FreeTrain
From Libregamewiki
| FreeTrain | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of FreeTrain | |
| Genres | Transport infrastructure game |
| Developer | Kohsuke Kawaguchi |
| Code licenses | LGPL |
| Latest release | 20070604 |
| Release date | June 4, 2007 |
| Language | C# |
FreeTrain is a rail and business simulation computer game, originally created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi and inspired by the A-Train series of games. Both the source code and the graphics are licensed under a combination of the LGPL and the GPL.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Overview
FreeTrain is the quintessential sandbox game. First of all, you start in a literal sandbox; a flat barren piece of land greets you when starting a new game. After that, it’s completely up to you to create your world, including natural features such as mountains or lakes.
As the name of game implies, FreeTrain is all about trains. It could in some aspects be likened to those model railways you uncle keeps in the attic. Other modes of transport can and have been implemented through plugins. Nevertheless, trains remain at the core of the game.
While the business aspect of FreeTrain is well developed, it is unlike other superficially similar games completely non-competitive. You are the lone master of your world with no rivals to worry about. And even if you manage to go bankrupt, it doesn’t mean the end of the game.
Another aspect of FreeTrain is that it is a Japanese game. The graphics of the game depicts a Japanese scenery with paddy fields, Japanese cedar, and even Osaka Castle. The currency is the yen and you’ll be dealing with fictional Japanese companies such as Itsubishi or Toyoto.
[edit] Development
FreeTrain is written in C#/.NET and uses DirectX making it a Windows only game at the moment. However, with the ever increasing .NET compatibility of Mono, and a plan to port FreeTrain away from DirectX and instead use SDL, the game will support other platforms in the future.
The game architecture is heavily plugin based, with almost all game functionality implemented by plugins.
Development is hosted by Sourceforge and modifications are done in Subversion. The project can be found at sourceforge.net/projects/freetrain. Future versions aim to include localization of the codebase which will allow multiple translations to be included. At this point it is intended for the internationalized version to officially succeed the original Japanese version.
