Not a Trolley Problem!
A trolley-problem incremental where the numbers go up instead of your morals: throw people onto the tracks, vacuum up the ink and grow the upgrade tree.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 7, 2026.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View demo on itch.ioitch.ioDemo · Free demo (itch.io status: In development): three districts, about 15 minutes; version 1.1.0 of 27 Oct 2026Free
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Desktop · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
- Coming soon · SteamSteamComing soon · Steam lists the release as 1 Apr 2027; no Steam demoPaid
Download through the Steam app. A free Steam account is required.
Desktop · Steam
About Not a Trolley Problem!
Not a Trolley Problem! is an incremental game built on the trolley-problem thought experiment, in which, as the store page puts it, “morals gave way to growing numbers”. Instead of choosing whom to save, you start the tram with a lever, grab chains of people with a giant Hand and throw them onto the loop; every hit leaves ink on the ground, which you sweep up with a vacuum and turn into coins. Coins go into a branching upgrade tree (a longer reach, a bigger Hand, a faster tram, a denser crowd, better luck) and Auto-Hands that grab and throw for you. Each district has its own tram (a battering ram, a saw or a laser), there are Tesla and ghost trams, a bell that brings in bigger crowds and a bomb that clears them, and residents come in rarities from common to rainbow and sizes from small to titan. Between districts the road forks into trolley-problem choices (one person or five? wake the cat or not?), after which the game shows how other players answered. The developer, Dmitrii Popov (d954mas), who runs the one-person company Neotolis, says almost everything is made with AI: Claude does most of the programming and also made the design system and builds the UI, Codex does most of the visual work, including 3D models it builds in Blender, and the game runs on the developer's own C engine, also made with AI. The game began as a 2D PixiJS prototype made in 13 days for Gamedev.js Jam 2026 and was rebuilt in 3D on that engine. The free demo on itch.io (three districts, about 15 minutes, in English and Russian) plays in desktop and phone browsers or as a Windows download; the full game is listed on Steam by NEOTOLIS LLC for Windows, with a planned release on 1 April 2027.
Content note: Dark-humour cartoon violence: the player throws people onto tram tracks, where trams ram, saw, laser and shock them and every hit leaves ink on the ground. Steam shows generated age ratings of 6 in Germany and Brazil (fantasy violence) and 15 in Indonesia. (Steam)
Screenshots and art
Not a Trolley Problem! key art · Steam store artwork
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn a post on r/aigamedev (17 Aug 2026, UTC) the developer writes: “Almost everything is made with AI. I mostly use Claude and Codex, both on the $200 plans.” and “Claude does most of the programming. It also made the design system and builds the UI. The game runs on my own C engine, also made with AI. The engine took about 5 months. The game itself has taken 1 month so far.” In a reply the developer adds that the $200 Claude plan was enough to make the game and the engine. The posts say “Claude” without naming the app (chat or Claude Code). The developer, who has made games for about ten years, describes their own part as design, feedback and judging feel and balance.
- DeveloperPost on r/aigamedev (24 Oct 2026): “All code, assets, models made with ai. Claude + codex.” AI writes benchmarks and helps find bottlenecks in the engine and game code; headless bots play full games for balance logs. — Reddit (u/d954mas)
- DeveloperAI disclosure in the developer's post on r/incremental_games (22 Oct 2026): “I use Claude and Codex extensively for programming, including my custom engine, UI, 3D models, artwork and text, including translations.” — Reddit (u/d954mas)
Per the 17 Aug 2026 post, Codex does most of the visual work (UI icons, 3D models, art and short videos). It builds the 3D models in Blender through Blender MCP and Python scripts, including a simple character rig, and made the trailer: through the engine's developer API it wrote Python bots that play the game, recorded the gameplay and edited the video in HyperFrames, with the developer giving feedback. The developer also names Codex alongside Claude for programming.
Runs on Neotolis Engine, the developer's own minimal C engine (C17; OpenGL with GLFW on desktop, WebGL and WebAssembly in the browser), which the developer says was also made with AI over about five months; the engine's source is public on GitHub, the game's is not. The 3D game took about a month to a first public demo, after a 13-day 2D PixiJS version for Gamedev.js Jam 2026. Headless bots play full runs in about 15 seconds and log income and timings, which the developer tunes with AI and then checks by playing; the developer says AI is good with numbers but does not understand feel or difficulty curves. Per the Steam AI disclosure, in-game sprites and icons and the store art were generated with Google Gemini and ChatGPT image generation and edited by the developer, and translations are AI-assisted with Claude and reviewed by the developer. The shipped game calls no AI service; the only outside call in the web build is the developer's own service for the fork-choice statistics.
