About the project
Train Reaction is a game where you have to create the logic that will automatically power a train network. Building your logic consists of simple building blocks such as "when a train passes this signal, change that junction"! Each level is a new challenge to solve as you learn new techniques and must design more complex systems.
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After solving a level, you don't have to be done! By scoring your solution in multiple categories and ranking it against both friends and the global player-base, you'll be encouraged to improve your solutions to make them as efficient and satisfying as possible!
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The game now has a playable demo available on steam!
The project will now shift towards a full release!
Watch The Trailer Here!
Making A Commercial Game
Building up the game as a commercial project has been a challenging and rewarding process! With every project I've worked on, I strongly prefer focusing on the programming and general development, but working as a solo dev on this game has pushed me well outside of that comfort zone. I've learned a lot about Ui/Ux design, game production, QA, and marketing over the course of the game's development!
UI and UX
The most important part of the game playing well is the UI, and going into this project, I was not very experienced with designing and implementing UI. Over the game's development, it went through many different iterations, the final version is the 6th version of interface the game used!
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UX was the one area on the game where I often had to take a step back from the game and just plan for days. A year ago, designing the interface was a terrifying challenge to overcome, but through each iteration, I picked up more and more knowledge about how to design for user experience! Going into the final iteration, I was extremely confident in my design due to all of the failed attempts!
When it came to actually implementing the newest UI, that month of development was easily the most I've learned as a developer over a short stretch! I tend to learn best by doing, and adding in so many different kind of UI elements felt like a fun crash course on all things UI related! Of course I didn't just get things functional, this phase also focused on getting the UI fun to use! This was the first time ever making a polished "final" version user interface, and I had a blast adding in a bunch of little details.
Now that the demo is out and I've begun getting public feedback, it has been interesting looking back and piecing together what I did well and where I could have done much better.