First covered by Alice O (RPS in peace) in 2017, Short Trip was a chill hand-drawn game about driving a tram through a mountain populated by cats. Back then, it was only available as a free-to-play browser or itch.io experience. Seven years later, though, and on this very day, it’s out on Steam. Not only that, it’s arriving with all the tramming of the original, with an added “scheduled mode” that adds more charm to an already lovely game.
Hand-drawn “over five years”, Short Trip is the work of developer Alexander Perrin. And in it, you use the left and right keys to drive a tram across a sketched mountainscape. As you trundle past trees and nice cottages, you’ll drop off cat passengers and pick up new ones. There’s no ultimate aim here, besides chilling out, absorbing the wonderful aesthetics, and feeling more zen once you’ve had your fill.
The new “Scheduled” mode syncs up with your computer’s clock to create a “tram timetable”. This means you’ll need to reach each station at the right time, with a view to chasing a high score. I imagine this takes away a little of the zen, but then again, nobody’s forcing you to play the mode. Who needs to follow a timetable, anyway? I know that UK-based trains certainly don’t.
It’s worth noting that you can still play the free web version over on Alexander Perrin’s official site – it just won’t contain the new scheduled mode.
Short Trip looks like a really nice way to decompress and you can find it over on Steam here.