Iron Roads
The humans have been wiped off the face of the planet. The other animals survived and thrived, but have been too afraid to travel or even leave the villages they took over.
Here’s where you come in.
You are tasked with getting the animals back on the tracks again. Set up train networks connecting their towns and industries. Lay tracks and set train orders to connect them as efficiently as possible. Fine-tune routes to optimise your network, minimising travel time and maximising efficiency.
Balance the challenge of setting up a new transportation system against the need to preserve the environment to avoid following the humans to their fate. Throw in some tempting offers that come your way from the corporations, mostly in the form of tempting contracts, add some stuck trains, and you’ll find that all is not as simple as it looked.
Iron Roads is being actively developed, but it is currently incomplete. The demo is a slice of the game that will arrive in Early Access. You can download it and play now. If you do, we’d love to hear from you: what you liked, what you didn’t and what you think we could change.
Things you can do in Iron Roads right now
- Transport passengers or cargo, earn money and complete tasks
- Enjoy a minimalistic interface that is easy to learn, but that allows for many happy hours optimising and building your networks
- Choose between 3 modes of play:
1. Scenarios: Hand-crafted experiences with distinct narratives and gameplay features
2. Endless mode: A low-pressure game where you set parameters and play the way you want
3. Challenges: Play time-bound challenges to compete for a spot on the highscore board
- Accept contracts: scenarios come with a grant system where you can follow focussed goals if you wish to earn extra money and get the satisfaction of ticking off a to-do list
- Performance graphs: The main goal of Iron Roads is to optimise your network, so you may wish to use the charts to analyse data relating to your finances and passengers
- Build large, complex networks. Or small-to-medium sized networks, if that’s what floats your boat
Features Iron Roads doesn’t have yet, but plan to eventually
- Numerous scenarios: right now there are two scenarios and a tutorial in the demo. Iron Roads is being developed by only two developers, so while we’re working as hard as we can, please bear with us as we add more scenarios
- Signals: Train orders such as one-way zones, non-stop zones, and waypoints replace traditional signals in Iron Roads. The idea is that you can do everything that signals can do, but without the steep learning curve
Iron Roads will not have
- Buses, boats, planes or any other form of transport
- 3D graphics: our focus is on allowing you to build large networks easily, and we find 2D better for that
- NFTs, lootboxes or microtransactions
Games we were inspired by
- OpenTTD
- Mini Metro
- Two Point Hospital
- Lets Build a Zoo
- Opus Magnum
Iron Roads is being developed by a BAFTA-nominated husband-and-wife team, Marina and Duncan. You can find out more about us and our work on our website.
Game Discussion
Steam User 3
This is a very different 'train game' from what I was expecting...
This game does very well at narrowing down the scope and getting rid of all the extra 'fluff', keeping just the interesting and relevant strategic aspects of building a train network.
What I didn't expect is how often the rails themselves as a resource were a bottleneck - unlike power or concrete or <etc>, you can't just make more by moving cargo, you have to keep towns happy over time and let them grow, so it's a unique challenge to satisfy the passengers with the limited resources you start out with.
In every other 'train game' that I'm used to, the rails themselves were almost free, extremely cheap and could be laid out en masse (e.g. just to reserve some space or plan some future expansion), so making the network ideal on the first attempt almost never happens, and you have to go back and rework old sections as demand increases gradually.
Luckily this is made fairly easy with the decent controls and construction tools, but the one part I just don't currently like is that I have to worry about placing things before a town grows into some area that I had plans for, or under some existing rails that I needed to replace.
Steam User 0
Highly enjoyable, relaxing, puzzle-like strategy game based around trains. It is early days and mildly buggy, but nothing game breaking. The Devs are highly responsive on discord and open to discussion. Game play wise it is very similar to OpenTTD but with a bit less of a Tycoon vibe and more puzzle based. However, from what I've seen of the planned features it will have more OpenTTD elements soon.
Steam User 1
Well executed, reasonably in depth and involved. More so than the minimalist style might make you presume. Still very accessible and streamlined though. Requires less commitment and time than something like Transport Fever, but still rewarding in it's own way.
Steam User 1
It's super fun and surprisingly complex (if you're a fan of optimizing, automation, factorio, etc)
The game is still in early access so there's a bit of learning curve with the UI and the controls, but once you figure it out it can really hook you
Steam User 1
Lovely little game. Great devs.
First time I played it was a little rough, but after giving feedback and discussion to the devs, and coming back a few months later, things had clearly progressed to a full game. Good challenge, good game feel.
I'm excited to see a mobile version!
Steam User 1
Really fun little game :)
It is more complex than it seems on the graphics, but at the same time quite chill and relaxing.
Steam User 0
5/5