Retro Rail: Japan!

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Latest news

• Announcements·9 Aug 2026Official

  DevLog #8 - Game Modes

  Hello Conductors! In this small update, I would like to explain the game modes. Given the demo feedback, I’ve decided to implement 3 modes + the tutorial mode. In Casual/Relax Mode, you have the freedom to just drive the train in any way you want, without time constraints, events or penalties. This is meant for those who just want to relax while enjoying the sights of our retro lines. In Regular/Normal Mode, you have the actual gameplay challenges but with a more forgiving ruleset, including bigger allowance and time limits. It’s the middle term between pure relaxing and hardcore train driving. In Professional Mode, the challenges are real and very difficult. You must master the line, events, driving and stopping to finish the course. It is meant to please those in search of a realistic train experience. In Tutorial Mode, you will learn the basics of the gameplay with a guided instruction set, you newcomers won’t have to guess how the game works. It will be simple and quick! Unfortunately, I won’t be able to share any images so far, since I'm rebuilding the menus and crafting a new line, but rest assured, in the next devlog I’ll be sharing more about the new line and EA release! Thank you!
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• Announcements·8 Jul 2026Official

  Retro Rail: Japan!

  Hello, conductors! It’s been sometime after the Steam Next Fest event, and I believe it’s a good time to talk back to our community. First and foremost, thank you for all the support. It was the sheer amount of awesome people sending messages from all sources that kept me going during the wild and tough ride following the demo release. It is because of it that I decided to maintain and complete the project. As you can see, a few things have indeed changed, not because of the haters, but to maintain the game in a healthy and safe path of development. We are now called Retro Rail: Japan! We’ve updated the title, trailer, screenshots, demo and UI of the game, while maintaining the core gameplay intact. As promised, there will be more UI presets and customization within each, so do not worry if you are not yet 100% onboard with the new designs. The demo has been updated, all of the placeholder AI image assets (some mislabeled) were removed and replaced by an actual commissioned artist work. I truly apologize about it. While I will no longer engage with the disrespectful comments, I must clearly state that this is not a “pirate port”, there are no “stolen assets”, no copyrighted video usage nor trademark infringement on our game. These are false accusations. To double down on this matter, some footage, color schemes and names have been either modified or removed from the project. A tiny changelog for the demo: Updated horn sound to match japanese style train horns; Added new people sprites on the stations;Added crossing gate model;Fixed large aspect ratios UI scaling; On the next DevLog, I’ll bring back some more news about the development, content and future of Retro Rail: Japan! See you then!
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• Patch Notes·17 Jun 2026Official

  A Difficult Update Regarding Retro Rail GO!

  First of all, I would like to thank all of you who have been following our game ever since I’ve started these DevLogs. The past few days have been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. The amount of visibility the Steam Next Fest gave my tiny project has been insane. We jumped from 700 wishlists to almost 2.000 in a matter of 48 hours. We got featured in 4 big gaming news websites (Retro Gamer, Time Extension, GameSpark.jp and DenfaminicoGamer.jp) with a great reception and praise, as well as on X/Twitter to which I cannot thank enough. I never expected RRG to reach these heights and reach so many people. Unfortunately, there is also a big sad side to the story, which has been many people complaining about the game being a rip-off, clone and even wishing japanese companies to sue me and take the project down. Naturally, this has saddened me to an extreme, and I am honestly considering giving up on the game all together, given so much online hate and accusations. This is a tiny passion project made by a single person with very little to no resources and struggling through life as most of us all (hence the dev name “Barely Making Games”). Since I was a child, I have always loved trains, even though I only got to see one in person and ride it at age 26. Coming from a developing country, I was not able to play many of the famous japanese games not only due to the high prices, but mainly due to language barrier - and this was a struggle I shared with millions of other players that grew up in the same situation, as there were zero localization efforts towards non-US-EU countries. So there it was, a little gap in which I thought to build my first game on Steam: a fun and short retro train simulator, localized and fully customizable, set at a cheap price so people from everywhere could buy it and have a few hours of fun. Retro Rail GO! naturally builds on top of nostalgia, but it was never meant to be a rip-off, to infringe any copyrights or offend anyone. It’s a tiny experie...
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• Announcements·5 Jun 2026Official

  DevLog #7 - DEMO OUT NOW!

  After many months of hard work, our demo and trailer are finally out!Check it on our Steam page and have fun!Share with all your conductor friends! Thank you all for the feedback and support!
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• Patch Notes·3 Apr 2026Official

  DevLog #6 - Itch.io Demo V2 Update!

  Hey everyone, A massive thank you to all of you who took the time to play the itch.io demo and share your thoughts. Your feedback has been absolutely crucial for tweaking the mechanics, fixing bugs, and pushing development forward. Here's the link! We’ve just pushed a fresh update to the itch.io build based on your input. To keep things simple, here are the major changes and additions you can expect when you jump back into the conductor's seat:New Content & Environment Polish: The route is expanding! We've added the new Ayukai-Koguwa section and cleaned up the world rendering, specifically fixing the bridge model gap and an extensive patch of forest.Gameplay & Systems Overhaul: Driving should feel much more responsive and dynamic. We've introduced a new event system to handle station signals, horns, and max speed areas. We've also implemented an emergency brake, rebalanced notch power for better handling, and fixed speed scaling and hold-input mechanics.UI & Quality of Life: The Modern UI got a lot of love—negative time left, notch naming, and EventUI positioning are all fixed. We also brought back the character Notification Panel, added new sounds to the flip clock, and introduced a secondary camera for the replay panel alongside visual red-blinking warnings for timeouts. Now that this update is live, all focus is shifting toward the official Steam demo. I’ll be sharing more regular updates and devlogs here as we make progress on the Steam build. Thank you again for all the support, testing, and feedback—it makes all the difference!
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