Model Trains Dev Diary #1 — Starting from scratch

If you played Speed Rivals: Slot Racing, you already know us.
Two brothers, one coder, one everything else. Small studio,
big ideas, questionable deadlines.

Model Trains is the next game in the Speed Rivals franchise.
Same creative DNA — build, share, compete — but this time
it's railways. No racing. No lap times. Just you, a
diorama, and a train that actually has to get somewhere.

We made a decision early on: no copy-pasting from Slot
Racing. We're building new architecture designed specifically
around rail networks. Week one was almost no gameplay — just
Unity 6, a clean project, and a lot of shader iterations
until the train looked right.

One rule came out of that first week that now guides
everything: the train must always be readable. Fog, night,
heavy atmosphere — doesn't matter. The train is the star.

By the end of the week we had a main menu taking shape and
the first animated buttons working. Small. But it's the
first frame of the game.

— — —

🚂 Early Access target: July 17

Yes. We're aiming for July 17 to coincide with the Steam
Train Games Festival on July 20. Is it ambitious for a
two-person studio? Absolutely. Are we doing it anyway?
Obviously.

EA will launch with the full map editor, Steam Workshop,
and the core mission loop. We'll build the rest together
with the community.

Wishlist now if you want to be there on day one.

— BabelGames