Festivals and events always inspire me to share some behind-the-scenes insights, and Train Fest will be no exception. Today, I’ll share what led me to set the game aboard a train, and what’s great about it.
Itch.io page
But first, a quick announcement. Dreadline Express now has its official page on Itch.io. A demo version is also available there, so if you have any friends who doesn't use Steam, send them the link!
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Why is the train such an ideal setting for a deductive psychological horror?
In fact, it all started many years ago when I had an idea for this card-based game mechanic. With it, I wanted to create an immersive, story-driven game that would allow players to be creative and clever. Almost a role-play experience, but with seriously limited scope.
I began exploring various story directions. For example, I worked on an idea for a game set in an abandoned underground mine where the player is confronted by a religious cult that has been living there for decades... But the premise wasn’t fruitful enough for me. I had trouble creating a compelling and interesting enough world with sufficiently distinct characters that would feel natural.
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The terrible fate of the mine horses was one of my inspirations. They were sent down into the mine at the beginning of their lives, often never seeing daylight again. |
Other ideas met a similar fate, including an oil rig facing the end of the world and a locked-down school. It wasn't that the ideas were bad; there was certainly potential. Rather, none of them fit my vision or inspired me enough.
I can't quite remember where the idea for the steam train came from, but initially, I just wanted to write a short story about it. It was supposed to take place on a train in which a strict totalitarian regime prevented people from leaving (we in the former Eastern Bloc have the experience of oppression imprinted on us).
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Although the game's train is based on several sources of inspiration, one of the strongest is the DRB Class 41 locomotive of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. |
However, I quickly realised that there's something alluring about trains. Even as a child, my great-grandmother would take me to a railway overpass to watch the trains. Each journey on a creaking, clattering train felt like an adventure. It was so easy to identify with that setting that the story practically wrote itself. Ideas flowed, and I reached a point where there were too many of them, too many paths to take. So I decided that it couldn't just be a linear story; it had to be a game
The train brings one enormous advantage to the story, which I used from the beginning but only realised much later. It’s a place where people from all sorts of backgrounds can meet organically. This enabled me to create the kind of nuanced story I’ve always wanted. Ultimately, it meant that I could easily combine themes that I wouldn’t have previously thought of.
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Judge, Savant, Combinatorialist – just a few of the characters you can meet aboard. |
What would happen if I juxtaposed mysticism and exact mathematics? How will a recovering alcoholic react to someone from a prestigious family? The game constantly presents new topics for reflection, yet it never offers a single “correct” conclusion. That was my goal: to create a small world in which each player can choose which characters to sympathise with and which to despise. The game mechanics I mentioned in the introduction give players the ability to interact with the world and characters as they wish. To create their own immersive story.
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The world passing by outside the window tells its own story. |
Of course, setting the game inside a closed vehicle has other advantages. For example, the inability to leave forces every character to confront their situation. Outdoor scenery serves as another stage of sorts. Then there's the train's own personality and stylisation. But this post is already too long.
If you haven't tried the demo, please do it. Don't let your dreams be just dreams. Just do it.
- Dave