Islands & Trains

Hey there, indie game world! Today we’re looking at one of the most charming upcoming indie titles out there. I’ve always had a soft spot for dioramas — there’s something genuinely artistic about crafting tiny worlds that radiate personality. And trains? Come on, who hasn’t been a wide-eyed kid watching a toy locomotive loop around a track? Islands & Trains combines both, letting you build your own miniature worlds with adorable trains running through them.

Let’s dive into a great interview with Fabian, one of the developers of Islands & Trains.

Could you share the story behind the project? How did the idea originate, and what motivated you to bring it to life?

It actually began in kindergarten, watching my kids build gigantic train tracks using classic wooden sets. I remember thinking: “Hey, this could be great in digital form.” Around the same time, I discovered the whole “wholesome” movement — an entire community I didn’t know existed — and instantly knew I wanted to make a game that would fit that vibe. Cozy, relaxing, wholesome.

I’m not exactly the world’s best “idea guy” (the game’s name gives that away pretty fast), but some major titles were obvious inspirations: Islanders, Dorfromantik, and Townscaper all have distinct styles and focused gameplay ideas. Since this was our first “bigger” non-mobile project, a small building game with trains felt like a great entry point.

We wanted to focus purely on the building aspect to keep the scope manageable — but of course, development in your spare time rarely goes as fast as you expect.

You’re a kindergarten teacher with a passion for gamedev. How do those worlds intersect?

What I love is that both areas let me inject my personality and creativity. I often use my (amateur) graphic design skills in kindergarten projects — last year we created a stop-motion film and a children’s book with the kids, which was an unforgettable experience.

My love of “wholesome” things naturally influences the kind of gamedev projects I pursue. I try to be a positive, supportive, and creative person, and I’m grateful that I can express that in two very different parts of my life. There’s even a spiritual layer to it all, but this probably isn’t the place to dive into that.

Building dioramas and tiny forest villages sounds delightful. What tools and customization options can players expect? How much freedom will they have?

This is still evolving. We’re working hard to add as much content as possible. Personally, I originally imagined the game as small in scope, but players keep sharing huge islands, so I’m reworking many assets so they require fewer steps to populate worlds.

We’ve also reworked the UX — you can now paint terrain instead of placing tiles one by one. I loved hand-placing each tile, but players weren’t thrilled with how tedious it was.

It would be great to offer different house colors or styles, but that depends on how smoothly development continues.

The tile-based system produces impressively seamless results, even allowing multi-level structures. How does your terrain-building system work?

Prepare for a bit of disappointment — there’s no secret fancy tech behind it. It’s entirely tile-based, and I hack things together constantly: intersecting meshes, hiding seams, and in general faking a polished look through lots of small tricks.

We’re huge fans of Oskar Stålberg’s work, but we knew early on that we didn’t have the time or skill to use something like Wave Function Collapse.

The terrain currently has 9 vertical layers — meaning 9 meshes total. I modeled each of the four sides to be visually distinct, and then each placed tile rotates the mesh by 90°. That way, repetition only becomes visible after four tiles instead of after every placement.

I’ve spent an enormous amount of time on these ground/rock assets because they’re usually the first thing players place, and even though it’s a grid-based system, I wanted it to feel less grid-like.

The toon-shaded style is beautiful. Meshes look hand-painted thanks to subtle gradients. How did you achieve this look?

Surprisingly, most meshes use very few gradients. Originally everything was a single solid color. But when I started working on buildings, large surfaces looked flat. I didn’t want to abandon the “one master texture” approach (a 256×256 texture used across most assets), so I added a tiny gradient strip for buildings.

Due to forced texture compression, some artifacts appear — and I use those intentionally to create the illusion of light texture detail.

We’re known for being direct, so here goes: how many Steam wishlists has Islands & Trains gathered so far?

Right now we’re at about 30,000 wishlists. When I started exploring the Steam dashboard and SteamDB I got obsessed with numbers and wasted too much time chasing them. Eventually I forced myself to return to the mindset of simply enjoying the journey and being grateful that such a small idea resonated with people.

I’m incredibly proud of the support we’ve received and the opportunities to participate in big Steam festivals and events. My dream was to someday hit 10,000 wishlists — we’ve tripled that. Just a few more and maybe I can finally fulfill my dream of running my own kindergarten with part of the revenue.