We are pleased to announce that, scheduled for Q2 2014, Train Fever will be available both for digital download (Steam etc.) and as a box version in retail stores. Retail will be available in German speaking countries at least.

Two publishing contracts have been signed. Urban Games GmbH teams up with Gambitious and astragon Software GmbH.

Gambitious is the platform where Train Fever was successfully crowdfunded and is now offering publishing services as well. The company is backed by game and publishing industry veterans.

astragon is a German publisher focused on simulation games which will handle retail distribution of Train Fever in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland. A press release can be found here (in German).

Retail sales in non-German speaking countries may be announced at a later point in time.

Currently we are working on the development of Train Fever with full commitment. We are making big steps forward. Our plan is to release the game in Q2 2014.

In the last months, major game design decisions have been made. We are pleased to officially announce three of them here.

First and most important, due to many requests of the community, we have definitely decided to include freight transport in the game. Second, there is now clearness regarding the terrain: There will be a 256 square kilometer terrain with a one meter resolution. Third, we decided to include more than 50 vehicles in the initial release.

Freight transport

Our freight model is motivated by the games Transport Tycoon and Simutrans, but many improvements make it more interesting and realistic. Our current design includes coal, iron ore, steel, wood, stock, grain, oil and goods freight.

Raw materials like coal or iron ore are mined at several locations in the game world. These raw materials can then be transported to factories and industrial buildings, which usually process them to goods. Goods are finally needed in commercial buildings in towns. Residents then buy these goods in commercial buildings.

Basically, each building, factory or mine requires some items (freight and people) and produces items if requirements are met. Supply and demand is realistically simulated. Items can be transported by the player, but are also transported by agents (i.e. people walk and workers transport freight themselves, though with low speed, range and capacity).

Terrain

Due to many requests for huge dimensions, we are currently finalizing the implementation of a 256 square kilometer terrain with a one meter resolution. This is way larger than what other simulation games (e.g. SimCity or Cities in Motion 2) can offer. We believe that such dimensions are important to make constructing railway lines fun and realistic.

The implementation of such a huge terrain is a challenge (e.g. think about the huge number of trees!), but we are confident to meet the goal, without increasing minimal system requirements.

Also, it’s still our plan to allow loading user-created terrains through modding. This way, it will be possible to e.g. play the game on well-known local maps!

Vehicles

The game includes trains, buses, trucks and trams/streetcars between 1850 and today. The current design specifies more than 30 trains, and more than 10 buses, trucks and streetcars each.

We believe that a high number of vehicles is important for game-play, because the player should have a choice between several competing vehicles at every point in time. As a consequence, Train Fever is telling an almost complete history of railway and road transport!

Due to the fact that the game starts in 1850, there will also be some special vehicles like carriages or horse streetcars.

Finally a notice on the update frequency of our website: Unfortunately, due to the huge amount of work and a tight budget and time schedule, we are only able to update this website from time to time. Also, please excuse us if your forum questions stay unanswered longer than expected. We simply need to fully concentrate on development at the moment in order to not run out of schedule.

Today, we’ve made two additions to our website. Firstly, there’s a newsletter to make it easier to follow the development, and secondly, we’ve set up a forum where you’re welcome to discuss everything relating to Train Fever.

After a long crowdfunding campaign, we not only secured funding but also gathered a lot of fantastic feedback, suggestions and challenging questions. In addition, we successfully started to establish a fan community around the world.

Huge thanks to all supporters. You all have contributed to make Train Fever a reality!

Your support and confidence is an obligation for us to give our best during the final year of development. You can be sure that we go to our limit in order to make Train Fever a great transport simulation game and a financial success.

We would like to point out that the success of Train Fever is also a success of Gambitious. We believe that the Gambitious model is an awesome way for independent game developers to attract funding and we are excited that Train Fever is the first successful game on this platform!

Development will start soon and Train Fever is scheduled to be released in May 2014.

We currently work out how to incorporate and update the community during the final year of development.

We are excited that the crowdfunding campaign is doing very well and that in all likelihood we can realize Train Fever. If you plan to do an additional investment, please consider to do this as early as possible. Crowdfunding campaigns typically speed up towards the end.

Currently we are in negotiations with several potential publishing partners and we are very close to make a final deal. This is good news for all fans and investors, because with making a deal as soon as possible we can minimize risk. We can fully concentrate on the development, and the publishing partner can already prepare an optimal marketing and distribution strategy.

We look forward to developing a great game with the goal to meet the demands of the transport simulation community and to make it a financial success for all crowdfunding investors!