Hello everyone,
This is our first dev blog, focused on the origins of Road Kings. We’ll take you behind the scenes to share what inspired us to bring this game to life, along with some insights and a few technical details. Let us know if you enjoy this kind of blog, and what you’d like to see in future posts!
Origins
About five years ago, over at Saber and Focus, we started kicking around an idea we were genuinely excited about: what if we built a next-gen trucking simulation game… but with a twist?
Our previous off-road titles had already shown us how much players love mastering tough terrain in mud and snow, but we also saw a growing desire to take powerful trucks beyond the wilderness and out onto the open road. That’s when it clicked: why not bring that same depth and challenge to a long-haul trucking experience?
With that vision in mind, Saber and Focus set out to find the right team to help bring this new take on the genre to life.
Saber Porto
Small, agile, and full of energy, Saber Porto, in Portugal, had supported a number of remasters and ports from their offices on the Douro river. They had built up capable teams in all aspects of development, including physics, modeling, animation, QA, visual effects, props, environments, UI, audio, production, and gameplay programming. After being integrated by Saber, their first title under the Saber Porto banner also gave them valuable experience in the release process. Their vehicle modeling, driving, and open world development in Unreal Engine was a natural fit for what was to become Road Kings.
The project began with veteran Design Director Peter L. Mack and his team creating Road Kings' original mechanics, setting, characters, and stories. While they were researching and prototyping, new leadership joined Saber Porto. Bradley Doan came on as Studio Head, bringing 30 years of AAA game development to the team, followed by Omar Fernandes as Art Director, with more than two decades' experience in AAA games and blockbuster movies. Bryan Griffiths entered as Technical Director, with veteran experience in developing gameplay systems and AI. Of course, many other talented developers make up Saber Porto, who I hope you’ll get to meet in a future post.
Our Vision
“Whatever you eat tonight, whatever you wear, wherever you sleep, remember: it's likely that it was a Trucker that brought you your food, your clothes, and your bed.” Johnny Cash, Sailor on a Concrete Sea, 1970
“Antarctica-like temperatures… deadly tornadoes… the logistics machinery must never stop. Truckers go about picking up and delivering freight.” Freightwaves, 2019
Peter L. Mack, Design Director:
Admittedly, I’m not a truck driver. But at the start of the project, the more I dug into the world of long-haul trucking, the more inspiration I found. I spoke with drivers I knew. How do you find work? How do you manage your time? What do you worry about? I read Finn Murphy’s The Long Haul, listened to “Long Haul Paul” Marhoefer’s Over the Road, and consumed dozens of other works and industry journals. Trucking games have a storied history, going back 40 years. But it was the real-world lives of truckers, and the ups and downs of logistics, that presented a wealth of subjects on which to base the game’s design.
What appeared, over and over, were themes of change. While freight is still the engine driving our world’s economies, it is in a state of profound transformation. Largely the same for a century, life for drivers has changed significantly in the last ten years, and today bears little resemblance to the one Johnny Cash sang about. Technology has brought AI optimization, warehouse robotics and predictive analytics into the office; over the road, drivers use digital telematics, GPS tracking and driving assists. Like many, drivers worry about AI taking over their jobs. Business strategies are changing to nearshoring, micro centers and Just-In-Case, following supply chain collapses over the last decade. And the weather is changing, with flash floods, heatwaves, and wildfires damaging roads, endangering drivers, and disrupting plans.
At the same time, news stories continue to be filled with tales of everyday hero truckers, reflecting a heritage of hard-working, dedicated drivers just trying to get by, and help when they can. Independent owner-operators became Road Kings’ focus: the far-ranging, long-haul wildcats that can be anywhere at any time of day and night, encountering people in need, and facing unpredictable hazards along the way.
With Change and Heritage as our guide, above all, we knew players wanted human reasons to be on the road. Dynamic systems surround each choice players make, giving them reasons to be out there. Choose a job, whether to overweight, where to go, when to repair or fuel, who to work for, what road to take, what hours to work, and what truck and trailer to use, all while balancing Hours of Service clocks, traffic, weather, and a competitive market. Meanwhile, the world moves by outside, with harried dispatchers desperate for a favor, troopers prowling the interstates, and unseen forces impacting the industry. Some players, we knew, just like the ride, high up in the driver’s seat, watching the sun go down as the miles roll by. Our goal was to have each living out their own unique story, with their own reasons to be going over the road.
Nuts and Bolts
Bryan Griffiths, Technical Director:
On the technical side, Road Kings is a significant visual leap for Saber Interactive, driven by our adoption of Unreal Engine 5.7’s latest rendering and simulation capabilities. By leveraging Nanite for dense, film-quality asset geometry we have increased the detail on all our vehicles ten-fold and with our foliage we have gone from a simple masked plane to fully modeled leaves. Using Lumen for fully dynamic global illumination and reflections, we’re able to achieve a level of environmental fidelity and lighting realism that fundamentally elevates the open road experience. From the subtle bounce of light across chrome surfaces to the depth and scale of distant landscapes, every frame is built to feel grounded, cohesive, and physically believable.
Beyond visuals, we’ve invested heavily in systemic weather and atmosphere to deepen immersion. Using UE 5.7’s volumetric cloud systems, real-time weather transitions, and improved fluid simulation pipelines, Road Kings delivers dynamic storms, evolving road conditions, and reactive environments that directly impact gameplay. Combined with high-fidelity audio propagation and in-cab camera systems tuned for long-haul journeys, the result is a more immersive and emotionally resonant trucking experience where the world isn’t just a backdrop, but an active, living presence.
Keep the Shiny Side Up
We’re beyond excited to finally be able to share this project with players. After all, a lot of time, care, and grit went into Road Kings, to create the most compelling, immersive, and fun trucking simulator out there. Did we do it? I hope so, but we won’t know until the players – you – give us your feedback. One thing I do know is that there’s a lot of road out there, and if all goes well, we’ll be listening, and we’ll keep driving.
Thanks for reading this blog!