Hey everyone!
We’re thrilled to announce Derail Valley, our train simulation game made for VR!
What is Derail Valley?
In Derail Valley you drive a train using your own hands in virtual reality. You’re tasked to reposition rolling stock between trainyards on time, which will probably result in an unexpected derailment. Our idea with the game is to bring something new to train sim and VR games. Please see the Steam description for more details.
If you have an HTC Vive, you can try the free demo!
Who’s making it?
The game is made by three of us - Ivan, Nenad and myself, who also happen to be roommates, long time best friends, and vehicle, game development and technology enthusiasts. There’s some more info on our history and roles on the website!
What’s the plan?
The plan really is to make it the best train simulation we can. This means that in Q2 2017 we’re set off to release an expanded version of Derail Valley in Early Access, and from that point on keep developing it according to available resources and community feedback.
Until then we’ll be working on new features, such as procedural shunting missions, NPC trains, and more car variety. A lot more features and content will eventually make it into the game, but we will reveal our plans as we go. We intend to post news updates regularly, so stay tuned!
Paid version of the game is expected to be in the $15-20 range at launch date, with a possible increase later down the road, respective to the amount of features and content the game will eventually have. Demo will remain available for free.
Please see Early Access information for more details.
Current status:
Derail Valley currently offers a single 2x2 km square map with 4 train yards, one fictional diesel-electric shunter locomotive and 4 shunting missions. Essential train controls are functional, as well as coupling and derailment (which still needs some work), in both seated and room-scale modes. The game is playable and completing the missions can take multiple hours.
At least in the initial version, we want players to experience imperfection of the rail transport, so we’ve decided to focus on abandoned equipment, with old rusty tracks, worn-out trains set in overgrown nature and a bunch of paperwork on the desk. Some odd railway vehicles that normally wouldn’t find a place in simulators, are welcome here.
Although we started making the game 8 months ago, the major push in our development was made thanks to the MSI VR Jam, where, amazingly, we’ve won 3rd place among more than 600 participants. We were awarded $15.000 cash prize, which will ensure stable development of Derail Valley for months to come!
Controls:
Currently Derail Valley requires an HTC Vive headset. In future we will look into the possibilities of Oculus Touch integration as well as keyboard and mouse controls for those who don’t own a VR headset. We’ll be posting more about these possibilities later on, and if you’re one of those who would really want these features, be sure to let us know on the forum!
Updates:
We’ll be posting further updates to the Steam page regularly, as well as on our social networks, so you can follow us via links below:
Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Website
You can also find @nothke, @_bgr_ and me individually on Twitter.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, make sure to make a post on our Steam forum!