Devlog: The Genesis of Trackastrophe!

The Genesis of Trackastrophe: the failure of One Bullet and the birth of a wacky train

It all started with our previous project, originally called One Bullet. We were so hyped to work on our very first game as Kinoko Studio! There were four of us. Junior devs fresh out of a game-dev internship, full of dreams so, of course… what was bound to happen happened: the scope was WAY too big.

The Classic Indie Trap: The scope

You know the drill: good ideas, lots of excitement, and… poor organization. Oops!

So we decided to drop One Bullet, or at least put it in a box for later. Even though it felt like a “fail,” we learned a ton during those few months: how to communicate effectively as a team, how to set up a proper pipeline, and what our strengths (and weaknesses) actually were. Honestly, it was a really valuable experience.

Okay… But Where Does the Train Come In?

“But what about the train?” I hear you ask. Don’t worry, it’s coming.

After pausing One Bullet, we got together and basically said: “Okay, we need a SMALL project. Something that lets us learn the whole game-dev pipeline… including actually releasing on Steam.” That was the theme of the meeting (a bit long, I know).

What followed was several days of chaotic brainstorming where everyone threw out the most absurd ideas. It was hilarious, and surprisingly freeing. A game that would only take a few months to make? No huge worldbuilding, no complex story, no overcomplicated features. Just simple mechanics and fun.

I don’t even remember exactly how we landed on a train, but for some reason we were really into vehicles. Colorful vehicles… and then someone (maybe) yelled “Trains!” and we were like, “Oh hell yeah, trains!”

I wanted to give the train a cigarette. They said no. I was sad. Then I tried to add a fish NPC with a cigarette. Also denied. Tragic.

Trackastrophe Is Born

And voilà ! Trackastrophe was born! We didn’t have any better name ideas (naming is definitely one of the weaknesses we discovered with One Bullet, lol). A colorful train in a colorful world, and your job is to guide it from point A to point B using movement tiles. Pretty simple, right?

Making the vertical slice demo was super fun and I think we built it in about a month, which is short! And it actually worked really well. People had a blast playing the demo and trying to solve all the puzzles. Best feeling in the world. Production was going smoothly.

In the end, we liked the project so much that we decided to give it a few more months of development but always with clear limits in mind. Honestly, I don’t think we could’ve managed Trackastrophe this well if we hadn’t failed with One Bullet first.

That’s your inspiration quote of the day: don’t be afraid to fail!

We even got to work with a publisher: Black Smoke Studios, which is incredible. We’re really happy (and proud!) to be working with them for the release of the game. Trackastrophe has grown into a simple, fun game starring a silly little train (still no cigarette though). Steam post image

Try the Demo

If you’ve read this far… damn. Here’s a kudo. And you have to try our demo ! You’ll make a small team of juniors very happy!

Until then, we’ll keep polishing our little game. Stay tuned for more updates!

Kinoko Studio Lara Social media manager & concept artist