Tiny Trainz

Nowadays marketing is everything. Starting out young people with a colorful and engrossing playtime game is right in the middle of the market now.

Several years ago, I saw an ad for a game called "Army Men". All it consisted of was animated little plastic Army men that would obey your orders. They looked like toys because they WERE toys. They even had their feet glued to a plastic base. The movie "Toy Story" used them to great advantage.

You could run them all around your house in platoons; throwing grenades at the washing machine - whatever took your fancy. I succumbed to the hype and bought a copy. It was a sublime joy to use. I loved it. I even went out and bought the sequel to it. Turning on the stove burner and marching a group of them to their doom was FUN! They would actually melt.

So, I feel that perhaps Auran has jammed their tongue into one cheek and put forth some effort into a true GAME - not trying to be a simulator or anything else. Just a game.

Try to give them the benefit of the doubt here. If I were working there, and continually heard complaints of fix this, fix that, do this do that, I'd seek some prime time working on a fun project just to ease the tension. This would prepare me to get back to work on the important things refreshed.

Bill

Army-Men was a gas. An excellent departure from any sense of reality, kind of made you feel like a little kid again. Still have the whole set for my Play Station. Thanks, gonna have to dig that all out now.

Dave.....

John

It is not your eyesight, it is my memory. I remembered the dividing line up the bonnet/hood of the car as a track. Duh!

Peter

ckthomson

Thanks for your plug for North Bay County. As the first and still the only narrow gauge route to be built in to a Trainz version, we are very proud to have made it. Yes, we did leave out things that should have been there such as interchange tracks but, towards the end, we were scrabbling to finish and debug for the TRS2006 launch date. That was a hectic time.

One of the brilliant things about Trainz is that you can, as you are doing, tailor the route to your liking.

Peter

Ronayne said:

I don't care what any of you think. I have my own opinion and that will be stated below.

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I tuned you out right there.


Once again we have the Harvard business graduates lining up to impart pearls of wisdom on what Auran should and shouldn't be doing. Some of the attitudes in this thread - the same old entitlement attitudes where the whole world owes you something - are truly pathetic.

Businesses have to diversify, and they don't have to create products that every single customer will buy - exactly the opposite. Why are there four types of iPod? Why are there different types of car from the same company? Or locomotive? Auran need sales, and for sales they need more customers - not the same ones who have already bought the product and won't until the next version comes out. Use your brains, people, instead of throwing your toys out the pram/stroller/etc.

If I were Auran I'd pack up and leave, some people here aren't worth the effort.

Thanks Peter, I thought I was going nuts!

Guys, I think many of you may be looking at the forest instead of the trees. Tiny Trainz may well be a blessing in disguise, but that blessing may take a little while to filter through.

Please look at my first post and read it very carefully. Then read a few posts further down. Try to put two and two together like I did and you may just start seeing the bigger picture.

Many of you will know what I'm talking about and with a little luck and a "prayer", the folks at Auran may well have received small a lesson in diplomacy.

Tiny Trainz may eventually have a very positive affect on big Trainz!

Even the latest Newsletter confirmed this. Did you not read that the folks at Auran are finally going to produce tutorials for TS2010? I think we may be able to thank Tiny Trainz for that, but I also think it's only the start.

Hey, I've been Wong before, but I'm not as Dim as I Sim!

knight42 said:

I tuned you out right there.


Once again we have the Harvard business graduates lining up to impart pearls of wisdom on what Auran should and shouldn't be doing. Some of the attitudes in this thread - the same old entitlement attitudes where the whole world owes you something - are truly pathetic.

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Actually, such comments are more a reflection of one's immaturity than an indication of university education.

Hi Smiley,

My username??? Well, it's my old D&D character

Yes, I do remember the good old days, good to see you still here.

