Training Day

Dovetail Games, developer of Train Sim World, on building sims

- Andy Kelly

You probably don’t know it, but train simulators are enormously successful on PC. While you might have played one yourself out of curiosity, there are others who are wildly passionate about them. In the same way Microsoft Flight Simulator attracts people interested in aviation who otherwise don’t play games, train simulators are enjoyed by rail enthusiasts who want to get closer to their hobby.

“It’s a relaxing and calming way to spend time,” says Reddit user ‘Canadave’ in a thread discussing why people are so into the genre. “There [are] some vague elements of a spatial puzzle to it,” they add. “You have to plan out your actions and figure out the best way of getting everything where you need it to be.”

“The best part about Train Sim for me is getting to drive trains I’ve seen before,” says ‘mygawd’, while ‘tppiel’ notes: “[It’s] the same reason people play Football Manager, and Arma … you are not a manager/pilot/soldier in real life, but you are interested enough in the role.”

ON RAILS

Train Sim World, a new simulator from Dovetail Games, is the latest in a long line of hardcore sims with a focus on realism. PC Gamer writes about simulators more than most outlets, but rarely about the people who actually make them. So I thought this was the perfect opportunity to talk to Dovetail about what it’s like working in such an ultra-specific genre and how you even go about translating driving a train in the real world into a simulation.

“We have around 50 developers working on