A cute on-rails puzzle game about a tram driver who wants to solve the problems of his passengers. Its objective is hard to find at first, but enjoyable once you figure it out; and the artistic elements help cement its status as a pleasant, relaxing experience. It's only about 20-30 minutes long and free to play, so what are you waiting for?

In The Tram of Wishes, you play as an ordinary tram driver, shuttling people up and down a little city just like any other ordinary tram driver would do. He loves his job and loves the people he meets, but he realizes that some of his regular passengers are not quite as happy with their lives as he is, and so he takes it upon himself to use his tram to try and help these people with the problems they're facing. A short and sweet story, and the same could be said about the rest of the game.

The gameplay is pretty simple: you travel along a linear tramway, stop at the handful of tram stops along your route, open the doors to let people on and off, and maybe ring a bell just for fun. This is all fine and good--I'd even go so far as to say that it's relaxing--but there's a bit more to it than that. Along with a bunch of uncolored silhouettes of people found on your route, there are five fully-colored passengers that will show up every in-game day--five unique characters with individual problems that you can solve just by shuttling them around the city. As the driver, you have the liberty to stop the tram anywhere along the track you want, not just designated tram stops. Several points of interest can be found between stops, such as labelled storefronts; and taking those unique passengers to these locations is the key to solving their problems. Each one will display little thought bubbles over their head that give you hints regarding the problem they're having and where you could take them to solve it, though it's not always as simple as "drop X person off at Y location". If you manage to solve the puzzle associated with each one, a star will appear over their head for the rest of the game (until you restart the program); and your objective is to earn a star for all five passengers.

Actually finding the game's objective was confusing at first, for several reasons: the dialogue never explicitly tells you what you can or should do beyond the basic controls, so you don't realize there are other places to stop besides the designated tram stops; English is not the developers' first language, so the translations are a little clunky and/or vague even in the Steam store page; and one of the five stars can be earned accidentally, giving you (or maybe just me) the wrong impression of what you should be doing. Once you do figure it out, though, it's pretty fun trying to solve these little puzzles. One star is rather straightforward, and another is so easy that you can get it without trying; but the others require some creativity or come with unmentioned conditions that can lead to accidental failure. Not to worry, though, as there is no limit to how many in-game days you can spend trying, no required order to getting stars, and any stars you do earn will persist until you shut down the game.

I wanna quickly talk about the presentation, because the visuals and sound do a lot to help carry the experience. The whole game is painted in a handmade watercolor art style, and everything about it is just plain gorgeous--though I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that. The "soundtrack" consists of only one song that loops for the entire game; but it's a pleasant song to its credit, and one that I can't say I had a problem hearing over and over again. As someone who's never lived around trams/streetcars/trolleys, it was oddly soothing listening to the sounds of the tram as it rhythmically chugged its way across the idyllic little city--at least until I put on the uncomfortably accurate screeching brakes, which is when I proceeded to kick the sound effects volume down a notch so it wouldn't drown out the music quite as much.

It takes maybe 20-30 minutes to finish, though I spent more time on it after my first run so I could put together a walkthrough. I can't even remember how I managed to stumble onto this one, but needless to say that I'm glad I did, because it made for a real nice time. The Tram of Wishes is a lovely little game, and with such a short run time and the low price of "free", it's well worth playing if you have some spare time and want something to help you unwind.

For more game reviews, check out my Curator page!

First time playing, I did not understand that there were tasks I could solve, I was just stopping at every stop. Then I read the comments and started getting the gist of this. Simplistic gameplay and art style and the latter is in cute watercolor. Ending music score is nice. The message is pretty nice. Story and riddles could have been a little deeper.

I like trains. 10/10

good gamE!

Tram Of Wishes is an innocent and relaxing game.

The concept of playing as a tram driver full of empathy for his passengers is heartwarming. The music is calming and cheerful. The art communicates the comfort and cosiness of a children's picture book, with lovely details like cute cats in the windows of the colourful houses. It is easy to solve the sweet problems the characters have but it's still a feelgood moment every time you do.

It is not the most robust game but so far it has either corrected itself or I've had enough knowledge of the game to be able to work around its issues. For example, on my most recent playthrough, one of the characters got on the tram at the last stop and I would have missed their thoughts entirely had I not stopped the tram and read them all before completing the loop to move on to day 2. The fact that the character got on at the last stop also removed my ability to solve the puzzle of how to grant their wish, since it became impossible not to grant their wish!

Nevertheless, I recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a moment of tranquility. Granting the wishes of passengers adds life and purpose to this game and unlocks a dreamy ending, but even just driving the tram from stop to stop is a soothing and charming pastime.

Faye Strawberry Curator

Simple, pretty game. It took me forty minutes because I didn't play it correctly at first (You have to restart if you don't get all the wishes the first day), but if you do it right it will probably take you less than 15 minutes.

I think it's worth the time if you want to have a nice, storybook like experience.

Nice free sotry game with watercolor artwork. Watch the trailer on the store page to get an idea of how to solve the simple puzzles. I drove around for about 20 minutes before realizing you have to drop people at the their wish locations if you want the ending. Either way it's a nice casual short sim that doesn't really need anything more if you just like the visuals but has a story if you want to 'do' something in the game. Nice half hour experience.

Like a little watercolored dream we all have once in a while....

A nice step back from more mind-taxing games. A great way to wind down in the evening/before bed with beautiful hand painted scenes and calming music.

It's a 30 minutes but it felt good. Loved the feeling, the painting and the smile it has left.