Railed Up

A shooter inside tramways on suspended railways viewed from below, set in a dystopian future.

Take part in deadly settlings of scores between rival electricity providers, inside futuristic tramways on suspended railways. In Railed Up, everything is upside down. You see the world from below, in order to give a better view of those endless railway networks as well as the oppressively enormous city through which your quest will lead you.

It's a multiplayer game for one to four players. A solo campaign will lead Iskhar on his way up the layers of the lower city, while he faces each electrical gang and discovers all the deadliest weaponry of their tramways. Each gang eliminated means having their arsenal at your disposal, a much needed help against what's coming. The tone is very dark and violent, but tries at the same time to offer a dose of offbeat, cynical humor in its dialogues, which brings some lightness between the the ruthless confrontations.

The gameplay is "on rails", literally. You need to operate your tramway along the tracks of each arena, get ammunition as quickly as you can then shoot and destroy all your opponents in order to be the last one standing. Its challenge is based on restricting the player both in his movements since he can only follow the tracks, and his firing which can only be done perpendicularly to the tramway trajectory – except for some special weapons. So the choice of positioning is crucial.

The universe tries to blend different science fiction subgenres, including steampunk, tech-noir, dystopian fiction, etc. Graphics are entirely in 2D, using a mix of realistic shadings and textures with some hand-drawn elements - such as the characters' portrait animations. As for the musics, they're orchestral compositions with a distorted sound, in order to add a dramatic effect to the fights while reinforcing the impression of unease and technological nightmare.