Today, we’re posting on behalf of pdx_Peanut our Content Creator Manager for Cities: Skylines II. The Dev Diary takes you behind the scenes into the making of the Region Packs! Let’s dive in and see what they’ve got to say!
Introduction
Hello everyone! I’m pdx_Peanut, but you may know me as BadPeanut! I’m the Content Creator Manager for Cities: Skylines II at Paradox Interactive. Today, I’ll be taking you behind the scenes to explore the creation of the Region Packs from my perspective. We’re getting ready to upload the Region Packs to Paradox Mods where you will be able to download them for free to use in your favorite city! These packs have been created by a long list of your favorite community creators, split across 8 different packs.
As Content Creator Manager, my responsibilities (among others) include knowing the asset creation process inside and out to guide our creators, networking with community creators, providing hands-on tutorials, resource management, helping with scheduling and time management, and keeping them informed with project timelines as they evolve.
Asset Pipeline and Planning a Region Pack
At the start of the Region Packs project in 2020, I worked at Colossal Order, and as such, I was the main developer contact for the Region Pack creators. I provided them with an Asset Creation Guide — the precursor to what’s now available on the official wiki — answered any questions they had so early on in the process, and updated them with news or changes in the pipeline as pre-release development continued.
An early draft of the Asset Creation Guide
I became Content Creator Manager a little over halfway through the Region Packs project timeline, so when I joined Paradox, I jumped straight into a more hands-on role. I assisted the creators with managing their packs and evaluated the contents based on the agreements from the creators' sign-up agreements.
My first step was to ensure each team had a comprehensive asset list that included every detail - from assets to prefabs and, later, any props they wished to include. This way, we could keep track of everything and avoid overlooking any stunning buildings!
An early example of the French Pack asset list
Most teams were already using some form of content tracker, but it was important to unify them into a single format for easier viewing and management. This allowed me to assist the creators in monitoring their progress while maintaining a healthy balance between timelines and their personal lives.
Throughout the project, we experienced a handful of timeline changes, making the asset list a valuable reference for adjustments. Whether a team member had to step away for personal reasons or we brought on new creators to distribute the workload, we could easily update the document. It was also incredibly satisfying for both me and the creators to mark tasks as completed - it gave us a great sense of accomplishment!
Collaborating with Creators
From the start of the project, we created a private space for the creators to view information, ask questions, and collaborate with each other. It was important for everyone on each team to work together and plan the content they wanted to include in their packs.
When I became Content Creator Manager, I upgraded our workspace by setting up a dedicated Discord section for the Region Packs. This included channels for each pack, a general collaboration channel, how-to guide channels, and the essential voice channel, where we frequently gathered to work together and tackle challenges.
In these channels, creators could post questions with screenshots, seek direct feedback from me or their teammates, share techniques in modeling, texturing, and propping, or request one-on-one voice calls for hands-on assistance. Whenever a creator needed me in the voice channel, I prioritised being there as quickly as possible to offer support. I truly valued the time and effort of each creator, so I made myself as accessible as possible to collaborate with everyone.
Collaborating with the French Pack creators on Discord
Managing Feedback and Iterations
Since we began working on the Region Packs before gaining access to the editor, I dedicated a significant amount of time to reviewing the meshes and textures created by our teams. I highlighted areas for improvement and identified specific issues that could hinder a smooth import once they had the opportunity to test in-game. This approach ensured that when the creators finally began importing and testing their assets, they encountered minimal obstacles. And for any challenges that did arise, I was always available to help troubleshoot and resolve any issues.
This feedback loop was essential to the packs' success, allowing our creators' creative freedoms to thrive while providing space for edits and iterations as we gained experience with the game. This collaborative flow continued into the realms of importing and propping. Once we got our hands on the early versions of the editor, we began exploring the new propping tools and developing a smoother, more efficient workflow over time.
Propping the French Pack - credit to REV0 for the image
All our creators were fantastic to work with; everyone was receptive to feedback from their peers and myself throughout the process. This openness fostered a creatively expressive environment and helped maintain excitement for the new game both before and after its launch.
Ironing out the Issues
Along the way we’ve faced our fair share of trials and tribulations. While we started this project, and had our lovely creators on board in early 2020, we experienced the delays to the asset editor that the community still faces today.
With the editor being out of reach, we broke the timeline into sections - the first part focused the creator’s efforts on making meshes and textures so that once we got the ability to import into an alpha version of the editor they could.
More recently, we gave our creators access to an early version of the editor that allowed them to import and test out their meshes and textures - to see them in the game for the first time and make any adjustments they thought were best. While this version of the editor isn’t ready for public use, it allowed the Region Pack creators to begin propping and getting their assets to a close-to-final state.
Since then, with a collaborative effort between Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, we devised a temporary back-end solution that allowed us to manually take the creator’s nearly finished assets, add any missing components (like texts, translations and thumbnails) and package them ready to be uploaded manually to Paradox Mods. This required quite an effort of manual, not so user-friendly work and testing to get them to a place where you can enjoy them.
Work continues on getting the editor in a more final state, but that’s for another day!
Balancing Creativity with Constraints
At the start of the project, we provided creators with a general understanding of the technical constraints to ensure their work would be compatible with the game once we received the editor. This included guidance on texture composition and modeling detail.
For each zone type, we established average, minimum, and soft maximum triangle counts based on the existing assets’ triangle counts in the base game. While Cities: Skylines II doesn’t impose strict triangle limits, creators requested guidelines to help them gauge the appropriate level of detail. Below is a diagram illustrating that smaller lot sizes should aim closer to the minimum values, while larger lot sizes could utilise a higher triangle budget, approaching the soft maximum. Most assets created for a zone type would typically align with the average triangle count provided.
An early guide provided to creators of the Region Packs
Ultimately, asset creation for Cities: Skylines II is free from hard limits. We intentionally chose not to include this visual guide in the wiki Asset Creation Guide to avoid imposing restrictions on our talented community of asset creators, though we have shared the zoned building triangle counts for those who really wanted them. Primarily, we encourage the same design principles we shared with the creators: model what needs to be modeled without overdoing it. In essence, be mindful of triangle usage, but not at the expense of your design. This approach empowers asset creators to craft beautifully detailed assets while maintaining a sensible approach to detail.
If there was any doubt from a creator, or they just wanted reassurance, I was ready to take a look and review their model, giving tips on where they could adjust their techniques or make improvements.
Conclusion
That’s a glimpse into the creative journey for the Region Packs. Working alongside such talented creators has been a rewarding experience, and I look forward to continuing to work with our community. Thank you for reading, and feel free to ask any questions on the forums. I will try to pop in to answer whenever I have a spare moment. In the meantime, share with us what region you would like to see represented in any potential future packs! I hope you all enjoy the French Pack when it releases on Monday, October 28!