Hey, ladies and gents!
Joey here, Train Life’s Creative Lead and Lead Game Designer. As a team we are, of course, very happy for the release of our game, but we definitely wanted to talk to you formally (via this post) and informally (via Discord/Forums) about our game and what we’re focused on. I’m no business-focused developer, or from any marketing department, so I’d rather skip the buzzwords and be straight with all of you!
Bugs & Polish
We’ve got bugs, and we’ve certainly got some polishing to do. There’s no way to soften this one, so I just wanted to relay that it is the top priority of Simteract and our publisher, Nacon, to get these problems solved ASAP.
We’re reading all of your criticism and feedback, whether it be from your reviews or your posts, and we’re very glad to see so much community involvement regarding this. Keep writing it, and we’ll do our best to address it!
Our latest hotfix, just released, addresses the first of these issues. We’re already working on another one, and will be able to share more about the date as we progress with it.
Level of Simulation
Something we’ve struggled to communicate effectively from day 1 has been the intended level of simulation we’ve been aiming to achieve with Train Life. I don’t believe we’ve done this as well as we could have, and that fault can only be attributed to us.
First and foremost, we are not a hardcore simulator, and never desired to be. Train Life is a casual-midcore simulator that takes a more arcade-like approach to vehicle physics, railway traffic, and rail laws. Train Life is inspired by games like Euro Truck Simulator and Transport Tycoon, focusing more on the management metagame (leveling cities and managing employees) and requiring a more consistent amount of player attention and input compared to what might be the case in reality. This has been our core desire for Train Life from the start, though I will reiterate that this was clearly not communicated as effectively as we would like, and I apologize for that.
Going forward, we’d like to assure you that tweaks and changes to physics, traffic, or laws are not excluded from our plans, and we’ve certainly made many improvements to these over the course of Early Access. However, large overhauls to these systems are not likely to occur. We’d like Train Life to be playable and accessible by all audiences and ages, striking just the right balance between the feeling of driving on the rails and relaxing as you deliver some wagons!
Conclusion
In short, we’re not done with Train Life, but for the time being our priorities are fixing bugs, polishing, and improving the quality of Train Life’s gameplay. I know that waiting for the next hotfix can be frustrating, and some bug priorities aren’t as high on the list as others. Many of us have our Discords and Steam forums open all day, checking and relaying what you say, or even responding directly to you if time allows. It’s hard for us to get to everything, but we are definitely listening!
Thank you for sticking with us and being honest about your thoughts! Without that, there’s no way we could ever realize Train Life’s full potential! If you have anything to say or ask, please feel free to join our Discord to talk directly to us; you can ping me with anything, and I’ll be sure to handle any topic, no matter how difficult! Additionally, following us on Twitter and Twitch can get you up to date with the latest info and streams.
Thank you for all of the support over the last year, and this is definitely not the last you’ve heard about Train Life’s future!
-Joey
