Game logo
Century of Steam is an upcoming railroad simulator from Studio 346. Announced on July 28, 2023
. The development team Studio 346, is lead by president YouTuber Mark "Hyce" Huber, along with several other noted rail simulator creators, artists and researchers.The game is developed in Unreal Engine 5. Visual and musical aesthetics of the game have been noted to take influence from the Railroad Tycoon series.
No release date has been set for the game yet, but updates are posted to the team's YouTube, Patreon page and Steam store front. A public pre-Alpha demo at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Denver, Colorado was conducted in late August 2023.
Century of Steam contains the following tropes:
- Bluegrass: The announcement trailer suggests the return of a Bluegrass and Folk Music style soundtrack from Hyce and Wings & Strings.
- Cool Train: A given with the game's subject, but the final shot of the reveal trailer with multiple steam engines at a roundhouse alongside a diesel locomotive especially is this.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: The easter eggs in the reveal trailer from a locomotive with the number "69" pulling car "420" from the "East Salida & Denver" railroad (standing in for the memetic "Eat Shit & Die" railroad from Hyce).
- Punny Name: Yard goats are railroad slang for switch locomotives. Appropriately mascot character Rico is a literal yard goat.
- Rail Enthusiast: The obvious target audience and the background of the developer team.
- Series Mascot: The goat character Rico from the game's loading screens.
- Significant Reference Date: The game's century spanning setting covering railroad progression from 1869 to 1969 is bookended by the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad and the Apollo landings.
- Shown Their Work: A development vlog launched on the project's Patreon in July showcases a new mathematical based whistle sound simulation system that replicates the train whistles based on steam pressure and how a player pulls the cord to replace the typical pre-recorded audio samples in most train video games. The work to simulate a whistle in-engine was robust enough the development team applied for a patent on the process.
- The motto on Studio 346's website? "The little details are everything."
