Overview: build a wooden toy train track
20220918:
I played this game today with my son. We used the kid's room setting. For the most part, I had fun building a track with his input. Among the various interactions, he particularly enjoyed blowing the train whistle in the first-person view, which at times I found mildly annoying. Speaking of annoying, as he held the mouse to blow the whistle, the screen would shake, because he couldn't hold the mouse steady. The jittering view caused me to experience some dizziness.
As an aside, I didn't understand how to access the multiple train interface. It had happened at one point but I wasn't able to bring it up again.
Setup: PC. Keyboard and mouse.
Steam Game Time: 59 minutes
First Impression:
The video game aspect of building a wooden toy train track has multiple benefits. For example, the player is allowed unlimited parts, parts fit together without any problems (unlike real wooden tracks), and elevating tracks don't require any support. There are many decorations available that would be expensive to acquire and further take up a lot of room. On that note, there is no mess involved. On the other hand, for a kid that is my son's age, the ability to interact with real trains and train tracks cannot be replaced by this game.
As a whole, this game is an amazing sandbox for those who've ever dreamed about putting together a wooden toy train track without the expense of an actual train track (for reference, the game cost $19.99 without any sales and a 100 piece train set on Amazon costs $44.99; recent sales for the game on Steam allow the game to be acquired for $11.99).
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Unlimited parts
+ Many objects available (e.g., buildings, people, trees)
+ No mess (i.e., no need to clean up like in real life)
+ Endless opportunities with respect to building
Neutral:
~ Not fully accessible to the lower range of kids who would be interested in building wooden toy train tracks
Minor Con:
- Some of the building interface felt unintuitive, but I sympathize with the difficulty of building a good interface; perhaps it becomes more intuitive with time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracks_%E2%80%93_The_Train_Set_Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/657240/Tracks__The_Train_Set_Game/
20220918:
I played this game today with my son. We used the kid's room setting. For the most part, I had fun building a track with his input. Among the various interactions, he particularly enjoyed blowing the train whistle in the first-person view, which at times I found mildly annoying. Speaking of annoying, as he held the mouse to blow the whistle, the screen would shake, because he couldn't hold the mouse steady. The jittering view caused me to experience some dizziness.
As an aside, I didn't understand how to access the multiple train interface. It had happened at one point but I wasn't able to bring it up again.
Setup: PC. Keyboard and mouse.
Steam Game Time: 59 minutes
First Impression:
The video game aspect of building a wooden toy train track has multiple benefits. For example, the player is allowed unlimited parts, parts fit together without any problems (unlike real wooden tracks), and elevating tracks don't require any support. There are many decorations available that would be expensive to acquire and further take up a lot of room. On that note, there is no mess involved. On the other hand, for a kid that is my son's age, the ability to interact with real trains and train tracks cannot be replaced by this game.
As a whole, this game is an amazing sandbox for those who've ever dreamed about putting together a wooden toy train track without the expense of an actual train track (for reference, the game cost $19.99 without any sales and a 100 piece train set on Amazon costs $44.99; recent sales for the game on Steam allow the game to be acquired for $11.99).
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Unlimited parts
+ Many objects available (e.g., buildings, people, trees)
+ No mess (i.e., no need to clean up like in real life)
+ Endless opportunities with respect to building
Neutral:
~ Not fully accessible to the lower range of kids who would be interested in building wooden toy train tracks
Minor Con:
- Some of the building interface felt unintuitive, but I sympathize with the difficulty of building a good interface; perhaps it becomes more intuitive with time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracks_%E2%80%93_The_Train_Set_Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/657240/Tracks__The_Train_Set_Game/
Date/Time
Sunday, September 18, 2022
@
20:00
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