Post by cutcafe on Jul 13, 2024 6:51:08 GMT
Hello folks! I’ve been trying to find this game for a LONG while now, and after several unsuccessful solo investigations + trying r/tipofmyjoystick again, I suspect this may be lost media. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original creator deleted the game, as it was pretty clearly made by a kid, but I can’t even seem to find LET’S PLAYS of it, which I KNOW existed because that’s how I found out the game existed.
The game was either called “The Smile Train” or “The Laughing Train”. I have included as much detail as I can below, but you are more than welcome to ask for clarification in the case anyone needs more.
The game was an RPGmaker Horror game (I’m pretty sure on Gamejolt), though the game itself didn’t have any REAL gameplay (see the “PLAYTHROUGH SUMMARY” section below.) The game was DEFINITELY made in the 2010s during the creepypasta era. Though to be more specific, it had to be 2010-2017. At most 10 minutes or less, though probably more accurately 5-7 minutes at most, and I’m fairly certain it was NOT made for any form of gamejam.
The game’s style probably ripped from several free assets, but the tileset looked like base RPGmaker tiles (though probably yoinked interior train assets from somewhere rather than being from the base engine) and the characters were pretty cartoony animals in a similar vein to Animal Crossing maybe? They were all animals though, including the player character. I don’t remember the exact species of all of them, but I remember ONE of the friends was a rabbit, and another was an orange tiger or tabby cat. There was you, and 2-3 other friends. During the “spooky creepypasta” parts later on, the tileset switched to something more hand-drawn looking (as if the assets were colored in by pencil) enough for me to think they may have scanned them in and converted them into tilesets. And the character portraits were changed to what can best be described as poorly photoshopped “hyper-realistic” eyes and mouths plastered on the original character images to add more “spooky”-ness.
I distinctly remember Cinnamon Toast Ken playing it back during their gaming days, as well as it being on their "Short Horror Games" playlist. However, upon going to Reddit, we were able to discover that the two "unavailable" videos (that I thought one of which was of the game) DIDN’T have the playthrough. So either they completely deleted the video, or I mistook it for HIM and it was actually played by a similar looking Youtuber playing Short Horror games around the time. (I know that’s not a lot to go off of, but I REALLY did think it was CTK up until u/Mirreat proved me otherwise.) But just in case it helps any, I remember the Let’s Player being pretty nice to the game (probably knowing it was likely from a kid), and the Let’s Player 100% had brown hair, was a young adult, and was male.
PLAYTHROUGH SUMMARY:
This is what I remember of the full game. It was a pretty short one, so luckily I was able to remember a good chunk of details from start to finish. I’m hoping to make a “mock-up” of the game pretty soon to aid further!
1.) At the start of the game, the characters were all on a train. You and all of the other characters were various animals, there were 2-3 friends and then yourself, and at least one of them was a rabbit of some kind, and the other was an orange tiger or a tabby cat. After sitting down, you and the other characters begin talking about rumors as you wait for the train to make it to its destination.
2.) The writing was pretty basic, likely written by a newer developer or a young kid, but the characters explain how when the train goes under the tunnel, there’s a rumor that you HAVE to laugh or else you get cursed. As they’re all talking the train goes under the tunnel, but seeing as you were distracted with the conversation and asking questions, you don’t get the chance to laugh in time. (Or something similar, though the Player Character forgets to/doesn't laugh)
3.) The screen goes black and it’s completely silent and says something like “You didn’t laugh…” with the image for the friend showing the “hyper realistic” version, with the poorly photoshopped eyes and mouth.
4.) After a bit, you’re brought back to the train, however it’s empty. And the player character remarks at the fact their friends are missing. They at first think it’s a prank of some kind, but eventually become scared. A part of me remembers the train being RED in this scene, but I’m not 100% sure, so take that with a grain of salt.
5.) Eventually they leave, trying to explore the outside of the train. However, leaving shows in the map title in the top right corner (which is common for RPGmaker games) titling the place “Hell”. I think this was the only part of the game that you could actually PLAY through, though even so there was no real gameplay. The game mostly amounted to walking around aimlessly and talking to NPCs for added spooky dialogue. There was no way to actually die or game over, and there were no battles or chase sequences.
