Indoor Studios Talks Unrailed 2: Back On Track; The Roguelike Train Track-Building Sequel
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In case you missed the news, Unrailed 2: Back on Track is officially out on PC in early access! Fans of the original Unrailed will finally get to see what Indoor Astronaut has been cooking the past few years since the release of the original. While early access will run for some time, things already look promising for the sequel.
If you’re unfamiliar with the game, Unrailed is a roguelike cooperative experience played from an isometric perspective. The goal is to build a train track with friends through procedurally generated levels, all while the train runs. On top of ensuring the train doesn’t run out of tracks, players will also have to fend off enemies, including bosses, and can partake in side quests and unique events. Though it’s currently in early access, it has already gotten positive reviews from the players, which is not surprising considering how well-received the first game was.
MP1st managed to chat with Hendrik Baatz, Co-Founder of Indoor Studios, to talk about Unrailed 2: Back on Track.
Indoor Studios Talks About the Sequel to Unrailed! Their Crazy Cooperative Roguelike Where You Build Train Tracks
MP1st: So, what sets Unrailed 2 apart from Unrailed?
Baatz: We tried to keep the core concept of Unrailed – having a team of friends struggling to build a train track from station to station when there’s a train with no breaks on that track – while creating new mechanics that make a game that is both more replayable and even more chaotic.
At each station players can now choose where they want to head next with each path offering different challenges and rewards. There’s now also different kinds of stations that offer new upgrades – not only to the train but also to the players themselves! And at the end of each biome players have to face a boss enemy that blocks their way to the next.
We’ve also added permanent progression so that even when the train derails, players can unlock lasting upgrades such as player abilities and new locomotives that help them build further in the next run.
And then there’s also the “Terrain Conductor Mode” that allows players to create their own Unrailed maps and share them with the community. And an expanded versus mode that allows teams of 4 to play against each other over more than one station.
MP1st: Unrailed ended up being a pretty big success, assumedly commercially, but definitely with the players. Did that surprise the team at all to see how well the first game was received? What about going into the sequel, with some of the bigger changes and such, was the team nervous to see how fans would react to some of those changes?
Baatz: We were definitely surprised by the success of Unrailed – we started Unrailed as a semester project at our University. At the beginning, we never thought we’d even publish it, never mind it gaining the traction it did. Going into the sequel we were of course nervous to see if we hit the right balance. Did we make the right changes so the new game would stand on its own but still continue in the footsteps of Unrailed? In the end, there will always be people that think we changed too little and some that think we changed too much. But I think in the end, we hit a good spot where the new game is still undeniably an Unrailed game but is different enough so that players have fun playing both games for their own qualities.
MP1st: Often, sequels are used to not only expand on the original but also bring in many of the things that couldn’t make it in the first game. Looking back, is Unrailed 2 sort of the vision the team wanted the original to be?
Baatz: I think with the time we spend on the original during early access and even in the years after we’ve completed what we’ve set out to do with it – an arcady rogue-like train track construction game. Unrailed 2, with its new mechanics, is, in a sense, a much deeper game thanks to its permanent progression, path planning, and multiple upgrade systems. It’s a more full-fledged rogue-lite train track construction game. But that is not something we could have done by simply extending the original without taking away from its simplicity. So, I think you could say both games have a shared core but fulfill each other’s own vision.
MP1st: What was one of the biggest challenges the team faced during the development of both Unrailed? What was that one feature that you all just knew you had to get “perfect” in order to get the rest of the development to fall in place, if there was one?
Baatz: I think with both games the most important thing is that the core gameplay loop is both engaging and a little bit chaotic in a way that a team must work together to succeed but also has fun doing it!
MP1st: Early access seems like such a great program for developers to be able to utilize. We know the first game launched in EA, and now the second game, from a developer perspective, what benefits has this provided, not just from user feedback, but also in the way the team manages their work and such.
Baatz: When you’re starting out as a small indie studio, it’s pretty difficult to decide which features you need to prioritize for your game and which you can put on the back burner. Often times you put time in polishing a very specific thing that you as a game designer think is the most important thing in the world, when in reality it would have been fine five iterations ago. This is where it helps a lot to get early feedback in to decide where to shift your focus to.
MP1st: Crossovers seem to be the hottest trend going in a lot of games, and I think Unrailed can have a pretty unique opportunity for one, for example, a Castlevania biome with a boss too, or even a crossover with Thomas the Train. Not those specifically, of course, but has the team thought about doing potential collaborations?
Baatz: We have thought about doing collaborations in the future and all I can say here is stay tuned!
MP1st: A common trend we’re seeing with some indie studio sequels is a transition into full 3D. Risk of Rain and the Hyperlight series are some recent examples of this. Has the studio thought of potentially exploring that when they were deciding on what to do with the sequel, or was there always a clear vision and direction you all settled on fairly early?
Baatz: We actually created a small prototype of what unrailed would look like as a first-person game. But a big part of Unrailed is the strategic planning the path your train track takes through a map.
And this part was impossible to reproduce in that prototype as players had only a very limited view of the world due to the first-person perspective. This also made it difficult to observe what your teammates were doing, which led to less interaction within the team. And since these were some of the things that make up the identity of Unrailed we did not want to lose we decided to not pursue this prototype.
MP1st: The first game came to console, and if everything goes good and as planned, can we expect the sequel to come to consoles too? Crossplay?
Baatz: Yes, if possible, we want to create a console version for Unrailed 2 that again features crossplay.
MP1st: Unrailed 2 levels are all procedurally generated, which is pretty neat. But there’s also a dedicated level editor where players can now handcraft levels, allowing endless possibilities and challenges. Do you have any thoughts on potentially having a system that features certain creations or working with the community to get some of these creations to be part of the main game and such?
Baatz: Absolutely! We’ve been, for example, thinking about a game mode that, similarly to endless mode, allows players to pick the next map at each station, but instead of only procedurally generated maps, they also can pick from user-created maps. But that is, of course, only one possibility, and we’re happy to see other ideas our community comes up with.
MP1st: Closing thoughts: Is there anything you want to say to the fans?
We’ve already gotten a ton of feedback and new ideas for Unrailed 2 but if you encounter a bug or have an idea for a feature yourself, please feel free to reach out to us on our discord server!
Unrailed 2: Back On Track is out via Steam Early Access
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