Ludum Dare #60compo
Train-O-Matic 3000™
How lucky! You are now the proud owner of your very own TRAIN-O-MATIC 3000™!
This revolutionary piece of technology will take care of almost everything involved in managing your railway network!
All you have to do is:
- Optimize routes so every train reaches its destination.
- Manually operate railway signals.
- Manually switch tracks.
- Make sure no trains collide.
- And do all of that as fast as possible!
It's practically fully automated!
Everything is controlled using your trusty keyboard (not included with the TRAIN-O-MATIC 3000™).
- `LOGIN USERNAME` Enter your username at the start of the game to appear on the leaderboards.
- `LIGHT A` Toggle signal light A on or off.
- `SWITCH A` Toggle railway switch A between its two positions.
- `Numpad + / -` Adjust the background music volume.
- `F1` Restart the current level.
- `Escape` Quit the game.
- I completely forgot to give the game a proper ending. After level 11, it will display "Loading next mission" forever. There are no more missions. Just imagine a magnificent "You did so well! Thanks for playing!" screen, complete with confetti, fireworks, and unicorns galloping across your monitor.
I didn't have time to integrate the leaderboard during the game, but I still made it after the deadline. You can find it at https://nathanistace.be/gamejams/ld60/leaderboards. Do not take this page into account when voting!
This revolutionary piece of technology will take care of almost everything involved in managing your railway network!
All you have to do is:
- Optimize routes so every train reaches its destination.
- Manually operate railway signals.
- Manually switch tracks.
- Make sure no trains collide.
- And do all of that as fast as possible!
It's practically fully automated!
Controls
Everything is controlled using your trusty keyboard (not included with the TRAIN-O-MATIC 3000™).
Commands
- `LOGIN USERNAME` Enter your username at the start of the game to appear on the leaderboards.
- `LIGHT A` Toggle signal light A on or off.
- `SWITCH A` Toggle railway switch A between its two positions.
Other Controls
- `Numpad + / -` Adjust the background music volume.
- `F1` Restart the current level.
- `Escape` Quit the game.
Known Issues
- I completely forgot to give the game a proper ending. After level 11, it will display "Loading next mission" forever. There are no more missions. Just imagine a magnificent "You did so well! Thanks for playing!" screen, complete with confetti, fireworks, and unicorns galloping across your monitor.
Leaderboards
I didn't have time to integrate the leaderboard during the game, but I still made it after the deadline. You can find it at https://nathanistace.be/gamejams/ld60/leaderboards. Do not take this page into account when voting!
🤖 This game was fully made without generative AI.
Comments9
cogcomp19 Oct 2026, 14:44
Typing instead of clicking for the switches and lights a was surprisingly refreshing way to steer the trains. Enjoyed it and the confusing tracks 😆 Well done!
rucksack20 Oct 2026, 20:56
I like trains
Nice puzzle game, very simple mechanics but they add up to very interesting and quite challenging gameplay, I played through all levels.
I think pressing ESC to immediately quit the game is not a good choice, I pressed it intuitively because I thought it would cancel the visual clues. Why not write EXIT into the terminal to quit? Anyway I restarted the game and played through it again.
I often pressed space before submitting a command, which counted as a typo... that was a bit frustrating, but maybe that's just my weird habit.
All in all very nice entry!
Nice puzzle game, very simple mechanics but they add up to very interesting and quite challenging gameplay, I played through all levels.
I think pressing ESC to immediately quit the game is not a good choice, I pressed it intuitively because I thought it would cancel the visual clues. Why not write EXIT into the terminal to quit? Anyway I restarted the game and played through it again.
I often pressed space before submitting a command, which counted as a typo... that was a bit frustrating, but maybe that's just my weird habit.
All in all very nice entry!
Rolly20 Oct 2026, 21:09
@rucksack Thanks for your feedback, it's really good, and sorry for the frustration! Thank you for giving it another try as well, I feel so lucky 😄
I didn't expect the timer to have so much impact on the players, but seeing my friends play it, I totally understand the escape or space keys problem :/ I'll remember that for the next jam!
I didn't expect the timer to have so much impact on the players, but seeing my friends play it, I totally understand the escape or space keys problem :/ I'll remember that for the next jam!
adam-gould20 Oct 2026, 21:52
That was very nice - I think the fact that my time was recorded led me to try and multitask which caused the mistakes that made it interesting. Perhaps if there was also time limits it would amp up the intensity?
But overall I really liked it, it was a well designed puzzle game.
But overall I really liked it, it was a well designed puzzle game.
EmeraldRat20 Oct 2026, 22:28
Nice little game, liked the difficulty ramp! Really scratch that "typing into terminal" games itch
Willops20 Oct 2026, 23:52
Nice entry! Some of the later puzzles got pretty tricky. The terminal is an interesting riff on the interface
rekk1d21 Oct 2026, 14:24
Really interesting concept, running a railway by typing commands is such a cool idea. Loved everything about it, the music, the sounds and the interface are all super pleasant. Great work!
rascar_capac21 Oct 2026, 15:55
Loved it, the interface is very nicely polished and controlling everything with commands is such a nice feeling for a nerd like me. Especially liked the latest levels, where you really have to plan the whole thing in order to succeed. I genuinely felt like a traffic engineer ✨
Anyway, I enjoyed this! It had a nice difficulty curve, and some of the later levels got pretty hard to wrap my head around! I really liked the speedrun aspect as incentive to plan ahead and give interest even to the easier levels - I think my favorite was the All Roads Lead to Rome level, figuring out how to minimize waiting time without crashing there was awesome! Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough for the highscore though :( Or any of them in fact, and I did try (~~ignore the screenshot time the last level was too hard for me to speedrun first try~~). I do kinda wish there was a timer display during the level, and the speed part was sometimes hard for me as I kept making typos & mixing up light/switch, but I kept trying and still had a lot of fun! Great entry!