Other Games
From RailWorld
Two similar games are Yard Duty and Freight Yard Manager, which appears to be the sequel/remake of Yard Duty. Both these games and Rail World use top-down 2D views and control trains in a similar way. However, I feel there are substantial differences between the games.
Yard Duty and FYM are multiplayer on-line games. Rail World is a single player game. Yard Duty is focused on extreme realism of track and industry. Maps are expected to accurately reflect the true physical conditions, and cars have precise specific details about them, such as markings, the destination industry, and content, such as "Ammoniated Nitrogen". Rail World does not seek to be super-realistic. Track may be modified to make the game more fun or interested, or less tedious. No information about industries besides what cars they accept is collected, and cars are simply whatever kind of car it is. A tank car can be unloaded anywhere that unloads a tank car. That's not a bug; it's a design philosophy. Rail World simply isn't about extreme realism.
To give an example of this contrast: if a user created a fun but completely fantasy map with no basis in reality; Yard Duty/FYM would reject it immediately and completely. Rail World, however, would love to have it.
Rail World is also looking forward to scenarios and challenges focused on single player activities; things like dealing with computer controlled trains, signals, and managing trains quickly. Yard Duty/FYM do not appear (and I don't have the inside scoop) to be interested in this approach; instead, their main concern is "more maps" and "more players" (since it is an online multiplayer game). Creating maps is interesting, but I think we should be able to have more fun with the maps we have.
Along the line of maps, the question, "What makes an interesting map?" would probably get a difference response from Rail World vs. YD/FYM. The YD/FYM group is interested in yards -- that is, tons and tons of track used to sequence, sort, and manage trains. Rail World is more about interesting track arrangements, about loading, unloading, and moving cars. You won't find much in way of huge classification yards in our maps.
Finally, Rail World is committed to cross-platform and open source playability. Yard Duty/FYM are both closed source and, more importantly, available only for Windows.
