Hello Lumberjacks!
Can you believe, we are a bit more than 1 year in Early Access! We are super-proud of the progress we have made so far, yet it feels like we have just started. Could we have done more? Yes. Still, we believe that constantly adding value over time and listening to our audience will result in the best logging simulator out there.
This update brings the brand new Career mode to the game that brings the new level of challenge and will gradually grow in offering different goals to be completed. The Open world levels are still available in the game for players that will just want to enjoy the logging activities or play with mods.
So what is the Career mode? Idea is that You participate in the local Job market. Companies are present on the map and are seeking different kinds of services. Naturally most of them will be saw mills buying logs or pulp mills buying wood chips, but there are more ideas beyond that, such as wood product transportation between sites, production of different items, etc. You can bid on available jobs and try to deliver the required goods on time. Requirements include wood type, log length, etc. Some companies have their own delivery and will send their truck to Your logging yard. Yes, you have a logging yard now with a little cabin that can be entered, and access the job market through convenience of a laptop!
Because the log length is now a requirement, You can measure your chainsaw cuts with a tape measurement tool, while machines that cut to length - such as harvesters - will include the length measurement in their UI.
Over time, You complete jobs on time and to the specification, You will 'level-up' towards bigger and better paying jobs, delivering more logs and longer loads, requiring more sophisticated machines to complete the work. In the near future, You will be able to expand your logging area, and eventually move to a bigger logging yard with more storage space and more facilities.
Now, a little bit about our plans in 2021. The 2020 was mainly focused on the graphics and controls, and we managed to reach our goals in terms of the look and feel of the game.
The 2021 will be about the game mechanics itself, we will make the Career mode more complex and develop more activities to do on the map, including new vehicles, etc. The rough aim is to double the number of available vehicles in the game in 2021. Next to this, we will spend more time to bring up the modding capabilities and allow You to import custom vehicles and maps made by our modding community - hopefully bringing mods to Steam Workshop some time during 2021.
Hope that you all enjoy the update and happy logging!