Those fat cats at the top got it made. They run the show while you and I toil to keep everything running—even though they need us. Ever wonder how you might handle all that power if you were in charge? Enginefall, a “social sandbox” game about tenuous worker-boss relations set aboard a fleet of ever-moving trains, lets you do just that; assuming you can keep any germinating revolutions in check, of course.
Split between tailies, who endlessly tend to the train, and conductors, each vehicle is its own class system in a bottle. The game just got a new trailer at today’s PC Gaming Show 2025, and it demos some scenarios that might take place aboard your train.
In it, a conductor seals himself inside his control room to hide from his trigger-happy passengers, so they summarily drive him out of the office with a bomb, shoot him on his way out, and flee to a neighboring train. It’s the exact sort of gleeful backstabbing I’d hope for in a game where social dynamics are center stage.
As you amass resources you can upgrade your train with new carriages and take down other trains, assuming you’re the conductor or you’re happy with whoever’s at the helm. There’s strength in numbers and thus an incentive to keep things in a happy equilibrium; but knowing how most online lobbies end up, it’ll be a chaotic mess of informal alliances and bloody mutinies. Just how I like it.
It’s a mighty ambitious concept, so I’m eager to see if the folks at Red Rover Interactive can pull it off. Games like The Ship and Among Us have shown that mere seeds of distrust are enough to get players eagerly leaping at each other’s throats, so I do wonder how long peace will last. Enginefall sees a full-on worker class running around with machine guns only a train car away from The Man. Either way, I’d love to see “bloodless coup” manifest as a speedrun category.
If all that sounds tantalizing, say no more; Enginefall has a playtest inbound and set for June 13-15. You can sign up for that now and wishlist the game, which is set to release next year, on Steam.
