Publisher 2pt Interactive, of Heavenly Bodies fame, have announced that the charming, hand-illustrated side-scrolling game Short Trip is getting a Steam release on December 11.

While many video games are visually loud and full of gameplay elements, Short Trip is content on giving its players a single, calming experience. Created by Australian technical artist, illustrator, and interactive media developer Alexander Perrin, the title is more of an interactive illustration than a traditional video game.

As the cat conductor of a tram running along a mountain track, it is your job to ferry your fellow cats to their destinations. The left and right keys are the only controls you will need to drive the tram to various stations, taking you over bodies of water, through villages, and up and down mountain ranges.

Short Trip town and cat customers boarding the tram

Short Trip is more about the journey than the destination, as it encourages you to admire the game’s beautiful hand-drawn graphics while transporting your feline passengers. Perrin says this is a “slow play” game designed for players to relax after a long day, so it isn’t overly long and can be finished in a single sitting.

The complete version of Short Trip that will launch on Steam includes all the content of the original free web version (first released in 2017), plus a scheduled mode that adds a scoring system to your pick-ups and drop-offs, new paper backgrounds, and behind-the-scenes content. The scheduled mode will also be able to sync with your computer’s clock, creating a tram timetable that you can easily follow. This allows you play Short Trip in your preferred style, either by “speedrunning” the game according to a tram timetable or takingin the scenery as you slowly drive between stations.

Short Trip’s hand-drawn aesthetic took five years to create and is the first game in a collection of interactive web-based illustrations. According to the artist’s website, the game is a study that seeks to “capture the essence of graphite on paper within a digital context, and to learn more about web-based graphics technologies.” Perrin makes up one half of 2pt Interactive alongside Joshua Tatangelo, and together they have made games such as Pogocat and Heavenly Bodies.

Short Trip will be available on PC (Steam) this December 11. The free browser-based version of the game can run on WebGL-supported devices, such as most computers, laptops, and mobile devices.