Right, So Your New Train Just Got a Machine Gun and a Whirling Orb Problem – Trainatic Pulls In!
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Trainatic, from indie dev Ryan Forrester, just pulled onto Steam, challenging players to build a machine-gun-toting train from scratch, transforming a mundane choo-choo into an orb-pondering enigma with a surprising amount of charm and mystery.
Alright, listen up, you glorious digital explorers. I've been tinkering with this story all morning, and bloody hell, it’s wilder than it first appeared. You know that feeling when you cast a spell and it works a bit too well, opening a portal to somewhere unexpectedly chaotic? That’s kind of what indie developer Ryan Forrester seems to have done with his latest creation, *Trainatic*, which has just chugged onto Steam. And if you’re anything like me, your curiosity is probably already piqued by the sheer absurdity of a machine-gun-toting choo-choo.
This little nugget of news, initially spotted in Mark Warren's report over at Rock Paper Shotgun, suggests we're in for quite the ride. Forrester isn't exactly new to the quirky side of game development, mind you. He's the wizard behind *Croakoloco*, an idle frog collector (yes, you read that right), and the rather intriguing *Mess Quest*, a cleaning simulator. So, the man clearly has a penchant for taking seemingly mundane concepts and giving them a good old digital shake-up. *Trainatic* continues this fine tradition, but with a surprising twist of high-octane resource management and a dash of cosmic mystery.
Now, here’s the rub, and it’s one you'll apparently encounter rather quickly: your fancy new train, initially, is about as useful as a chocolate teapot when it comes to long journeys. You fire it up, it chugs a few metres, and then – *poof* – out of fuel. "Oh crikey, my train's stopped already," you'll probably mutter, just like the initial report suggests. But fear not, my intrepid engineers, because this isn't just any old locomotive. This beast has a machine gun. Yes, a proper, bullet-spitting machine gun perched on its first carriage, ready to turn unsuspecting digital trees into precious resources.
This is where the game’s core loop kicks in. Those trees, whether you're riddling them with bullets or, less subtly, just running them over (though that’ll ding your loco, naturally), are your ticket to extended excursions. Early doors, as they say, fuel is your nemesis. So, naturally, you'll be dumping your hard-earned resources into making your train's fuel capacity bigger and its engine more efficient. It’s a classic grind, but apparently, it's so simple and quick that it doesn't really feel like a slog – more like a satisfying power-up montage montage.
Pretty soon, you'll be adding more carriages, a process the original report charmingly calls 'enlengthening'. Imagine, if you will, a fuel support carriage that magically (or scientifically, who's counting?) replenishes your fuel every time you pop a tree with your machine gun. It's a symphony of destruction and sustainability, and frankly, I'm already envisioning some spectacular tree-shredding montages. From there, you're upgrading speed, firepower (because more dakka is always good, right?), and storage capacity. The report did note that some of these upgrade numbers felt a bit 'nebulous' – a classic indie game quirk, perhaps – but it didn't seem to detract from the chill vibe. Fair dinkum, if the game's fun, a bit of statistical ambiguity isn't the end of the world.
But here’s where *Trainatic* goes from quirky train-builder to something potentially far more interesting, hinting at the sort of unexpected turns that truly delight a digital wizard like myself. Once your journeys extend beyond brief jaunts, you start spotting them: pinkish-purple orbs, whirling and spinning across the dark, earthy landscape. And then, back at the station, your 'faceless trainmaster' starts whispering about strange powers, cosmic connections. Hmmm. What fresh hell (or glorious mystery) is this, eh?
This isn't just about building the longest, most efficient train anymore. This is about *pondering whirling orbs*. It’s a shift from pure resource management to something akin to a narrative-driven exploration, a digital treasure hunt for extraterrestrial energy sources. My mind immediately jumps to the 'what if' scenarios. Are these orbs just collectibles, or do they unlock new technologies, new biomes, or even new train types? Could we be looking at a secret society of train-builders, tasked with harvesting cosmic energy? The possibilities, mate, are as vast as the digital plains your train will traverse.
While *Trainatic* offers automatic acceleration and a trigger finger, it's not designed to be a full-on idler. You won't be solving the orb-nigma while conquering spreadsheets in another tab, apparently. This means your full attention will be needed, taping together what the original article accurately describes as "a Thomas the tank teeming with tech to ponder those damn orbs." And honestly, that sounds like a much more engaging proposition than just passively watching numbers climb.
So far, it sounds like *Trainatic* is steadily constructing what feels like a stripped-back rail roguelike, blending satisfying progression with an intriguing layer of mystery. It's the kind of game that promises a relaxed pace with sudden spikes of 'what the actual hell is that?' wonder. And at a discounted price of £3.99/$4.79/€4.71 on Steam until September 22nd, with a demo also available, it honestly seems like a fair dinkum deal to at least hop on for a free test ride. Who wouldn't want to strap a machine gun to a choo-choo and chase cosmic anomalies? I reckon it's an adventure worth taking.
Original Source: Rock Paper Shotgun, reported by Mark Warren.
Tags: indie game, train-builder, resource management, roguelike-lite, mystery
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun