A downloadable game for Windows

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The year is 1918. A new chemical weapon has been unleashed that doesn't just kill soldiers, it reanimates them. Now only one chance remains to return the world back to the way it used to be...


Rotting Railway is an on-rails arcade shooter where you operate the world's most powerful armored train. Your goal is to punch through the zombie-infested No-Man's-Land of World War 1, destroying everything that stands in your way.

Version 0.0.5 is now available! This is the biggest update yet with a new game mode, multiple new trains to unlock and play as, dozens of new levels and encounters, new weather effects, many new structures to destroy, new weapons to wield, new visual effects, balance changes and more!

~~Features~~

  • NEW: Unlockable Endless Mode.
  • NEW: Unlockable Train Loadouts with varied weapons.
  • Short, highly replayable action packed arcade experience.
  • Randomized levels to make every run a different experience.
  • Dozens of fully destructible objects, buildings and vehicles.
  • Detailed effects designed to fully immerse you in the destruction.
  • Dozens of varied enemy encounters.
  • A fully 'fleshed' out Boss Battle.
  • Unique soundtrack tailored to match the BPM of the train's steam engine.
  • Partial Gamepad compatibility.
  • Multitude of collectable powerups and upgrades that allow for multiple different playstyles.
  • A BIG train with BIG guns.
  • More features planned for the future!


I have a lot planned for Rotting Railway, so if you would like to keep seeing updates for this game, be sure to leave a rating, let me know what you think about it in the comments and spread the word to your friends! It helps a lot!

Controls:

  • Mouse/Right Stick: Aiming
  • LMB/Right Trigger: Fire Weapon
  • RMB/Left Trigger: Zoom In
  • MMB/Press Right Stick In: Toggle 3rd Person Mode
  • Spacebar/Right Bumper: Use Active Item
  • Escape/Pause button: Pause Game


For any content creators looking to do videos on Rotting Railway, there is a press kit available. It includes 30 images for you to use in your thumbnails! I tried to make each as awesome as I could. If you do a video, feel free to post it in the comments. I would love to see it!


And, as a thank you to everyone who has graciously donated, I have now made a special supporter pack available! It contains the soundtrack, behind-the-scenes images as well as special developer insights on the development of the game and snippets of the real history of the Great War!

Updated 27 days ago
StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows
Rating
Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars
(61 total ratings)
AuthorTheBigOnionInstitute
GenreAdventure, Shooter
Made withUnreal Engine
TagsHalloween, Horror, Indie, PSX (PlayStation), Roguelite, scream-jam, Short, Trains
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse, Xbox controller, Gamepad (any), Playstation controller
AccessibilitySubtitles

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

Rotting Railway Endless.zip 487 MB
Press Kit (Images for Content Creators) 10 MB
RottingRailway_GameJam.zip 404 MB
RottingRailway_Previous(0.0.4).zip 441 MB
Supporter Pack (Behind-the-scenes images, OST, Developer Insights) 108 MB
if you pay $1 USD or more

Development log

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Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 84 · Next page · Last page

I really loved your game. The simple story really set the tone of it and I loved the vibe it gave.

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Thank you for your attention to the people of mainland China! The following are the suggestions from the mainland that I have collected: 1. Chinese translation, because although English education in our mainland is developed, It still has great shortcomings. Many people will not use what they have learned at all, so many people may not understand English. 2. Trains should be more resistant to physical zombies, because as far as I know, physical collision with trains will not derail or damage the armored train, and most armored trains will be covered with steel plates on the wheels. I don't believe that zombies will crash open the steel plates with their bodies. 3. Since zombies can drive EV4 armored vehicles and K-Wagen super-heavy tanks, I think it is not impossible for zombies to build and use bunkers along the railway tracks, or arrange some special armored grenadier zombies, which is more in line with history and common sense. 4. Everyone in mainland China hopes that zombies also have their own exclusive armored trains, but don't persecute the Germans this time! Through the location of "Duomontborg", I can infer that the train departs from western France, so there can be a zombie armored train in France or a zombie armored train in Tsarist Russia as the boss before K-Wagen. The last suggestion is that I hope the train can freely equip skills before starting the game. Thank you again!

