Traintopia Brings Toy Train Models to Life

Admit it. When you were a kid, you used to think model trains were the Bee’s Knees. BRIDGE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE GROUP wants to take that sense of wonder and digitize it with Traintopia, now live on Kickstarter.

Traintopia is a multiplayer economic strategy game in which you construct tracks for toy trains and build the most profitable railroad network. Players will need to strategically place tracks along the best possible routes between cities to gain an edge over their opponents. The cost of building these tracks will depend on the landscape. Cutting tunnels through mountains and building bridges over waters may generate more revenue in the long-run, but they cost far more to build than the common rail tracks.

The cities will develop as players expand their network. As players upgrade the cities, they’ll generate more resources to deliver to other cities for sweet, sweet profit. In terms of strategy, simply connecting these cities is not your only offense; you can also disrupt opponents’ railroads and upgrade your trains so that they move faster.

Of course, all of that sounds dull on its own, so there is an added mix of unpredictability in the form of action cards. Action cards can give your trains a sudden speed boost or hilariously derail your opponents’ trains. More rare cards can apparently cause nearby volcanoes to erupt or, and this is the best one, summon a cat to come and tear apart the map. These are toy trains, remember? Cats and trainsets do not get along.

Corporations also add some variety to the game. These are four factions that will task players with random quests based on their company’s ideals in exchange for profit. For example, one could task you with building specific resources within a specified time limit, while another could encourage you to actively sabotage your opponents.

Campaign Oddities

The campaign itself has some interesting quirks, by the way. The difference between the $750 and $3000 reward tiers is that you lose the ability to design your own train but get to go hang out and drink beers with the developers. BRIDGE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE GROUP’s official website is… um… here, just look at it. There’s nothing about Traintopia on there at all. They seem to be a trading company of some sort? For what it’s worth, the game itself does have its own site, at least.

For the game, the developers are already talking about DLC with exclusive, fancy skins for your trains. There’s also a random, derailing (HEH) paragraph that seems to suggest the story of the game is that your grandfather died and left you a broken toy trainset. A few years later you receive a letter with a key that brings it to life.

Finally, most interestingly, the developers have made a ballsy claim: under “Risks and Challenges”, they have put, simply, “0.” Worry not, apparently!

In all seriousness, the game sounds like a fun time-waster, and a lot of people out there are super into trains, so this sounds right up their alley. The models are based on real-world trains. Cool, right? Check out the Kickstarter for more.