Meet the Trucking Girl, Iwona Blecharczyk! She’s a YouTuber, Instagramer, book author and, most importantly, a truck driver. Iwona has driven huge rigs through most of Europe, Canada and the US, including driving a specialised truck along the ice roads and oil fields.
We’ve been fascinated with her career and when we started working on our Alaskan Truck Simulator we decided to show the game to her. And she liked it! Iwona agreed to tell us more about her life and what real trucking looks like. In part one, she will tell you a story of how she quit her job as a school teacher to pursue a career as a truck driver. Listen to her story.
See the video below:
Stay tuned for part two!
Check out the Movie Games Publisher Sale!
Hello, Truckers!
Our publisher, Movie Games, is starting a sale with all of their titles.
There are thematic game bundles, big discounts (even up to -90%) and some fantastic games Movie Games partnered with. Alaskan is there, in the upcoming games section, so wishlist it too!
Take a look and choose something for yourself!
Weather matters! Driving physics comparison
Hello, Truckers!
We know you wanted to know more regarding the in-game physics. Especially for you, we’ve made a video comparison – we show your truck driving along the same road during summer and during winter. Take a look at how the seasons change the conditions on the road!
Just please mind two things. The manoeuvre you see is extreme (high-speed turn) and we wouldn’t drive like this really playing. Also, the game is a work in progress, so some stuff is subject to change. Enjoy! :)
[previewyoutube="IUhoBX4UWjk;full"]
We showed a NEW TRAILER at the Future Games Show!
Greetings, Alaskan Truckers!
We have the absolute pleasure to bring you a brand new gameplay trailer, straight from Future Games Show!
What’s new? Let us explain, but first, take a look:
[previewyoutube="XHAxQ6xxkJY;full"]
We wanted to focus on what makes our game different–the aspect of living in the world of trucking, not just driving through it. But if you’ve been with us for some time, you already know what makes us different. For you, we have the new stuff.
The shots we included in the trailer come from a new biome. You will see that it is quite different from our previous gameplay presentations. But that’s just a glimpse of the richness of environments. We aim to show all the faces of Alaska. The region is enormous and varied. We want to do it justice but presenting you not only what you usually see in the movies or games. We also have the less famous, but equally beautiful corners of Alaska.
We’ll talk about the variety later here, on our Steam page, so stick with us. Add the game to wishlist and you won’t miss it. Remember that a demo is coming! We’ll publish it during E3, so stay tuned. Your feedback will be precious.
And oh, cheers to our buddies at MythBusters: The Game and Food Truck Empire, other devs from the Movie Games group, who joined us at the Future Games Show!
We’re on the MIX!
Hello, Truckers!
The Media Indie Exchange is one of the biggest events of this kind in the gaming world and this year is even more special: it’s the 10 year anniversary of the MIX and we are a part of it! Alaskan Truck Simulator is featured on the MIX’s Steam page here.
We’re there with our pals from the Movie Games group, who are presenting their games Fire Commander, MythBusters: The Game, and Food Truck Empire.
Were you watching the MIX’s 10th Anniversary Online Showcase today?
Ukraine, new logo & more
Hello, Truckers!
You might have noticed our three-week-long break in posting. Due to Russia’s unprovoked act of aggression towards Ukraine, out of respect to the victims, we’ve decided to temporarily cease our communications. We stand for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, who are now bravely and tirelessly defending their country against the invader. In the meantime, we have stopped all sales in Russia and Belarus. We wholeheartedly support peace.
To show the support for Ukraine, our publisher donated 1 000 000 copies of games for Humble Bundle’s Charity Bundle for Ukraine, and our teammates individually engaged in different kinds of help. If you can afford it, we do encourage you to check it out here.
However, a break in posting doesn’t mean a break in working. We have a new logo now! To be completely honest, that change was long due. When we first created our logo, we wanted to fit in with other games from the genre. However, right now we feel that Alaskan Truck Simulator is a strong title on its own. We feel that it is our game, and so we made a new logo that suits us and the game we are making. And we love it!
We can also now announce that we will show a brand new game trailer on Future Games Show. Watch the event on March 24! What’s more, we’re actively polishing and improving the game. We’re creating more skins so that you can customise your truck paintwork as much as you want.
We’ve also made a new biome!
