ZERO TRUST GAMES 
Every Line Is a Lifeline
Rebuild the rail network of a dying, dust-choked continent. Restore buried lines and old engines, reopen closed farms, mines and factories, and keep cities alive with the trains you run. Decay is your only rival, and you can never save them all.
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Cities need help faster than you can give it. The Lifeline Board ranks every city by time to failure, cost to reach and what it gives back if saved, and decline is always telegraphed, never sudden.
Deepen a lifeline or open a new one? Charge full rates to fund the network, or set relief prices so a town recovers sooner? Let a city go, and its migrants put pressure on the cities you chose to keep.
Most of the continent's farms, mines and factories have been closed since the collapse. Deliver a startup package of parts, materials, energy and workers, and watch the lights come on as new output appears on the map.
Link them into short, readable chains that feed the cities and the fleet. Every reopening is another triage call: the parts it takes could keep a town alive instead.
Pre-collapse corridors, tunnels, bridges and maglev beds lie buried across the map. Restore one cheaply and risk hidden damage, rebuild it at full quality, leave it buried or strip it for parts.
Track costs upkeep, more where it is exposed, so the size of your network is a commitment and cutting a dead branch is a real decision.
Old engines wait in buried depots and abandoned yards. Find them, reach them with track and restore them at a workshop; each has its own lineage, strengths and quirks.
Maintenance matters without the busywork. Set a policy per line or depot and place your depots well: overhauls happen on their own, and breakdowns are rare and follow neglect you can see coming. Spare parts are the real limit on your fleet.
Dust buries exposed track and wears engines down, and storms close corridors for days at a time. Every storm is forecast, so the answer is a network built to take it: depots, hardened track, bypasses and cities stocked ahead.
In the frozen north, winter is the clock. Fill cities with reserves during the short thaw, and use the ice crossings while they last.
Saved cities stabilise, then recover: districts reopen, population grows, and they pay full rates, supply workers and reveal buried assets nearby. Every outcome has a reason you can open: why a city is starving, why cargo waits, why a line loses money.
The long goal is the Spine, the continent's old vacuum corridor, restored by a network strong enough to carry it. Losing cities is a cost, never a game over; only bankruptcy ends the company.
Early concept art, not in-game footage. The final look may change.
A Toryn Saga game by Zero Trust Games. Explore the saga →