In Off the Rails you play as a train driver, whose objective is to pick up and deliver passengers. However, you have competition, and must beat your rival train operators to both the pickup and delivery stations.
A match will start the player at a starting station, where each train is given ten passengers to begin with. Each train must then race towards the next station in order to gain more passengers, depending on who gets there first as well as the amount of space each train can carry will determine how many passengers each train gets per station. Races are primarily conducted by a test of control/skill, slowing down enough to go around corners without rolling off the tracks while maintaining a highest speed possible. To make the game more exciting and to add a touch of strategy, train drivers can purposely roll their trains off the rails. This doesn't come without risk though, as you may throw off some of your passengers, and driving a train off the rails isn't exactly efficient so you will move slower. This technique is however very useful for cutting corners to get to a station ahead of your rivals. Steering is possible while off the rails, and leaning is possible while on them, which helps vastly when taking sharp corners. The winner is then determined by a combination of both how many passengers they transported and how quickly they reached the end.
The game would also contain an upgrade system, allowing the player to swap out their main engine or their carriages. Each would be balanced in a way, such as a large carriage would be able to carry more passengers but would reduce the engine's top speed or perhaps an engine with better 'off rail' capability than 'on rail' capability.
The view point would in isometric, and controls would be similar to that of a racing game i.e. Up and Down Arrow to control speed and left and right for steering/leaning. It would also allow for both local and online multiplayer.
-Game play Genre, Action, Racing, Multiplayer
-Target Audience, General
-Reference image from the game, Pocket Trains