Best regards

Greg

Smileyman said:

Hey Greg!
Good to see you on here again (what's with the new username?)
I remember the days when you first added Trainzscript to Trainz (1.3) and we were all trying to wean as much info out of you as possible.
You even flew Greg Furlong out to your offices to see the new scripting ability, but I think that was just so we would pester him instead.


If only we had the same luxury these days.

Hope you're keeping well.

Smiley.

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Hey John!

Glad you like MVH

Let me know if you get up this way.

Best regards

Greg

Johnk said:

G'day Greg!

Great to hear from you. I love the home design program, but only discovered it after I'd already written a review about another one in the Trainz Resources Directory Newsletter. I'll give yours a hearing in a later edition.

I hope you'll be around for a while, because this place needs a bit of TLC right now. I'll be in Brisbane in late March/mid April and I'll try to catch up with you then.

Best wishes,

John

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Hey Vern!

Yes, I know... it's been a while

Really good to see you here Vern. How are things with yourself? Well I hope.

Best regards

Greg

Vern said:

Well, well! Good to hear you're still around Greg.

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maneus said:

My username??? Well, it's my old D&D character

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Ah, now you're showing your true Geekyness :hehe:

Smiley.

Have you guys ever played Lionel Train Town? I watched the video and this game looks like it started out as 'Lionel Train Town Two'. My thought is this wasn't something Auran created as much as it was something they bought from somebody else when that developer lost their backing.

This isn't a dig at the above post. I haven't seen the Lionel offering yet but I'm sure each will have something different to offer. it's just a comment about TinyTrainz in general

A lot of people have criticised Auran for wasting their time developing TinyTrainz instead of improving TS2010. Funny but, I have not heard a single word of criticism over other programs such as the sailing simulator.

For some reason, people seem happy to accept that the sailing simulator is a ring-in, but TinyTrainz was developed by Auran.

I have a sneaking suspicion that TinyTrainz was developed by a third party, and I reckon I know who that third party is. TinyTrainz looks like a fun game that should suck a lot of kids in. Hopefully they will eventually move on to Trainz.

I wish the developer or TinyTrainz, N3V Games and Auran if they're actually involved, every success with this product and every other product they develop. It can only benefit Trainz in the long term.

Sorry, but it actually looks like fun.
I already have a simulator that lets me build track across the open country. One that lets me run track through the kitchen could be a lot of fun.

Claude

My thoughts? I hope its cheap, because its kind of pointless. It just uses trains from TRS2010 and places them in a rather odd looking environment.

I see very limited success here. Maybe with kids, but with serious simmers, little or none

Ah, but Klinger, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

It's not my cup of tea either, but is it designed for adults or kids, or adults that wanna be kids?

Klinger said:

Maybe with kids, but with serious simmers, little or none

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I certainly hope so, because it's aimed at kids and not serious simmers. We already have an offering for serious simmers, Trainz - you may have heard of it.

In answer to the other questions being bandied around:

* Yes, TinyTrainz is developed in-house.
* Yes, it uses Trainz tech.
* No, the Trainz engineering team isn't heavily involved. Rob's doing much of the art though.
* Yes, you're likely to see N3V continue to develop products other than Trainz in the future. Auran was never a one-project shop, and the name change doesn't affect that.

kind regards,

chris

The game does look fun for the younger user (and us big kids on occasion), but the thing that put me off is the mention of just 10 locos!

Is this still the case?
That surprises me, considering what Auran have available.

Smiley.

Smileyman said:

The game does look fun for the younger user (and us big kids on occasion), but the thing that put me off is the mention of just 10 locos!

Is this still the case?
That surprises me, considering what Auran have available.

Smiley.

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I don't know the exact numbers, but TinyTrainz is not a "content collection game" like Trainz is. The routes are obviously and deliberately not prototypical, so the choice of train is arbitrary based on whatever you like the look of, rather than any real-world concerns. We don't need a massive range of trains and that would be more confusing than beneficial for the target market.

chris

Kinda weenie, isn't it? :hehe: