So I'm designing a railroad game...

[coruscate]

...since this is actual work I can't share extremely intimate details of the game yet, but I will say it's a digital collectible card driven game for mobile phones. The purpose of the game isn't simulation, but it's railroad themed. The idea is to play through fictionalized parodies of the early railroad era. So there's no reproduction of existing tycoons, countries, trains, etc. Now you see stuff that resembles and is flavored and might even be based off of a real person (Like Mr. Train who easily lends himself to parody)... but the idea isn't meticulous historical reproduction.

^_^

The idea is you're a very, VERY dirty tycoon and you're competing against others. The dirty deeds you can do to each other can including hiring native tribes to sabotage tracks, etc. You can buy brothels. Bribe the sheriff. Etc. The idea of these events is to be tongue in cheek rather than serious.

The game play is turn based, and you use one of three different types of cards to cause good things for yourself, bad things to your opponent and ugly things that may hurt you or not but will upset the game enough that you might find an advantage.

There is going to be an element of building and paying for your empire etc, but it's not a 3D exploratory game. I'm figuring a top down map that looks more like a google map, the game will render these areas 3D when you zoom in (think railroad tycoon 2) so you can add things to your station area / see a car roll through a junction area, etc.

So what I am saying is...

...what would you expect to find in there that you would want to see?

And hello again!

[coruscate]

Alright, here's a question.

Since I'd need to divide up / deal with issues such as what's on rolling stock.. taking the rail cargo categories as a whole, where might I find someplace that will tell me the % of cars which are passengers, ores as a category, goods as a category, etc. It's still fictional but I need to use real life as the first model.

Thanks ^^;;

[coruscate]

Well I guess no one is interested?

[WPandP]

Sorry I haven't replied earlier. I've actually developed a couple of different concepts for railroad CCG's, though I was not developing for anything computer-based, but rather for printed cards. Still, the game mechanics can translate to either format.

As part of that, I faced the same thing you did, in terms of wanting to find sources of industrial data and other things to enhance the realism. I'm a hardcore train nut, so most of that stuff I know intuitively, but there's gaps in my knowledge of course. Unfortunately, I never found the One Stop Shopping place that has all the info needed; rather, I'd have to find it commodity by commodity. And, whereas for game purposes one might be dealing with a broad category like "Ore", the real data might be subdivided into dozens of subcategories, all of which you have to somehow collate.

For a functioning prototype, I'd suggest just going with gut feel or wild approximations, unless your game mechanic is truly dependent on accurate data. Even then, you can use faked data to test that the game mechanic works, then retool later on once you get the research you need.

Keep bugging me about it and I might be able to dig up some of the research or URL's that I found when I was attempting a similar thing.

[KevinL]

It sounds great, but I didnt have anything to add, so I didnt reply.

[coruscate]

Thanks Kevin, that at least lets me know I have something 8^)

WP&P, you're actually on track if you know it intuitively. I'd rather mirror the growth, the activity and dirty tricks with almost pure fiction than get stuck trying to recreate it. Because let's face it, that's a LOT OF WORK.

So if you could picture the early rail era, up to the "end" of shall we say the transcontinental days, what events outside of the most obvious to name two: golden spike and prairie fires do you think I should not miss reproducing in this game? Anything from "bribing the sheriff for more land" "hiring natives to take apart a rail" etc.

I already have I'd say about 60% of the game mechanics in my head, including how to resolve two trains "battling" for cargo. I asked Robert for the roughest, most simple breakdown of % of stuff shipping at the time. My examples were:

Building materials
Produce
Dairy
Grain
Goods

The idea is to keep most early categories extraordinarily sweeping so it's not too complicated at first and has a little room for expansion.

I just need some extra historical tidbits and "oh that would be funny" ideas to make sure I include the kind of stuff railfans might like to mess with in this kind of scenario. Plus if I make it "dirty" enough it will attract non-rail fans. And I don't mean obscene, just "real" and sarcastic.

[SRV Ron]

It sounds a little like the old Transarcticia game for the Amiga where you competed with trains in prehistoric Siberia to move goods and made war with your competitors.

[coruscate]

Cool I will look that up and see how that was put together if I can. How popular was the game with railfans do you know?

[SRV Ron]

I don't think that it went very far. Commodore was ran into the ground and bankruptcy about then. I got a big box full of dead slow sellers software during a housecleaning at a now closed computer store. I do know that the turn based game allowed for missile attacks on your opponent's train as well as sabotage and other dirty tactics. So, it similar to other games where you build up your empire, make trade alliances, and try to take over your competitors by any means possible.

[nedfumpkin]

Another idea would be to spend some time playing Worms Armageddon. Ron's mention of missiles made me think that in today's day and age when the governments are trying to dumb its populace down through media, brain exercisers will never be as popular as blowing stuff up. Worms is great for that, has wonderfully sarcastic humour and imagination, as well as the brain teaser aspect to it because you do have to plan, and figure out trajectories.

[coruscate]

Well that wouldn't be true for my category, collectible card gaming has always been a mental excersize. Through the cards and lots of imagination I think I could get the South Koreans and that kind of mind set, along with the bulk of collectible card gamers.

So I see moola.

I failed to noticed the "amiga" when I first read the description ^^;;

I think what I'll have to do is come up with a nice list of event ideas and then prod you guys with it to see what else I may be missing. Even with a crash course in Railroad HIstory (not that I haven't read it piecemeal before, just never tried to do anything with it) I'm certain I'll miss a few things.

I.e.

Prairie Fire
Drunken Switchman (Your train is five spots in the direction most opposite your goal.)
Natives Destroy Your Rail
Triple Deck Sleeping Wagon (speeds up construction)
Overnight Station (springs up a small shanty level town at a random spot along your line)
Train Bandits (with funny names and the occassional theft of oddball goods instead of money)

And of course I need to find ways to make all of these kinds of things funny, and quick to understand and follow so no one has to read up on trains to understand my game. You get in, you play, you get it. That's the goal anyway.

[ostlandr]

Check out a game called "Rails Across America" for some great ideas.