Mars Rapid Transit

Devlog 2: Long Jounrey

New Art

Mars Rapid Transit now has new UI and marketing assets, as well as train and track models.

Brushed Copper

I went for a brushed copper style for the UI, after experimenting with a few different styles. Right now it looks slightly retro, like a winamp skin from the early 2000's, but the physicality of the UI fits with the idea of the ticket machines, barriers etc at a transport hub like an airport or train station. That aesthetic ultimately won out over the slate-grey glossy plastic style, which made the game look generic, and very similar to other games or boring banking apps.

Future Trains

Back at the start of the year, I commissioned an artist to make some futuristic looking train locomotives and carriages. I only had a limited budget for this, so I only got 3 locomotives and 3 wagons/carriages. But they look way better than the placeholder train I was previously using from a different game. While working with the artist, I also solidified many of the ideas around the game's aesthetic and art direction. In particular, I decided to avoid (UI notwithstanding) the retro-futuristic styles of the 50's space-age America, as well as post-Stalin Soviet Union and later minimalist retro-futuristic styles from the 70's. Instead, the trains take their cues from contemporary train designs, with inspiration from high speed rail in Europe, Japan and China, as well as commuter trains in these regions. This also fits with the existing low poly assets I'm using for buildings in the game.

Go Faster Stripes

More by accident than design, I realised it would be possible and cool to add in train livery customisation. The game will now allow players to pick symbols and colour schemes for their trains and by extension, their corporations. Corporate identity is part of the fantasy of playing a business sim, as well as having practical purposes in the game of helping players identify their trains. It still needs some extra coding to make work properly, but I'm really excited to have it in the game!

Track Changes

I also paid the artist I commissioned to create some track sections to go with the trains. I eventually settled on monorails instead of maglev-style magnetic "plates" that trains hover over. Hopefully I can add maglev trains and tracks in later in development as an upgraded track type. In the meantime, the existing track has created a lot of work for me. My initial plan was that tracks would not have any junctions/points/branches, as both a challenge for advanced players, to simply the game for new players and also make implementing the game easier. I soon realised that really cut off a lot of interesting gameplay possibilities, so I'm now deep into re-coding the track laying mechanics to support junctions and branching. I am still basing track laying and management around the idea of "lines". Each time the player lays a section of track, it creates a line, or adds the track to any adjoining lines. This makes it much more intuitive for players to lay track and then just pop a train on the tracks. The train knows which track sections belong to which line, and also which stations are along the way, and so can calculate its route without players having to fiddle with finding stations in a list or on the map to add. And since all the track in the game is double-track by default, it means that players can add many trains to the same line without having to worry about setting up extra signaling and junctions. However, maintaining that while still having junctions and branches has made the code a lot more complex. It's taking a while to figure out how the logic should work, and then making all the controls and UI for players to use. The payoff is that once implemented, players will be able to create custom lines and add in their own signalling and scheduling. This will be great for expert players who want to really optimise their train network, while still keeping things intuitive for new and casual players.

Signage

All this has meant I've been able to remove all the AI generated art from the Steam store page and marketing assets (no AI art was ever used in-game). This I think had put a lot of people off of the game and meant it didn't get as many wishlists as I'd hoped on announcement.

Status

Mars Rapid Transit has not had a linear development path since I first announced the game. I pitched MRT to publishers for funding and marketing support, but while some publishers were interested, without a demo, it was hard for them to assess how fun the game would actually be, as well as my ability to deliver on all the promises. Plus the previous AI generated artwork on the steam store page wasn't helping the game gather lots of wishlist, the other sign that publishers often look for.

Economic Slowdown

One of the things publishers were interested for with MRT was the game's economic simulation. I spent some months back at the end of 2024 implementing the game's entire economic simulation in the hope that I could present that to publishers in order to demonstrate it's unique features. However, it took a lot longer than I anticipated to implement, and then once I'd done that, I realised that for it to be really fun, it also needed balancing. And it also needed more than just placeholder UIs to be able to see all the economic data. And a procedural map generator. And a whole bunch of other things, for players to really get stuck in and enjoy the game. I.e. The game needed to be nearly complete before anyone could actually play it properly.

Station Halt

I stopped working on Mars Rapid Transit for a while, and used a lot of the code from the game to help me make the much smaller train-themed incremental game Train Metropolis. This didn't exactly make me megabucks (in fact, it didn't even break even on the 3 months I spent on it). But I'm still proud of that game and it proved I could release a solid, competently made, decent looking game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/955220/Train_Metropolis/ Since Train Metropolis was released in April 2025, I've been working on other smaller and bigger projects (plus I've had other things happening in life). But Mars Rapid Transit kept calling me back, and in light of the upcoming Steam Train Festival, I thought this summer would be a perfect chance to get back into developing the game, improve the art and see if I could regain some momentum, both on making the game itself, as well as collecting wishlists and hopefully persuading publishers to fund the game.

Under Construction

My plan is to really get across the vision I have for Mars Rapid Transit first and foremost. I've parked the economic simulator for now to be revisited later. Instead my focus is on implementing all things related to track, including the aforementioned addition of junctions/branches. Being able to show off all the crazy track combinations will be super cool, once it's done.

Shiny Exterior

The other part of my plan is to mock-up the different features that I think will be cool and that I want in the game in advance of actually implementing them properly. In the new trailer and screenshots for example, city growth is faked. That doesn't mean it isn't coming. It's vital, integral to the game! But the sensible, logical project plan / roadmap for the game has the "real" version coming near the end of development. It was my mistake before overpromising to publishers by saying I could make the economic simulation before the foundational elements needed for it were in place. Going forward, I will be transparent in these devlogs with what is a mock-up and what is functional and working in-game. The livery system is another example from what you can see on the Steam store and in trailers and screenshots that technically works, but where the UI to control it hasn't been hooked up yet.

Next Station

The next milestone for me will be gamescom in Cologne at the end of August. The game certainly won't be shown there. In fact, I reckon MRT would need another 12-18 months to be ready to put even a demo in players' hands. However, gamescom will give me a chance to pitch the game to publishers and assess their interest in funding the rest of development, while also having given time over the summer with the new artwork on display on Steam to see if people really are vibing with the game concept and sharing my excitement for it. If you like what you've seen so far of the game, and the sound of what's to come, comments are always great, here on Steam or on social media. Even better though would be to wishlist the game and tell anyone else you think might be interested in it. This would be really helpful for me to see how excited people are for it, or whether I've missed my connection!

Read the original announcement on Steam →

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Imported from Mars Rapid Transit on Steam. Steam genres: Simulation, Strategy.