6.) In this area the tilesets and character models were all done in this colored pencil-drawing style, with these shadowy figures slowly walking around the space in random directions (For those of you who've used RPGmaker, they almost certainly gave the NPC the movement route of "Move at Random" at a slower speed than player movement). Best description would be the bed amalgam from Undertale, but black and colored in with pencil. There's a pretty good chance they were scanned in by hand and then converted into sprite/tile sheets. I’m also pretty sure that you couldn’t talk to the shadow people at all, they were just there for the “spooky” factor I’m pretty sure.
7.) There weren’t many rooms, I think at most there were 3 rooms you had to go through, but I DISTINCTLY REMEMBER that the room with the shambling shadowy figures was the last room. And the first room was just a basic winding hallway that “zigzagged”, with NPCs as you go up. These NPCs being of our friends, which would show the hyper-realistic smile version saying ominous stuff (don't remember the exacts though, it was just generic “you’ve met a terrible fate” type of stuff.)
8.) Eventually though, after leaving the last room, the screen goes black again, where our character cries saying that they want to go home. After a few seconds, the sound of a train can be heard and laughing, where we fade back in on the train with all of our friends. Some dialogue happens showing that nobody remembers anything happening when we went under the tunnel, and calls us a crybaby, not believing us.
9.) From there, the game would end with the Player just being happy to be back. However, right before we return to the title screen, the game would give us a fake out, cutting to black again with the “smiley hyper-realistic” version of one of our friends again, and one last spooky piece of dialogue implying they never actually left hell.
Hopefully all of this helps! I’m hoping to make a video on it, and like I said above, I’m planning on making a by-memory-mock-up of the game soon to help even more! Thanks for reading! You’re more than welcome to ask for clarification (and of course, if anyone else remembers this game, be sure to drop whatever YOU remember down below too! Maybe we can figure out what Youtuber played the game, or even what happened to it in the first place!) Here's to hoping we can find it together, or at the very least a non-deleted Playthrough!
(PS: Wasn't sure if this should be put under the "Lost Media" thread or the "Unidentified Media" thread, and just opped to have it in this one seeing as we do have a name (Technically two, but I'm absolutely certain it was either Smile/Laughing Train) though I'm new to the forums so the mods are welcome to shove it into the right category if this should be "Unidentified Media" instead!)
The game was either called “The Smile Train” or “The Laughing Train”. I have included as much detail as I can below, but you are more than welcome to ask for clarification in the case anyone needs more.
The game was an RPGmaker Horror game (I’m pretty sure on Gamejolt), though the game itself didn’t have any REAL gameplay (see the “PLAYTHROUGH SUMMARY” section below.) The game was DEFINITELY made in the 2010s during the creepypasta era. Though to be more specific, it had to be 2010-2017. At most 10 minutes or less, though probably more accurately 5-7 minutes at most, and I’m fairly certain it was NOT made for any form of gamejam.
The game’s style probably ripped from several free assets, but the tileset looked like base RPGmaker tiles (though probably yoinked interior train assets from somewhere rather than being from the base engine) and the characters were pretty cartoony animals in a similar vein to Animal Crossing maybe? They were all animals though, including the player character. I don’t remember the exact species of all of them, but I remember ONE of the friends was a rabbit, and another was an orange tiger or tabby cat. There was you, and 2-3 other friends. During the “spooky creepypasta” parts later on, the tileset switched to something more hand-drawn looking (as if the assets were colored in by pencil) enough for me to think they may have scanned them in and converted them into tilesets. And the character portraits were changed to what can best be described as poorly photoshopped “hyper-realistic” eyes and mouths plastered on the original character images to add more “spooky”-ness.
I distinctly remember Cinnamon Toast Ken playing it back during their gaming days, as well as it being on their "Short Horror Games" playlist. However, upon going to Reddit, we were able to discover that the two "unavailable" videos (that I thought one of which was of the game) DIDN’T have the playthrough. So either they completely deleted the video, or I mistook it for HIM and it was actually played by a similar looking Youtuber playing Short Horror games around the time. (I know that’s not a lot to go off of, but I REALLY did think it was CTK up until u/Mirreat proved me otherwise.) But just in case it helps any, I remember the Let’s Player being pretty nice to the game (probably knowing it was likely from a kid), and the Let’s Player 100% had brown hair, was a young adult, and was male.
