Relax Gaming

Chipy spoke with Leah Neutel, Head of Studio at Relax Gaming, to explore the creative direction behind Money Train 5.

The conversation covers the game’s visual influences, character design, evolving environments, and the role of animation and sound in bringing its journey to life. Read the full interview as posted by Chipy here.

Chipy: When the first visual brief for Money Train 5 was created, what was the central artistic idea that convinced the team it had found a genuinely new destination for the franchise that meant it was strong enough to bring out of retirement?

Leah Neutel: We actually couldn’t decide on one specific location, so we decided, why choose just one?

That became a big part of the idea behind Money Train 5. We wanted the world to feel like it was expanding beyond what players had seen in the previous games, almost like the gang was setting off on a much bigger journey.

That gave us the opportunity to introduce new environments, new characters and new game modes while still keeping the elements that make Money Train instantly recognisable. It feels larger in scale and there’s more of a sense of progression and story than we’ve ever had before.

That was when we felt there was enough here to justify bringing the series back.

Chipy: Previous Money Train games have drawn inspiration from everything from post-apocalyptic cinema to futuristic video games and science fiction.

Which films, games, artists or wider genres helped shape the visual direction of Money Train 5, and how did you prevent those influences from overpowering the series’ own identity?

Leah Neutel: There are definitely influences from things like Fallout, Silo and Tank Girl, just to name a few. We look at them more as references for atmosphere, environments and the way certain characters or characteristics can be presented rather than something we want to directly replicate.

From there, it’s very much back to the drawing board. We experiment with those ideas and work out how they can fit naturally into the Money Train universe and, more importantly, into the new narrative we're trying to create. Money Train already has such a strong visual identity that everything ultimately has to pass that test: does this still feel like Money Train?

The inspiration might help us find the starting point, but the final destination has to feel completely at home within the series.

Chipy: The Collector, Payer, Sniper and Necromancer have become instantly recognisable figures among players, but their appearance has evolved between games.

How did you redesign the returning gang for Money Train 5 while making sure each character remained recognisable at a glance?

Leah Neutel: We always try to retain a few core elements of each character. That could be their background colour, a particular weapon, their clothing, silhouette or another recognisable part of their original design.

Those details create a sense of consistency across the series. Even though the world around them changes, you should still immediately recognise the Collector, Payer, Sniper or Necromancer when they appear.

Once we’ve protected those key characteristics, we can have a lot more fun with everything else.

We make subtle changes to their clothing, equipment and overall appearance so they feel like they genuinely belong in the new environments rather than simply being dropped into them from the previous game.

Chipy: Money Train’s characters are not simply decorative, they are closely connected to what their feature symbols actually do.

When creating a new member of the gang, what normally comes first: the gameplay mechanic or the character concept? Was there a Money Train 5 character where one directly inspired the other?

Leah Neutel: It’s a bit of both. Introducing new characters into a game that already has such a large and established cast can actually be quite challenging.

We normally go through multiple iterations of each new character, putting them into different scenarios and looking at how their design works alongside their mechanic.

Sometimes the mechanic gives us the starting point for the character, other times something within the character design gives us an idea for how the mechanic could be represented visually.

So, there’s a lot of back and forth between the two. If I had to choose which one has the slight edge, though, I’d say the mechanic comes first.

Ultimately the character has to communicate what it does to the player, particularly in a game where there can already be a lot happening on screen.

Chipy: There is now a surprising amount of implied lore behind the gang and the increasingly dangerous world they inhabit.

How extensively do you develop that story behind the scenes, and are there environmental details, background events or Easter eggs in Money Train 5 that players should be watching for?

Leah Neutel: We have to be quite careful whenever we introduce a new environment because, regardless of where we take the gang, it still has to feel true to the series.

Money Train has a very strong following, so player familiarity is always one of our starting points.

From there, we look at where we can introduce new elements and gradually expand the world without losing what people originally connected with.

The train itself is obviously always a focal point, and watching that evolve from game to game has been really impressive. In Money Train 5, the environments play an even bigger role because you're actually moving through them, which naturally gives us more opportunities to build out that sense of a wider world.

As for Easter eggs, you’ll just have to keep playing and pay close attention to see if we’ve hidden anything new in this one.

Chipy: How have the animation, soundtrack and sound design been used in Money Train 5 to build tension and excitement for the players?

Leah Neutel: Sound is one of those things that can completely transform a game and bring the whole project together. We have a really experienced sound engineer who has spent countless hours refining everything, right down to some of the smallest details. 

A lot of those individual sounds might go unnoticed on their own, but collectively they make a huge difference to how the game feels. With Money Train 5 in particular, we wanted the audio and animation to support the feeling of travelling from station to station.

As the player progresses and the potential for bigger wins increases, we can build the tempo, tension and intensity alongside it.

The aim is for the player to feel that progression, that the further the journey goes, the more is at stake.

Chipy: The Money Train series feels like a crossover between a slot, a video game and a movie. How much further have you pushed that sense of spectacle in Money Train 5?

Leah Neutel: We’ve really tried to make Money Train 5 feel like an actual journey rather than simply another backdrop for the reels.

The moving reel set and changing backgrounds are a big part of creating that feeling. You’re progressing through different environments, and the introduction of new characters helps tie those locations and the wider story together. We’ve also given players two different variants within the same game, which adds another layer of choice and makes the experience feel bigger than previous entries.

Everything is designed around this idea of movement and progression. The player is deciding how they want to experience the game, or maybe I should say, deciding where they want the Money Train to take them.

Chipy: Would it be safe to assume that there’s now even more to come from the franchise now that we’ve taken a dive back into things?

Leah Neutel:  You’ll have to stay tuned to find out! What I will say is that the changes we’ve made to the mechanic, the expanded world and the introduction of new characters have definitely given us more possibilities for where the Money Train series could go next.

One of the exciting things about Money Train 5 is that rather than closing the door on the series, it feels like we’ve made the world bigger and opened a few new ones.

Whether we choose to walk through them is another question. You’ll just have to jump aboard and see where the train goes next!