No one lives under the lighthouse Director's cut · published
Earlier this year, 4 pairs of hands from Marevo Collective decided to jam a short, fun arcade game about train driving to take our minds off darker thoughts and places.
Somehow it became the most unusual train-delivery arcade I could ever imagine, with dynamic, pretty challenging gameplay combined with incremental and roguelike elements, rollercoaster levels with beautiful visuals, amazing techno music and immersive sounds, and the best interface I've ever designed. It also took slightly more time (6 months) than we originally estimated, but with years of indie development, I think I'm finally getting the hang of project estimation. ːresmileː
We made an announcement that got some attention in April, released a demo a week ago during Steam Train Fest, and gathered some crazy train operators who enjoyed the ride. Still, the game somehow completely flew under the radar. None of the YouTube, TikTok, or gaming media people seemed to notice it; therefore, not a lot of people noticed it generally. And some of the people playing the demo seemed surprised it's from the guys who made No One Lives Under The Lighthouse, so...
If you're reading that, I'm glad someone got my message.
In the year 2167, there's not a lot of jobs left on Earth and elsewhere - most services are now provided by Labor Liquidation Machines. But in the darkest depths of outer space asteroids and moons, where the wi-fi signal is shit, and most of the resources required for LLMs and other electronics are mined, human labour thrives. After decades of automated job search during your hibernation, you are now introduced to the role of a Planetary Resource Optimization & Freight Infrastructure Technician. Congrats! So what do you actually do?
Imagine Overcooked, Factorio and a train simulator all arguing over who gets to stress you out the most.
You drive a train through a network of underground mining tunnels, manually hauling unprocessed minerals between stations and hubs while trying to keep an increasingly unstable logistics network alive.
You load, deliver, and unload. Pull levers. Keep the train systems from overheating. Try not to miss a junction. Upgrade your train and infrastructure. Protect your stations from the local alien wildlife and keep deliveries flowing... until everything inevitably starts falling apart. Then the shift ends, you count your profits and losses, invest in new upgrades, and head back underground for another round.
As you play, you grow from a Junior to a Senior Planetary Resource Optimization & Freight Infrastructure Technician. The job gradually becomes less about manually hauling minerals and more about building a resilient logistics network. You deploy Human Resource Units, ammunition, and drones to defend, repair, and automate your infrastructure.
You're constantly making tiny decisions on the go: what next station you drive to, should you deliver the minerals or make a turn to protect another station, should you spend time repairing it or bring more defences, invest in the train, automate another route, or forget all about that and just squeeze in one more delivery before the next quota timer expires? You're never completely in control, but you're almost always one good decision away from stabilizing.
And that was my main idea in designing a game like that: focus on providing you choices and options. While many train games are satisfying, they seem a bit boring for me, too relaxed and casual. We made one about desperately trying to make one more delivery while three stations are on fire and your management somehow still expects higher productivity. A game about train delivery that requires constant decision-making and solutions-thinking.
So PROFITS 2167 is a little stressful and somehow strangely satisfying from the way it tries to press it on you. That's exactly how I remember arcade machines feeling as a kid. Loud, colourful, overwhelming, and impossible to walk past without wanting to see what all those blinking lights and cool music were about. This game is my attempt to recreate that feeling on a PC. You don't pay for each run anymore, but you still spend every minute pulling levers, juggling systems, and trying to get better.
If you read all that and find yourself curious, please enjoy the free demo! So far it has 26 positive reviews; we got a lot of valuable feedback on what to improve from it, and already implemented some of the requested features (but you'll see them in the full released version; not much time to update the demo right now with a full release upcoming, to be honest).
The full version of PROFITS 2167 is coming out this August. It's a short game with 5 levels, and it plays around 4 hours of controlled panic disguised as resource management.
I'd love to keep expanding the game after release, add leaderboards, more maps and other fun stuff like full roguelike mode with deckbuilding. Though I don't think every game should go Early Access and go on a years-long journey of improvements and expansion; some games in my opinion, especially game jam games, should stay small and fun.
Other big projects are waiting for me, so I can't promise anything beyond quality-of-life updates, achievements, and controller support. Though if the game finds its audience, I'd be very happy to come back and build more fun for it.
If you're a fan with some troubles or feedback, an influencer with a request for a key, a digital media looking for some news, a publisher who would like to throw money at the development of cool stuff - try me at [email protected]
Have a good Monday and stay safe,
Vitalii
CEO, CMO, CDO and whatever else of Marevo Collective gang