Build Cosy Dioramas in Islands & Trains – Preview

I was scrolling BlueSky one morning when I came across a post from the Devs of Islands & Trains. Mere moments later, I had downloaded the demo and began my creative adventure, adding Islands & Trains to my Wishlist soon after. And now I am here, to convince you all to do the same.

Islands & Trains comes from two-person indie development team, Akos Makovics. It’s a simple yet fun train-building sandbox game which uses a block-building system and a whole range of assets to help you build your dioramas and place your trains.

The demo starts with a cute tutorial which takes you through all the basic shortcuts and mechanics. It’s written as if you’re conversing with the instructions and it did a great job of introducing me to everything. I didn’t need to worry about remembering these either, as there was a comprehensive button guide and shortcut buttons on the screen that I could click at any time.

The controls were pretty intuitive and smooth. I realise the demo version has fewer options and is incredibly small to download, but it ran incredibly well and already boasts some cool features.

I’m a sucker for a city-builder/management-sim, and Islands & Trains hits the itch of all the building aspects of the genre without the additional pressure of expenditures. You’re free to build and demolish as you wish, creating as many different dioramas as you can think of. Then, when you are finished, you can hide the UI and simply sit back and watch your trains circle your well-built tracks.

The music and overall sound engineering leave a comfy and cosy feeling as objects pop and plop into place over gentle lo-fi music. I feel like I have heard some similar sound effects before but it made the experience rather nostalgic as I tried to place them. Additionally, by blending simple designs with soft pallets, the graphics work to further instil the cosy vibes and it was easy to lose a few hours playing the demo alone.

It’s clear to see the inspirations taken from Islanders, Dorfromantik and Townscaper, but I feel the train building aspects are enough to set Islands & Trains apart and appeal to a slightly different audience. As opposed to the generic reskinned clones we often find in the stores, it has it’s own charm and doesn’t feel like a soul-less cash grab.

Already Islands & Trains has a lot of things for you to play around with. Animals, buildings, boats, tracks and all other kinds of landscape decorations are already available for you to enjoy, with many more set to come. Most of the assets are static objects, but some, like the animals, have short animation cycles which really add life to your dioramas and I am looking forward to seeing what they have planned for the full release.