We're thrilled to announce that Loco Motive has been officially selected to take part in this years LudoNarraCon, with the steam event taking place all week from May 4-8!
LudoNarraCon is a free digital convention hosted on Steam, with a focus on celebrating narrative storytelling in video games.
The Loco Motive demo will be available to play throughout the event, along with other excellent narrative titles, developer panels, exhibitor streams, discounts and more!
We'd like to give a huge shout-out to Fellow Traveller for hosting this event and for their dedication to showcasing and supporting narrative video games, like ours.
To see the full line-up of exciting events and games, click here.
April Development Update
It's time for another development blog post!
Loco Motive has had an exciting year so far, with us recently showcasing the demo both on Steam and at this year's PAX East in Boston. The game received a lot of positive feedback from the public and the press, and we're thrilled to share that Hardcore Gamer named Loco Motive one of their Top Ten Games of PAX East 2023!
"Developers Robust Games made quite the impression thanks to a perfectly-cartoonish style, an intriguing setting, a great sense of humor and well-done puzzles that should hopefully challenge players even more in the final product. It all looks like another possible gem for the genre, and should be one train ride worth taking."
We couldn't agree more! We're grateful for the recognition and are committed to continuing to deliver a game that meets the expectations of our fans.
In the meantime, we've been working hard on the next large piece of the game, where players take control of Herman Merman. These events take place a little earlier in the evening, so we change up the lighting to reflect this. The brilliant sunset acts as a stark contrast to the stormy weather players will experience in the first section of the game.
One of the most exciting recent additions to the game is controller support. While the game uses a traditional point & click interface, we know that many players prefer to play games with a gamepad, and we want to make sure Loco Motive is as accessible as possible. Now the game plays great with both!
We're excited to continue sharing updates with you as we make progress on the game, but that’s all for now! We’ll be sharing more progress as we go, but in the meantime, you can follow us for updates on Twitter or join the official Robust Games Discord.
Loco Motive Demo Extended Availability!
We want to express our gratitude to everyone who played our demo during Steam Mystery Fest and shared their positive reactions throughout the week!
As a result of the popular demand, we're thrilled to announce that we will be extending the availability of the playable demo of Loco Motive beyond Steam Mystery Fest, so you have more time to check it out if you haven't already!
We appreciate all of the feedback that has been shared so far, and encourage you to continue to provide it in the dedicated thread on the Steam community forum!
If you enjoyed the demo and would like to stay updated on Loco Motive's progress, you can also follow us on Twitter!
Finally, be sure to wishlist the game for a notification when the full game launches!
Thank you again for your support!
Play the Loco Motive Demo during Steam Mystery Fest!
AAAALL ABOARD!
We’re very excited to share the news that a playable demo of Loco Motive is now available during the Steam Mystery Fest, running from 20th - 27th February!
The demo features a taste of what’s to come in the complete game, and we’re looking forward to hearing your feedback!
What's Loco Motive again?
Loco Motive is a comedy point & click adventure, packed full of deadly surprises, shocking twists and larger than life characters! Play as Diana, Arthur and Herman to unwrap the mystery and put your point and click puzzle-solving skills to the test.
What’s in the demo?
In the demo you'll take control of Arthur Ackerman as he navigates the inconvenient murder of his employer, a caboose-full of larger than life characters and more devious puzzles than you can shake a walking stick at!
The final game will feature plenty more, including full voice acting, a feature-length story and three playable characters!
Where can I post my feedback?
We're very grateful for any and all feedback! You can either share any demo feedback in the Steam community forum or chat to the developers in our official Discord! If you enjoyed the demo and want to find out more about Loco Motive, you can also find us on Twitter!
Finally, be sure to wishlist the game for a notification when the full game launches!
That's all for now!
Winter Development Update
Hello and happy winter! We hope you and your loved ones are staying warm and enjoying the season.
We're excited to report that development is going well, with us recently reaching a significant milestone in the project! We’ll have more to share on that in the new year, so let’s do a little post mortem!
It's been a little over a month since we showcased Loco Motive at AdventureX in London. This was the first time we exhibited the game, and we wanted to share our experience, describe what went well, and look at what could be improved upon.
First, we want to thank everyone who attended the event and provided feedback on our game. We're taking your comments and suggestions to heart!
During AdventureX, we confirmed that the UK narrative game community is full of supportive and welcoming people. As newcomers to the scene, it was clear that everyone wanted each other to succeed. We met many developers and industry veterans who came to the booth and shared their thoughts, ideas and advice with us.
We’re happy to share that people are very excited for Loco Motive! There were often lines of people waiting to play the game during the event, and many attendees came by afterwards to tell us how much they enjoyed it.
Overall, we had a great response and generated a lot of positive buzz. We believe this was due to the game being well-received at the event, word-of-mouth recommendations from other attendees and the fact that we didn't yet have a demo available elsewhere. We're grateful for all the support and feedback we received from those attending!
One area we could improve on in future is the length of the demo. In order to streamline the build, we disabled several puzzle chains in Arthur Ackerman's first act and focused on one overarching puzzle.
We believed players would get through the demo in around 25-30 minutes, but we noticed they were often spending over an hour in it. This suggests that we could have streamlined things further while still providing a good representation of the game.
In the future, we will likely create a shorter demo. This will help us better manage players' time and provide a more focused experience. Deciding where to end the demo was a challenge for us, but we're confident that we can find a good balance in future iterations.
We look forward to sharing more updates with you in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.
Thank you for your support. We can't wait to share Loco Motive with you!