(+2)

Hello, I'm a user from mainland China. Our WW1 community in the mainland loves your game. Because of my poor English level, I have to use machine-transled to make suggestions for your games. First of all, I don't think the German doomsday chariot like K-Wagen should appear so soon in the later stage of the story mode. As far as I know, they didn't even get off the production line! But I saw more than one A7V wreck in the game, so I concluded that WW1 on this timeline must have been fought after 1918, so the French Char2C, a war beast, was reasonable before the appearance of K-Wagen. Secondly, I think more infected British, French and German tanks and some infected British and French troops should be added. After all, nothing can make the Germans suffer alone, right? Finally, please don't forget the strengthening of the reconnaissance train! I wish the game is getting better and better. I will try my best to recommend your game in mainland China. Our military fans are very interested in this game! Happy Chinese New Year!

(+1)(-1)

Thank you for your feedback! I'm so glad to hear your community loves the game! I agree completely with all of your suggestions. I've always loved the Char2C, so I definitely plan on adding that as a boss. I also like your suggestion about the different soldiers. The lack of diversity was mainly due to time constraints, so more soldier uniforms are pretty high on my list! Lastly, I also plan on strengthening the Scout Train. It was actually too strong during development and I overcorrected for it.

If you or anyone in your community have any more suggestions, I would love to hear them! Happy Chinese New Year!

The newer trains could use some improvements, to be honest.

The Scout Train is by far the weakest option. Its canister shot feels almost pointless, offering no real reason to choose it over the auto-cannon. While the auto-cannon is somewhat effective against armored enemies, it struggles significantly when dealing with zombies and incoming AT grenades, making it a less versatile choice.

The Heavy Assault Train is decent but still falls short compared to the default train. While its special ability and armament can make it enjoyable to use, the default train’s healing ability gives it a clear edge in terms of survivability. This makes the Heavy Assault Train feel like a less practical option for prolonged engagements.

(+1)

Very fun and a good idea! I like the idea of upgrades based on arcade power-ups. I think you've done a great job in a lot of areas, and the concept is pretty unique!

Here's a list of my thoughts and feedback after unlocking everything and playing for a bit

  • I think the "Active Charge" power-up should either be more frequent or removed altogether. Your active already charges very quickly when facing groups of zombies, but it doesn't charge at all when fighting the tank for the most part. You could instead base the charge on damage done/hits instead of enemies killed.
  • Similarly the starter tank's heal is very powerful as a quickly charged active, making it much better than the other two. During the story mode, I barely lost and health and what I did lose was quickly replenished.
  • The Scout train's weapons in general could feel a bit better. The auto-cannon is solid as a primary, but it could do with a little more splash damage. It's very reliable against big targets that are up close though! The canister, on the other hand, doesn't really sell the fantasy of a giant shotgun. When only one pellet hits a zombie, they don't even die. The fairly narrow spread and lack of pellets makes clearing groups difficult sometimes too. Finally, the grenade is much weaker than the starter tank's healing, and doesn't do a ton of damage compared to how hard it is to land sometimes. As an active weapon that you (currently) can only use about once per boss fight, it's both underwhelming (doing about 3-4 auto-cannon shots worth of damage) and hard to land, given the projectile drop.
  • I think the starter tank is great, no notes. Solid weapons and an arguable overpowered ability.
  • The heavy assault, my beloved; the heavy machine gun feels great, and I like that it can punch above it's weight. The howitzer is very fun, though I feel like it should have an even larger cool-down but with a silly amount of splash damage. Make it really feel like a strategic choice, because the heavy machine gun does better DPS almost always. In that same vein, I think the artillery strike should have more of a realistic delay, but be more impactful. More splash damage/better targeting would be nice! It's also currently pretty much useless against cars or bosses as far as I can tell. I still love this train though.

Some other things I noticed/bugs

  • When I destroyed a windmill near a river, the ground under the windmill kinda "height-mapped" to the base of the windmill's debris. It's hard to explain, but it basically stopped conforming to the uneven terrain of the riverbed as soon as it was destroyed.
  • Not sure if this is intended, but endless mode seems to have  less power-ups than the story (making it more difficult, especially since I got less health power-ups) and the second boss I got was two tanks and once plus cars, which was significantly harder than just one tank!
  • There is no visible timer for the fire-rate power-up. When I first got one, I couldn't even tell whether it was permanent or not. A small timer on the screen would help ease that confusion.
  • The zombies themselves could be a little easier to see against the background. I like what you're doing with the green heads, so maybe make more of them a bright green or the red/fleshy theme you've got going on with the vehicles.

