Zoti's Train Workshop is on Steam

Wow, more than four months since the last update… And I have a small confession: while working on Sly Crow, I somehow started making another game.

If you read the Pipes, Goose, and Lip Sync devlog, you may remember the steam train puzzle. Rotate hexagonal pipes, connect the boiler to all the consumers, and watch the steam run through the engine. It was made as one puzzle for Sly Crow.

But the system already had procedural layouts, multiple boilers, and 21 pipe types. That is quite a lot for something the player would solve once and leave behind. The sensible thing would be to stop there.

Instead, I decided to make a small spin-off. Very professional time management.

From one puzzle to 45 levels

The result is Zoti’s Train Workshop. Zoti opens a workshop and, with questionable help from the Goose, needs to repair three broken trains.

What began as one puzzle now has 45 story levels. Making that many levels meant I had to think about progression instead of only asking, “Does the generator make a valid puzzle?” The early layouts need to explain the rules, and the later ones can bring in larger networks and several steam sources.

After completing the story, the player unlocks an endless mode. This is where the original procedural generator gets to keep making new puzzles without being limited by the story.

A small game still needs a lot of art

One more small detail: a separate game needs much more than a puzzle screen.

I had to make the workshop, three trains, menus, progression screens, and, eventually, all the Steam artwork. Everything is still hand-crafted in the same graphite-and-watercolour style as Sly Crow.

The Steam page is live

And that brings me to the actual news: the Steam page is finally live. Preparing it meant making the capsule, screenshots, descriptions, and, of course, another trailer. Somehow trailers keep finding me.

There is still work ahead, but now the little detour has a name, a trailer, and its own Steam page.

Wishlist Zoti’s Train Workshop on Steam

Thank you for being with me, and stay tuned!