Earning money


Reached an important milestone today: it is now possible to earn money by moving items from one place to another. And you can see how much money you have (top left in image).

The game is getting closer to being 'playable' in a very rough sense - but it's still boring as hell, because:

  • There are no limitations on your ability to move things between stations (other than carriage space) - so there is no real challenge, and the process of controlling the train is quite boring
  • There's no incentive to earn money (can't be used for anything yet)

I need to tackle the first point by adding the concept of fuel / power so that the train cannot run forever. And by fleshing out the train movement a lot more.

The second is more difficult: There needs to be a mix of functional and aesthetic/fun items and upgrades to spend money on that actually seem worthwhile. This is a subtle thing, because items that only serve to expedite the cargo sale process in a shallow way will still seem pointless (earning money to buy items that just make you earn money faster). The hope is to create longer term goals for the player, where earning larger amounts of money seems actually worth the time.

Lots to think about

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