Hello, Truckers!
We see your comments and your questions, we know you are wondering at what stage of development the game is, when it will come out, and why is it taking this long. We decided to shed some light on our status. Here are the responses from our head of studio Tomasz Węgliński–no one knows more about the game than him.
Why does development take so much time?
To be blunt: because at one point, about a year ago, we decided to redo most of the game. Here’s the story about how and why it happened.
We started as a small team of three graphic designers and one programmer. Then the team expanded a bit, and the project grew in scope a lot. Some of you were with us at the time, and some of the ideas that we included were actually yours (like the base of operations).
However, this was this small team’s first gaming project ever. It was their passion project. They are super talented (and almost the entire team is still here, it’s their game!), but perhaps there was a lack of experience in programming such a complex project with many interacting mechanisms. We knew we needed some veterans on the team. And we had the pleasure to get some really experienced developers to join us. Thanks to their gamedev experience and insights, we realized that our original methods weren’t optimal for realizing this vision.
The game that we had back then worked, but the more we added to its foundation, the less stable it became, and the harder it got to tie it all together. This was because it wasn’t started with the full scope in mind. Many ideas were added in development. We could’ve either try to somehow glue them together or make the hard but responsible choice and redo it. So we decided to completely–COMPLETELY–rewrite the code.
The game’s core mechanics stayed the same, but we wrote the driving physics, the weather, all the mechanics, everything, anew. Everything was made from scratch to be optimized and modular. Every aspect of the game is now compatible with other aspects. So, for example, if we change the weather, it changes the look, the world physics, the truck’s physics etc. All the systems are interconnected and react to each other instead of working on their own. We professionalized the game this way, and with this new, stable foundation, we now focus on things like quests, rewards, the world–all the things that make you want to play.
I realize that this was a big, time-consuming change and that many of our fans didn’t like the fact that we were taking so long, but it was necessary. I think the most important thing is that we didn’t change the core concepts–we only changed how we deliver them. This method is smart and future-proof, letting us easily develop the game, or use the systems in other projects if we need them. We are free to create within the game’s nice and friendly framework.
Can you reveal any dates?
Considering the above, and some other factors I’ll explain in a moment, we’d rather not commit to any specific date just yet.
The development status isn’t the only factor in choosing the release date. We want to choose a date that makes sense in the context of other releases. We don’t want to launch next to a game that’s going to take all the attention in the world. For indies, timing is everything, because we don’t have huge marketing budgets. And games tend to hold their date reveals until a month or so before the release–at least if they want to avoid delaying it.
So, to sum it up: when we know what games we’re up against when we’re sure our game is ready to go, when we’re sure that date makes sense in the context of other releases–then we will choose and share a release date.
What are you working on now?
We’re currently working on quests and missions, fine-tuning the structure and balance of the game, where varied types of missions, the weather conditions and the difficulty level of the cargo will influence the XP and money you get as a reward, and how it will affect your in-game reputation, which in turn will affect your further progress.
Demo when?
We want to make the demo ready for E3.
Will the game have wheel support?
We’re working on adding full wheel support. As you might have seen in our recent gameplay demo preview, steering wheel support is already implemented but we’re making sure that it will work on all the wheels out there.
How realistic will the game be?
To be precise, you asked about things like gearbox, trailer hitching etc. So: we have 10 forward gears, 2 backward gears, gear shifting will be realistic. We’re working on adding the mechanic of hitching the trailers manually, and much more. We want it to be a simulator, and moreover, not just a truck simulator, but a trucker simulator. You have to get out of the vehicle and do stuff manually.
How about coop/multiplayer/VR?
We know you’d like it, but first, we’re going to deliver the best single-player experience we can. We’re already researching the possibility of implementing multiplayer and VR, but we need to find a way to do it well, and make sure it’s going to be really good before we commit to it. This is on the table, can’t say if it’s gonna happen, we hear you, we’ll do what’s best for the game.
We hope that Tomek answered your most important questions. We’re very grateful for your continuous support and understanding, and we will do our best to match your expectations. We want to be open with you–hence this post. Remember that you can hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, we answer all the messages.
If you want to support us, wishlist our game and follow us. Stay tuned for more!