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.
Steam User 3
Amazing game with a great cutesy art style. Has an easy to learn, hard to master style of networking with a surprising complexity to it. Has a lot of replay-ability between scenarios, challenges, and free play.
Steam User 1
Easiest recommendation ever. I'm 17 hours in to Early Access, I have seen very few bugs and it has been worth every penny so far.
If you like train management and/or puzzle games this is for you. It's like Transport Tycoon/OpenTTD with more strategic restrictions on space and on the number of tracks and trains you can use.
There are a few different modes currently. There's the Scenarios which lean more into the train management sandbox style of gameplay, and Challenges (monthly/weekly/etc) where there is a lot more of a focus on puzzle and strategy.
If you're coming from OpenTTD then the track layout, signals, and train pathing basics are all there though without quite as much depth and micro-management possibilities as you might be used to. You can plan your train routes using stations and waypoints, you can set one way pathing on tracks, and there are 'Non-stop zones' to force trains to wait before they enter areas of the track or stations.
Steam User 1
For clarity, I was heavily involved during playtesting, so my hours do not reflect actual playtime.
This game is an absolute gem. It takes out some of the more complex parts of other tycoon games, and allows you to have quick, fun, 30-40 minute games. Perfect for winding down after work, or even quickly on your lunch break.
Highly recommend. Best transport game I've played in years!
Steam User 1
This game is a lot of fun and very relaxing! I first heard of this game in 2023 and was also a playtester since then. The game has evolved a lot over the years and the developers were always eager to listen to community feedback.
I can absolutely recommend this if you are looking for a minimalist transport tycoon game!
Steam User 7
TLDR : Great game, amazing developers/development, “safe” investment, will only get better with time.
I seldom give reviews on Steam, but after playing more than 80h on the demo and playtest, this time I think that game and its developers deserve it.
I will not explain what the game is about, the store page says it all very well. I will just mention that I love it. It is both chill and challenging, and I am sure the more it will evolve, the more opportunities it will provide in terms of complexity for those who want that, without losing its chill vibe for those who just want to enjoy a cool train game.
The lore will probably be developed even more, but you can already sense the identity of Iron Roads both visually and in terms of scenario.
That being said, I really want to put the emphasis on how much the developers have been invested in their project since the beginning. They kept releasing updates on a regular basis and they have always been committed to listening to the community. I have played the demo (and later on the playtest) and joined the Discord channel almost one year ago (February 2024), and the developers have always been open to feedback, suggestion, and always managed to fix bugs very quickly since then.
All of this to say that Iron Roads is not only playable and enjoyable at the moment, but you can be sure this early access will not be a gamble, wondering if the game will be abandoned in a few months or not.
Of course it is early access, of course you will maybe encounter small bugs, of course it can and will get more content over time, but I can only see a bright future for this great little game!
Steam User 0
Cute game, time killer. I should not play it before I go to bed.