Mašinky, pronounced, well, Mashinky is a Czech word for little machines, widely used when it comes to train set engines. I think it’s kind of cute.
Early Steam
Currently in, according to developer Jan Zeleny – who I’m still unclear is one guy or more – alpha, Mashinky is promising to be the best railway strategy game ever. Not just with words, mind you.
The best railway strategy game to date is, in my eyes, Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Sure, it has all sorts of vehicles but it’s the railways that have always stole the show. Mashinky recognizes that, takes the proven template, and expands on it.
Centre Stage, Mashinky
I do maintain that Transport Fever was a good, nay, excellent take on Transport Tycoon. But just as well as it rendered the boy’s-dreamy virtual model railway to a living, breathing, interconnected 3D world, it lost the beautiful simplicity of tools to create such world. At times, it was worse than complicated, it was annoying.
Mashinky seems to be aiming for the best of both worlds. The strategy part is being done on a super-neat Transport Tycoon-esque checkerboard, while the giggling-like-a-little-kid part is done in a fully-realised ‘realistic’ representation of it. What divides the two? Press of the spacebar, that’s what.
I am enormously excited to see more of Mashinky and how will it evolve over the planned couple of years. Not just its heart-warming yay-trains bit. More importantly, its very promising economy overhaul where resources go beyond money and acquiring new tech beyond just that you’re-doing-good-so-here’s-a-new-engine of Transport Tycoon.
I have possibly embarked on a journey towards something pretty awesome this weekend. What have you, possibly?
