r/DenshadeGO

Hi all, big fan of Densha De Go! here, so much so that I've been developing an old west take on the game for Steam (Windows) called Steam & Glory! Today I launched a free demo with 3 early levels included.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4266820/Steam__Glory/

It's heavily inspired by Densha De Go!, but with a little more action and some more wide-open settings and locales. The game works with the Zuiki Mascon Train Controller for Nintendo Switch if you have one (shown here with custom skin applied), just plug it into your PC! It also plays well with gamepad or keyboard.

I hope this is of interest to the community and not flagged for self-promotion. I am very open to feedback if you have any and I hope you drop Steam & Glory a wishlist. Thanks in advance for checking it out!

Found at Ooigawa-tetsudo、Shin-Kanaya station in Shizuoka.

I’m not exactly a 3D design pro, so I had to stick to basic geometric shapes when designing the pieces.

I could not create gears systems and complicated electronics to make it more "real", so I tried using a microcontroller and a gyroscope (glued to the main wheel) to track the lever position and with this send keystrokes to the games, I also gave it some logic to center/sync it based on the "Neutral" position, it worked, but it was kinda meh... Also since it was gyro-based, I had to keep the controller perfectly level at all times; if I tilted the base even a little, it messed up the readings.

The lever also felt "dead" because it was just a smooth pivot. I tried sticking a vibration motor inside the lever for some haptic feedback, it worked, but again it did not feel great.

Then I had the idea of using a cheap ball plunger from AliExpress. I mounted it to the bottom of the main wheel "cradle" and carved some notches into the wheel. It worked amazingly well!! finally got that tactile "thump" whenever I hit a notch (and i also got actual notches).

Today I decided to ditch the gyroscope for a potentiometer to get better positional data, and that’s the setup you see in the video. It’s a bit of a Frankenstein build, but it finally feels like a real controller!

Link to Video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TBcNrLggT8
Notice there's a delay in the operation, but i got that fixed later, it was some old code from the centering logic the gyro used.

The screen shows different status and also allows to select the game profile at start (it needs to have different profiles for different games)

It's not perfect, but it works pretty good for what it costs: I'd say this is like $18 USD

I found out that the first game penalizes you for spamming the horn, I think im correct in saying its the only game that does this