Search for supplies to discover and afford construction.
Dismantle
Dismantling returns all construction materials, including earlier upgrades. Dismantle beds before their shelter.
You are travelling alone. You may meet others as you venture
farther into the forest.
Company
You've reached the end, congratulations.
The train emerges into sunlight.
Beyond the carriage window are apartment buildings, traffic lights, a bus waiting at a junction. You recognize the advertisements before you can read them.
The tracks carry you into a station. People turn toward the engine. Someone raises a phone. Others step back from the platform edge.
You bring the train to a halt.
In the daylight, you see what they see: rough boards bolted over the carriage windows, sharpened stakes along its sides, deep gouges in the wood. Smoke drifts past a station clock. For a while, you watch its hands.
The police arrive first. They ask where you came from, whether anyone else is aboard. You look back at the empty carriage.
One officer finds the claw embedded beside a window. It is longer than his forearm. He reaches toward it, then withdraws his hand and calls someone.
Soon, the platform is cleared. People arrive who show identification instead of asking for tickets. They photograph the claw, the repairs, the empty seats. Someone tells you the train will have to stay here.
An ambulance takes you to a hospital. A nurse brings you water and asks your name.
Somewhere outside, a car sounds its horn. Someone laughs.
You hold the cup in both hands.
Thank you!!
Is that it?
Yes, that's the whole game, it's not very long. Thanks for playing it!
Each traveller, you included, returned to their own world and time aboard the train. Everyone watched the other passengers disappear. Everyone arrived alone, with the train you repaired together. You only see your own arrival, but the others made it home too. Happy endings for everyone. Oh, except for that one guy who was deemed a wizard and chased. But he moved to another province and ended up doing pretty well for himself. He got a black cat, too.
The forest is an alternate world into which people and things can "fall". People lose most of their memories when they arrive, and time works differently there: People from different centuries arrive together, at exactly the same moment. Everyone you met was as new to the forest as you were.
The steam train came from outside that world too. It entered a tunnel and emerged in the forest. Railroad included. The final tunnel carries each traveller home, but how those crossings work—and how the same train arrives with everyone—remains a mystery to be told some other day.
What the forest ultimately is, why people cross into it, and why they lose their memories are left unanswered. So are the origins of the strange creatures that inhabit it.
But I have questions!
Good, I have answers!
What inspired this game?
The game is heavily inspired by A Dark Room.
How was the game made?
It was made mostly with Codex.
What happened to the other passengers?
Every surviving companion returned to their own world and time. Each watched the others disappear, just as you did.
Who kept the train?
Everyone! Everyone arrived with the train you repaired together. Only your arrival is shown because the story follows your perspective.
Wait, does that mean there are now multiple copies of the train?
Well... every traveler came from a different time, so "now" is not exactly correct, but yes, that same train ended up in very different eras. The guys from the Early Middle Ages who were there when the train arrived were very confused.
What is the forest, and why did we end up there?
It is an alternate world into which people and things can fall. What it ultimately is, why crossings happen, and why people lose their memories remain unanswered.
Wait... that train was fast, wasn't it?
Not particularly, no. It was only a steam train! It was traveling at 1km every 2 seconds. That makes it a mere 1800 km/h, which is barely 0.000167% of C.
So, it was fast as hell!! Also, percentage of c? You're a huge nerd, aren't you?
Oh, absolutely. I also solve Rubik's cubes and program in Perl.