Making a British
Railway Game.

I am bringing the custom terrain, railway, water, scenery and loaded content together in the Network Britain rebuild. This week adds a joined track-and-tunnel prototype, rounded ground and a sparse environment review on the normal 12 × 3 km map. The accepted 0.1.3 playable remains a separate earlier checkpoint; no new numbered game release is issued by this work.

The Road to V0.2 stays at Foundations. Next come the affected validation batch, current appearance reviews and representative populated-map, moving-camera and save/return checks. Railway operations, passenger services, management and scenarios remain planned stages without release dates.

Follow my development service from the current foundations through railway operations, passenger services and management to V0.2 for my testers.

The calling-point board shows where I am now. Select a stop to explore its features and the checks needed before moving on. The stages are planned, with no release dates assigned.

I want to build a useful British railway, look after its trains and give them work to do. My love of video games and the 1980s–1990s is why I started this project.

The setting is a colourful British landscape, with the character of a carefully made model and railway parts built at real dimensions. Clear shapes and selective detail should make it enjoyable to explore close up and understandable when you step back to manage the railway.

Your fictional operator should have its own name, colours and identity. The ambition is a railway that feels like yours, shaped by the places and customers it serves.

I want separate places connected by real journey time: 12 × 3 km main-line maps, 8 × 8 km hubs and 1.5 × 0.8 km depot maps.

Every playable map has a gap around it. The same train continues travelling while I manage another place. A suitable main-line run targets about 3–4 minutes at 125 mph; connection times still need choosing. These remain the selected map sizes. A separate sparse 12 × 3 km environment fixture is now under review; the retained 4 × 3 km proving ground keeps its own history. The future starting building and terrain-editing strip is 200 m each side of the tracks, within a world that stays populated. Land activation still waits for the prerequisite engineering sign-offs.

This is the wider management game I want to make. The current work starts with the playable railway and Editor tools above; the service, freight and fleet systems below are the longer-term direction.

The current first-playable milestone demonstrates a bounded construction and train journey. The complete freight chain, staffing and wider management systems are still being developed.

A railway needs more than rails on screen. Construction, moving trains, changing ground, water and saved progress all need to agree.

These are bounded development results. Separate trials do not yet establish a finished combined game, unlimited worlds or performance on every computer.

I am developing ERA 8 for Windows PC and Linux, using Unity alongside railway, construction and save systems made for the game.

Windows PC & Linux

Both platforms are part of the development direction. Current build testing focuses on Windows; Linux validation remains ahead.

Scalable Graphics

The aim is to scale from a lightweight “potato mode” for modest PCs through to path tracing on capable hardware. That range is a development goal; the full set of modes and hardware requirements are still being worked out.

Unity & HDRP

Unity 6.6 and its High Definition Render Pipeline provide the Editor and rendering foundation. Current Windows development checks use DirectX 12, with DirectX 11 fallback checks.

Railway Simulation & PhysX

Railway data guides the train along the track. A fixed-step force model and native PhysX coupling constraints handle the connected stock.

Terrain & Surface Water

ERA 8 now uses its own column-based terrain with rounded surface presentation, matched collision and deliberate cuts and cavities. Current native water joins the development landscape; later environment refinements retain their own review and validation.

SQLite & Owned Content

SQLite supports coordinated saved state and recovery. Local AssetBundles load through Addressables with recorded ownership and retirement checks. Complete player save/continue and wider world transitions remain to be qualified.

I check what the tools actually do, what a save restores and where the time goes. Installing a package does not settle those questions.