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I tried to make a whole journey playable — then players found the gun - Printable Version

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I tried to make a whole journey playable — then players found the gun - RedPassportDev - 08-22-2026

Hi everyone — I’m the solo developer of Red Passport: Ticket to Russia.

The original idea sounded simple: make the trip itself the adventure. You leave a Moscow apartment and travel toward Vladivostok by bus, passenger plane, train and yacht. I didn’t want those legs to disappear behind a loading screen; I wanted the airport announcements, cramped interiors and slightly uncomfortable waiting to be part of the story.

[Image: shot-11.1.jpg]

That created the design problem I kept returning to: how do you make transit feel slow enough to sell the distance, but not so empty that the player feels trapped? A lot of the game became small environmental beats — finding where to go, listening, looking through windows and deciding whether to touch something you probably shouldn’t.

[Image: shot-03.jpg]

And yes, that “probably shouldn’t” became the moment people talk about most. There is an unattended handgun on the passenger flight. You can ignore it and continue the quiet trip. Or you can take it, which turns the Novosibirsk transfer into this:

[Image: shot-06.jpg]

…followed by a detention cell.

[Image: shot-04.jpg]

The release feedback has been a useful reality check. Some players really connected with the atmosphere and the sense of a long, strange journey. Others called out rough navigation and technical edges — fair criticism, and exactly the kind of lesson a solo project gives you in public.

I’m curious how adventure players here feel about deliberately quiet travel sections. When does “slow and atmospheric” work for you, and when does it become dead time?

If anyone wants to try the trip (or make the worst possible decision on the plane), the Steam page is here:
Red Passport: Ticket to Russia on Steam

RE: I tried to make a whole journey playable — then players found the gun - Josh_Mandel - 08-24-2026

I wonder if there are any lessons to be learned from Penn and Teller's "Smoke & Mirrors" Desert Bus minigame. In Desert Bus, you had to...well, I'll let Wikipedia describe it:

"In Desert Bus, the player drives a bus along a straight road between Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas. There are no other vehicles, and the scenery consists only of dead trees and bushes. The player can open the doors at occasional bus stops, although no passengers will get on. At a top speed of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) and a route length of 360 miles (580 km), one ride takes eight hours in real-time. The bus automatically veers to the right, requiring the player to regularly counteract it, and the game cannot be paused. Completing a drive between the two cities grants the player one point and the option to turn around and travel the route in the other direction. When the player drives the bus off the road, it gets stuck in the sand, overheats, and must be towed back to the previous stop in real-time."

RE: I tried to make a whole journey playable — then players found the gun - srnickolas - 08-24-2026

(08-24-2026, 10:45 AM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: I wonder if there are any lessons to be learned from Penn and Teller's "Smoke & Mirrors" Desert Bus minigame. In Desert Bus, you had to...well, I'll let Wikipedia describe it:

"In Desert Bus, the player drives a bus along a straight road between Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas. There are no other vehicles, and the scenery consists only of dead trees and bushes. The player can open the doors at occasional bus stops, although no passengers will get on. At a top speed of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) and a route length of 360 miles (580 km), one ride takes eight hours in real-time. The bus automatically veers to the right, requiring the player to regularly counteract it, and the game cannot be paused. Completing a drive between the two cities grants the player one point and the option to turn around and travel the route in the other direction. When the player drives the bus off the road, it gets stuck in the sand, overheats, and must be towed back to the previous stop in real-time."

There is an AVGN episode featuring Desert Bus, it's quite funny