PLAYTHROUGH SUMMARY:
This is what I remember of the full game. It was a pretty short one, so luckily I was able to remember a good chunk of details from start to finish. I’m hoping to make a “mock-up” of the game pretty soon to aid further!
1.) At the start of the game, the characters were all on a train. You and all of the other characters were various animals, there were 2-3 friends and then yourself, and at least one of them was a rabbit of some kind, and the other was an orange tiger or a tabby cat. After sitting down, you and the other characters begin talking about rumors as you wait for the train to make it to its destination.
2.) The writing was pretty basic, likely written by a newer developer or a young kid, but the characters explain how when the train goes under the tunnel, there’s a rumor that you HAVE to laugh or else you get cursed. As they’re all talking the train goes under the tunnel, but seeing as you were distracted with the conversation and asking questions, you don’t get the chance to laugh in time. (Or something similar, though the Player Character forgets to/doesn't laugh)
3.) The screen goes black and it’s completely silent and says something like “You didn’t laugh…” with the image for the friend showing the “hyper realistic” version, with the poorly photoshopped eyes and mouth.
4.) After a bit, you’re brought back to the train, however it’s empty. And the player character remarks at the fact their friends are missing. They at first think it’s a prank of some kind, but eventually become scared. A part of me remembers the train being RED in this scene, but I’m not 100% sure, so take that with a grain of salt.
5.) Eventually they leave, trying to explore the outside of the train. However, leaving shows in the map title in the top right corner (which is common for RPGmaker games) titling the place “Hell”. I think this was the only part of the game that you could actually PLAY through, though even so there was no real gameplay. The game mostly amounted to walking around aimlessly and talking to NPCs for added spooky dialogue. There was no way to actually die or game over, and there were no battles or chase sequences.
6.) In this area the tilesets and character models were all done in this colored pencil-drawing style, with these shadowy figures slowly walking around the space in random directions (For those of you who've used RPGmaker, they almost certainly gave the NPC the movement route of "Move at Random" at a slower speed than player movement). Best description would be the bed amalgam from Undertale, but black and colored in with pencil. There's a pretty good chance they were scanned in by hand and then converted into sprite/tile sheets. I’m also pretty sure that you couldn’t talk to the shadow people at all, they were just there for the “spooky” factor I’m pretty sure.
7.) There weren’t many rooms, I think at most there were 3 rooms you had to go through, but I DISTINCTLY REMEMBER that the room with the shambling shadowy figures was the last room. And the first room was just a basic winding hallway that “zigzagged”, with NPCs as you go up. These NPCs being of our friends, which would show the hyper-realistic smile version saying ominous stuff (don't remember the exacts though, it was just generic “you’ve met a terrible fate” type of stuff.)
8.) Eventually though, after leaving the last room, the screen goes black again, where our character cries saying that they want to go home. After a few seconds, the sound of a train can be heard and laughing, where we fade back in on the train with all of our friends. Some dialogue happens showing that nobody remembers anything happening when we went under the tunnel, and calls us a crybaby, not believing us.
9.) From there, the game would end with the Player just being happy to be back. However, right before we return to the title screen, the game would give us a fake out, cutting to black again with the “smiley hyper-realistic” version of one of our friends again, and one last spooky piece of dialogue implying they never actually left hell.
Hopefully all of this helps! I’m hoping to make a video on it, and like I said above, I’m planning on making a by-memory-mock-up of the game soon to help even more! Thanks for reading! You’re more than welcome to ask for clarification (and of course, if anyone else remembers this game, be sure to drop whatever YOU remember down below too! Maybe we can figure out what Youtuber played the game, or even what happened to it in the first place!) Here's to hoping we can find it together, or at the very least a non-deleted Playthrough!
(PS: Wasn't sure if this should be put under the "Lost Media" thread or the "Unidentified Media" thread, and just opped to have it in this one seeing as we do have a name (Technically two, but I'm absolutely certain it was either Smile/Laughing Train) though I'm new to the forums so the mods are welcome to shove it into the right category if this should be "Unidentified Media" instead!)