Overall, I'm excited to see how this project progresses and what you make next! I also enjoyed your other game, though it's very different from this one!

Quite good. Was worth the train ticket I paid for. c:

Why does the game crash after it starts (it boots up fine, and the story presentation thing works fine too, but when the game starts it says fatal error and crashes) 

reinstalled a few times, so honestly i dont know what's causing it. While my specs isn't that good, I have played comparatively much more graphically demanding games and they ran okay but this one doesn't for some reason

game looks good though

(+1)

As a huge zombie game fan, this hit the nail on the head! Perfect mindless fun. Very excited for the full game. Great job !

I made a video on your game if you're interested :)
(+1)

loved that u playedd this 1 bbro funny how diff it ran between my shiitt laptop vs ur pc also.. lol.. new endless mode tho u se it?!?! 

(+1)

i have seen it. not gonna do anything with it though. i like my games with closure ! lol

I might record videos of this

Awesome work, really glad to see you've kept up at it! Gave it a few rounds, I like seeing the modified weapon kits, it adds a lot of replay value.
Keep up the excellence! Loved the original, loved this update, and really pumped to see what happens with the story in the future!

I really enjoy this game and the idea behind it!

Can't wait for a full release ! This was amazing, and I really enjoyed feeling the build-up to bigger and bigger monsters. I think it would be cool to see it as more of a base-building game (i.e. upgrading the train), but I enjoy the gameplay loop as it is still !

I really hope this game gets updated! I am a big fan of WW1 and WW2 games and I absolutely love this game! Especially with the accurate battle train which was used in WW1. This is an amazing game and a really unique one! I really hope you update it!!!

i can't even play it my computer keeps crashing but the game looks so fun and cool only if i could play it :(

this was alot of fun, Ill def check out an updated version later on

Full Play NO Commentary

(1 edit)

An action packed game where you kill a bunch of zombies quick with power ups?
I am sold!
I enjoyed this game way more so, than I should've.
It's the second game in my video.

W game cant wait for the full release will it cost money?

wait for russian empire train ,more content and multiplayer

I had a great time playing this game! The concept is so cool (plus I love trains!) and I believe it has A TON of potential! I mention some of my comments and ideas at the end of my gameplay. Keep up the good work! You have something pretty good here!

So many WITNESSES!


loved,

great demo!

Tried out your game!

can you mack one for 32bit windows?

This is Bloody AMAZING, I need a full game. This is genuinely one of my favourite games of all time, this is brilliantly done and the way it sets up tension is amazing!!!!!!! 100/10

This looks soooooooo fun. Can't wait for the updates and extra stuff you will add. This was an instant buy for me. 

Buenas mira no se si es mi ordenador o un bug pero el juego al terminar de leer el inicio de la historia, el tren no sale de la estación y claro se congela todo, haciendo que mi Pc tenga que reiniciarlo, pasando esto cada vez que entro

BEST GAME IVE PLAYED IN A LOONG TIME!! I cant wait for the FULL GAME :D

Check out my gameplay!

Me encantó el juego, la jugabilidad, la idea sobre todo! Saludos desde argentina!

Interesting. multiplayer (online?) would be an idea

Very Fun and Unique Game, Looking forward to the full release

I finally got around to playing this and it was awesome! Thanks for making it! 

This game reminds of the old arcade shooters would play all the time as a kid and brings back great memories of those old times, also since it gives you a different run each time you play it gives off a rougelike feeling to it and think the endless mode would be amazing if you made it into a rougelike!!!

can't wait too see more in this game!! <3

This was an amazing adventure! Really enjoyed playing it! Hope you get to make it a full game

This was (and I fully intend this pun) an absolute blast to play! I had so much fun! The concept was great, the gameplay was smooth, the explosions were satisfying, and the ragdoll physics were brilliant. 

I will definitely be checking out the challenge mode when that comes in, and if you ever do any story updates I'll be there!


Very nice game would love to see where this game goes in future updates

The game feels great! If only I could play with others!

Traveling through the Zombie-infested dead zone of World War 1 makes me realize how HORRIBLE I am at shooting!! Youtube Link - 

Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 84 · Next page · Last page