- Engine / framework
- Neotolis Engine (custom C engine)
- Languages
- C
- Team size
- 1 (solo)Developer ReportedNeotolis (Dmitrii Popov)
- Initial build time
- About one month for the 3D version to its first public demo (August 2026); the engine took about five months before thatDeveloper Reporteditch.io devlog (d954mas)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Claude does most of the programming. It also made the design system and builds the UI.”- One month of making Not a Trolley Problem! almost entirely with AI (r/aigamedev)
- Not a Trolley Problem is now in 3D. First public demo (devlog)
- New demo: three districts, forks on the road and a vacuum (devlog)
Verification notes: AI use from the developer's posts as u/d954mas on r/aigamedev (17 Aug 2026, 16:45 UTC; 24 Oct 2026, 09:49 UTC) and r/incremental_games (22 Oct 2026, 09:46 UTC) and the developer's replies under the first post, read from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive on 7 Nov 2026; all three posts link the Steam page and the October post links the itch.io demo. The posts say Claude does most of the programming and, later, “All code, assets, models made with ai”; because the first post says “almost everything” and the October post also says AI “helps” with performance work, no AI code share is recorded. “Claude” is recorded as written; the developer does not say whether Claude Code was used. Developer: the developer's site neotolis.dev, which links the Steam page, introduces “Dima (d954mas)” and is signed “Neotolis · Dmitrii Popov (d954mas)”; it calls Neotolis a one-person game company, the basis for the team size of one. Steam (app 4654990, store page and API on 7 Nov 2026): developer and publisher NEOTOLIS LLC, release 1 Apr 2027, Windows, 11 interface languages, single-player, no price, no demo and no user reviews yet; its AI disclosure covers art, store images and translations and states that no generative AI runs in the shipped game. itch.io (7 Nov 2026): status In development, HTML5 and Windows, English and Russian, mouse, rating 4.1 from 14 ratings, AI disclosure AI Assisted, Code and Graphics; the first 3D demo files were uploaded on 14 Aug 2026 and announced in a devlog on 18 Aug 2026 (10:58 UTC), the three-district demo (1.0.0) followed on 10 Oct 2026 and version 1.1.0 on 27 Oct 2026. The first devlog says several hundred people played the demo at Comic Con Tashkent the weekend before; the developer's location is not stated. The web build's WebAssembly file was searched: its only outside address besides Steam is the developer's choice-statistics service (not-a-trolley-problem-choice-stats.d954mas.workers.dev), which serves the “how other players answered” results; no AI service is called. The 2D Gamedev.js Jam 2026 version (made with PixiJS, itch.io status Prototype, 4.0 from 57 ratings on 7 Nov 2026; the developer's July devlog cites 4.1 from 42 ratings at the end of the jam) is a separate page and is not recorded as a listing; its sources do not say how its code was written. The developer says the idea came from the trolley-problem meme, not from real events. The game was not played.
Development history
- 13–26 Apr 2026
The first version, a 2D game made with PixiJS in 13 days, is entered in Gamedev.js Jam 2026 (theme “Machines”); it stays playable on a separate itch.io page.
The developer's site announces a full version for Steam.
DeveloperNeotolis (Dmitrii Popov)The first public demo of the 3D version, rebuilt on the developer's own engine, is uploaded to itch.io for the browser and Windows; a devlog announces it on 18 Aug 2026.
Observeditch.io devlog (d954mas)The developer describes making the game almost entirely with AI on r/aigamedev: Claude for most of the programming, Codex for most of the visual work.
DeveloperReddit (u/d954mas)A new demo (version 1.0.0) adds three districts, forks in the road, ink and the vacuum, a rebuilt upgrade tree, phone support and an ending.
Observeditch.io devlog (d954mas)Demo version 1.1.0, the latest update as of 7 Nov 2026.
Observeditch.io
Game performance
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itch.io
Free in desktop and phone browsers (HTML5) or as a Windows download (6.9 MB); mouse or touch. In English and Russian.
Not publicly available: Gross revenue.
Steam
No price on the Steam store API on 7 Nov 2026. Windows only.
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: All-time peak concurrent players, Concurrent players, Steam reviews, Positive Steam reviews, Estimated owners, Copies sold, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Sources
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