools and plan to revisit those ideas in the future.
Currently, the track placement does deform the terrain by default. However, we’re building a robust set of terrain tools that will allow you to manually sculpt the landscape. More importantly, we can easily add an option to lay tracks without altering the terrain, giving players full creative control.
Getting Real: A Major Overhaul of Train Physics
One of the most significant pieces of feedback we received from early playtests and our GDC showcase was that the train movement felt a bit “janky.” We heard you loud and clear.
Our top priority in the last couple of weeks has been to completely overhaul the locomotive physics to create a more authentic and satisfying experiences. We’re thrilled to show you the results.
The new system is a ground-up rebuild:
- Decoupled Components: The wheels, bogies (the chassis underneath the carriage), and the main train body are now all separate physical objects.
- Realistic Movement: The bogies pivot and turn accurately according to the track’s curves, and the main carriage rests on top, inheriting that motion smoothly. This eliminates the jerky, unnatural movement of the old system.
- Modular by Design: This new approach is also highly modular. It allows us to build a content pipeline where artists—and eventually, players—can introduce new locomotives and rolling stock into the game simply by changing a configuration file.
This change is a huge step towards the level of simulation and realism we’re aiming for.
What’s Next on the Line? Our Public Roadmap
We believe in building Model Trains with our community. That’s why we’ve formalized our development roadmap, and we’re making a version of it public for all our playtesters to see.
Our methodology is built around a tight feedback loop: we build, you give feedback, and we iterate. While we have a long-term vision, your immediate feedback will help us prioritize and adjust our course.
So, what can you expect to see in the near future? Our roadmap, built on a foundation of interconnected systems, includes some highly requested features:
- Train Collisions & Derailment: Yes, things are going to get chaotic! Make a turn too sharp, and you’ll risk derailing.
- Dynamic Weather: We are planning a weather system that will, at the very least, add a beautiful aesthetic layer to your worlds. We’re also exploring how weather could have a functional impact on rail conditions.
Driving & Controls: Many of you have asked for a speedometer and more direct control over your trains. This is definitely on the roadmap!
Your Ticket to Ride: Join Our Playtest and Shape the Game!
This is just the beginning, and your voice is essential to building the best railway sandbox game possible. We are actively bringing more people into our closed playtest.
- Sign Up for the Beta: Head over to beta.secondquest.games to fill out the form and join our early stage playtest program.
Join our Community: The conversation is happening every day on our Discord server. Join us at discord.secondquest.games to share your ideas, see more behind-the-scenes content, and chat with the dev team.
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