Train Tracks (Fun Edition)
valorant is an afterthought
Okay, I’ve decided something significant. I don’t really care that much about Valorant. Anyway, I love trains. They’re pretty awesome, and they look cool, and they just have great vibes all around. Why are there no good train games?
Criteria
There are 3 main criteria that any train game must fulfill to be truly perfect.
Trains must be long. Real trains have a median train length of 4400ft, which is approximately 100 cars, depending on car type.
Train journeys must be long. In game, at least a few minutes between all important stations, perhaps even the longest journeys taking 10s or 20s of minutes.
Tracks must be realistic. Absolutely NO tile-based bullshit, only real curves and gentle grades. Additionally important are real-life track features, like train yards, crazy stations (see next image), etc.
There are also some smaller, bonus criteria that will truly elevate any train game to legendary status:
Tiny realism. Interactions must be realistic. Each type of car has its own unloading method/style, as described in detail here.
Look awesome. Trains look awesome in real life, and ideally they should look awesome in train game as well.
Train yards. Train yards are epic. Incentivising this type of structure, among other realistic actions in a train game would complete the experience.
I want to ride the train. Riding trains is a spectacular experience, and ideally the game should allow me to ride the train. 3D might be necessary for this feature.
Scoring Some Popular Games
(it’s 2am i’m gonna come back tmr)
(ok back)
(i’m about to bash a bunch of train games - i mean absolutely no offense to the developers; i am grading them on my extremely stringent criteria and also ignoring all other gameplay elements. these games may be phenomenal overall, but the train element lacks (to me), and that’s okay)
Train World
When you search up “train game” on Google, the top result is frequently Train World, a new train logistics tycoon game released some 10 months ago in June of 2023. Lets take a look:
Alright, so the look is decent. It isn’t tile-based, which is good. Seems to score a solid point in the realism department. However, when further investigated, it becomes clear that there are many important track construction features that it misses (some of which are simply results of the Tycoon nature of Train World). It does not have any railyard mechanic to speak of - once constructed, new trains simply appear on the track. Of course, I don’t mean to bash this game because of its choice on mechanics - I imagine that the developer wanted to avoid this hassle for the player, and was okay with losing some realism.
The max train length that is usually constructed seems to be about 8-20 cars long, This isn’t the worst offender on the list, but (as mentioned before) realistic freight trains are often upwards of 100 cars per train.
Train World scores very well on the journey length criterion; the tracks are extremely long, and a player will typically have to wait a long time (1-10+ minutes) for any one train to make a round trip. Excellent.
Train World Score
Overall, Train World scores 3/10 on train length, 10/10 on journey time, 3/5 on track realism, and 0/5 on bonus points, giving it an overall score of 16/30. A passing grade, but not by much.
Transport Fever 2
One of the most popular train games on Steam, Transport Fever 2 is a logistics/business/economy game, which centers around trains, cars, and cities:
This game looks pretty sick. It does not entirely center around trains, but they are a significant part of the industry in the game. The trains are even shorter than those in Train World, with the car count seeming to top out around 10. This is tragic, as it scores fairly well in other places.
The journey duration is a bit low - typically 1-2 minutes between cities, and far less within cities. However, this (along with the short train length) makes sense, as these are typically passenger trains, not freight.
Additionally, the tracks are not tile based - fantastic. The largest train stations in the game are not even close to the “massive sprawling mess” though, at most being about 4 lanes wide.
Transport Fever 2 Score
TF2 overall scores fine. 2/10 on train length, 5/10 on journey time, 4/5 on track realism, and 5/5 on bonus points (it looks pretty cool + some other specifics that i won’t get into), giving it a total score of 16/30.
Factorio
Perhaps the greatest game of all time (and my second favorite), Factorio features trains as a huge part of middle-to-late-game industry. Massive megabases are often powered by huge rail networks, so lets see how Factorio does on my scoresheet.
I absolutely love Factorio’s aesthetic. It loses a visual point, however, because it uses massive spritesheets (atlases) for all textures in the game, which means that the trains have limited (about 64) rotation steps (thus they snap between rotations of about 5.6°).
Factorio is almost entirely an automation and logistics game, which means that it is extremely flexible in designs. This means that there is a huge range of possible track arrangements, so I’m going to give it two scores - one on the best end of things, and one on the typical factory arrangements.
Train length in Factorio is typically very short. Even the most massive megabases typically use 4-8-4 (4 locomotive, 8 cargo wagon, 4 locomotive) trains, which is very short. Rarely, bases will contain longer trains, up to hundreds of cars long, but this is not really optimal for a few reasons.
Train journey time in Factorio is overall poor also. Short times between stations are 15 seconds, typical journey times are anywhere from 15 seconds-1 minute, and anything longer is rare, but does happen on occasion.
Track realism in Factorio is the reason I began writing this blog (and the code for the game that i'm (probably not) going to build in conjunction with this blog, which, although nobody has realized it yet, is actually a devlog that i’m secretly getting people to read even if they have no idea about game development). The tracks in Factorio are - brace yourselves - tile-based. The sin I have mentioned more than any other is committed by my second favorite game of all time. How is this possible? The Factorio train network is entirely built upon 45° angles, and any curves take place over no more than 30 blocks. A train moving at 200km/h will peacefully roar around a hairpin turn in less than a second. Disgraceful (although necessary, given the inner workings of Factorio).
Factorio Score
Somehow, despite all these shortcomings, Factorio scores the best so far (on it’s better side):
(Worse end): 2/10 on train length, 4/10 on journey time, 3/5 on track realism, and 5/5 on bonus points (the vibe of trains is just fantastic), giving it a total score of 14/30.
(Better end): 9/10 on train length, 6/10 on journey time, 3/5 on track realism, and 5/5 on bonus points (the vibe of trains is just fantastic), giving it a total score of 23/30.
OpenTTD
I’ll keep this one short, just because i want to
OpenTTD scores fine. It’s got a lot of good solid train-based gameplay, which is mostly executed very well. Only significant problem is the tile-based trains returning, which will haunt game development forever. it actually has some pretty solid stuff though:
Overall gets 3, 4, 4, 5. 16/30.
Conclusion
There are no truly fabulous train games. The best the world has to offer seems to be Factorio, OpenTTD, and Transport Fever 2, which only top the list because of the rest of their gameplay that is not centered around trains. I want to fix this (i will not fix this).
I’m programming a game that i will certainly inevitably give up on quite quickly, but i’ll at least chronicle the story on my Substack, mostly for myself, later, because i have a suspicion that i will be most of my own audience. but that’s probably okay. we’re all in it together.