Three Questions with Trains of the Century’s — Conductor Jake
Welcome to “Three Questions” .
Where we ask a NFT Creator three questions before their next release.
This week’s guest will be Conductor Jake. He is a Co-Founder and Creative Director of ‘Train of the Century’
01. What is “Train of the Century”?
Yeah, so it’s a Train Simulation game. People own the NFT Components that make up a train ( Locomotive, Conductors and /Rail Cars). They can haul freight around to other stations in the form of Commodity NFTs. Players own the Stations too, and the stations make commissions on the Freight thats transported.
Beta has been ongoing since Late October and the first official version (V1) is launching March 31st.
02. Why Trains? What inspired this project?
I’ve been a long-time fan of simulator games — I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into games like Civilization and RollerCoaster Tycoon. That passion for gaming collided with NFTs back in late 2020 when Conductor Ryan introduced me to the WAX blockchain. We’d been friends for a long time and are both creative guys. We’d never worked on a large project together, but we knew how complimentary our skillsets were. Ryan is a very gifted developer, while I’m the chaotic, creative type.
We started talking about bringing those skills together in early 2021. The question, then, was what kind of project we were going to do. I’m friends with a guy who chases down and photographs trains, so my social media feeds were always filled with gorgeous shots of locomotives. After getting his permission to use his photos for the Modern Century Locomotives, it was pretty much a done deal. We were going to make a railroad simulation game on the WAX blockchain.
There’s something magical about trains that runs deep. These metal beasts resonate within the heart. They’re an external manifestation of expansion, growth, and potential. We knew that if we didn’t make a blockchain train game, somebody else would. Heck, the domains for “blocktrains” had already been purchased by somebody in early 2021 (and were apparently hastily abandoned).
I’d like to expand upon your question a bit.
“Why trains and time travel?” In addition to being a fan of simulator games, I’ve always loved science fiction. In my preliminary research into the history of trains, I discovered that humankind didn’t have a standardized method for keeping track of time until the invention of the train schedule. (To this day, some of the most accurate clocks in the world are the Swiss Railways Clocks produced by the Swiss company Mondaine.) The idea for time travel came from this concept of train schedules affecting time, and from a desire to expand the scope of the project — and there was the final layer of our game. It wasn’t long before we employed full-time writer, Conductor John, to develop an expansive backstory and “story mode” campaign for the game. It was actually Conductor John who came up with the name of the project — “Train of the Century” a play on “Turn of the Century.”
So, now we have our project outlined: a railroad simulator on the WAX blockchain, with sci-fi fantasy RPG elements. And it’s a big project! There were times we kind of wished we’d just made a train “mining” game… Kidding! But with the launch of V1, the fundamentals are now in place. It’s time for the fun stuff.
03. Tell us about some of the fun stuff we can look forward to?
The release of Version 1 is the foundation for many features that will be implemented in the coming months.
To name a few:
Station Gift Events
Station owners will be able to create events to incentivize other Railroaders to visit their Station. “Gift pools” of NFTs can be created to award prizes for these events. Station Owners will be able to set criteria for winning prizes during their event, including “visit X times this week,” “one lucky winner will be drawn from my Station Visitors,” and more.
Social Dynamics
Railroader Profiles will allow players to showcase their NFTs, in-game achievement badges, and more.
Player to Player Marketplace
Players will be able to sell in-game items and purchase items from other players using this in-game interface. All transactions will use Tocium as the currency of trade.
Additional Centuries
The story of the Centuryverse doesn’t stop with the Modern Century. Story Mode will expand to include additional Centuries from the past and future. These new (or old) Centuries will come with new sets of Stations, Locomotives, Conductors, Rail Cars, Commodities and Passengers. Conductors equipped with Portal Passes will can also be used in the new Centuries, as well as all Century Trains.
Train of the Century
Train of the Century is a brand new collectible NFT trading card game. There are different types of cards in Train of the Century which you can use to build your very own train. You’ll be able combine Locomotives, Railcars, and more. Have a completed train? As a Railroader, you’ll be able to load up on freight or passengers, plan routes, set a train schedule, and earn the in-game currency — TOCIUM.
Launch Version 1.0 — March 31st, 2022