We’re now returning to regular posting, so more content and more news coming soon!
Stay safe and stay strong, Truckers.
Diving into textures with Sebastian Strzeszewski
Hello, Truckers!
We’re continuing our series of interviews with the devs with Sebastian Strzeszewski, our graphic designer. The previous ones you can read here and here.
Hi, Sebastian! Tell us, what do you do in Road Studio?
At Road Studio I’m a graphic designer and I do all things 2D. 2D icons, concept arts, now I’m making trucks skins, a variety of textures, pictures and motifs both Alaska-themed and not.
How does the process of making textures look?
I start with a draft. I look at the truck, decide what to place where, and make a sketch. Next, I create a drawing or a pattern which I place on the 3D maps.
At all times I have a 3D model open in Blender. I rotate it and check the curvature, what should be in the front and what should be in the back. Next, I take a snapshot from the side of the truck and I place my pattern on a sketch. Let's say it's a river – it will start on the hood, go across the door and end at the back of the car where the sleeping compartment is. It's not a quick process. Everything needs to be carefully planned out and designed so patterns won't clash or that some element won't get cropped by the door, for example.
It’s a long and tedious process. 3D maps are pictures with a marked grid and elements placement, so when you place there a new pattern, you need to cut it, spread it out and see if there are no visible borders between different parts. I do it partly in Photoshop, where I place the patterns on the map, and then I check it in Blender to see if everything fits. It takes some time, but the effect is brilliant.
So what patterns are you making?
In the game, we’re driving our trucks through Alaska, so it would be awesome if the patterns and pictures mirrored that. The seasons in-game are changing, just like in the real world, so it doesn’t matter if I create a summer landscape or a winter one, but I won’t make some random zigzags, it’s not a racing game after all. I take into consideration what would the players want – some prefer minimalism, like a single line, and sometimes they want entire landscapes painted on their trucks. I’m trying to accommodate the tastes of different truckers.
Do you research the patterns?
Sure I do. I browse through pictures of actual paintworks, look at what paintings are available for which truck models, what truckers place on long hoods, and what’s popular on short hoods. And with all that I focus on the American trucks and Alaska in particular.
Right now I’m focusing on decorations, I’m not making stains, rust or any additional textures.
So what does making textures look like?
The timelapse was created in 3 working days from the moment the sketch was made to putting it all together. I have a 3D model and even though I’m not a 3D artist, I can check the model myself. I put the texture on and go to Blender to see if it looks alright.
The great thing is that I am my own art director – I have full creative freedom and decide on the patterns myself, and the team has very much artistic freedom, as long as it fits the tone we’re going for.
The first general sketch takes about 2 hours and then I move on to the actual drawing and checking out different elements. It takes about 1 day and then some more for fitting and adjustments. I don’t know how many skins there will be in the end. Currently, I’m approaching 30, and the idea is to have them be available on all the models.
Besides the truck skins, what more are you working on?
I’m don’t just do trucks. At Road Studio we’re task-oriented, now I’m making skins, then I’ll design icons, and after that, there will be key arts to make to promote the game. There will always be something new to do.
As I mentioned, I make some additional UI elements and many icons, for example menu icons, shop and products icons, icons for different roadblocks and so on. It’s an addition to my main job.
Icons have to be clear and legible. They cannot be too complex, otherwise, no one will know what they’re supposed to mean.
The icons must be clear, they cannot be big, I don't know what icons, because you won't see them. The player's screen focuses on what is happening in the truck and you need to see where you're going and what you're doing, so the UI cannot dominate your field of view. The point is to make the UI as simple as possible: not three-dimensional, one-coloured, readable, and clear. It cannot distract the player.
It’s a realistic game with realistic trucks, so I cannot make cartoonish icons, the UI has to fit the realism of the trucks and the world. I can’t go overboard with my designs.
How did you start working in Road Studio?
I saw the job offer on Skillshot. Before that, I worked with mobile games for Android, mainly the ones targeting the younger audience. You know, animated animals, puzzles. Also some 2D and 3D elements.
I always wanted to be a part of the main gamedev because here you can actually evolve, develop your skills further. It’s a great environment and you can show off your accomplishments. Most of my friends are in gamedev and I wanted in. I did it, and it’s fantastic.
What do you like about the game you’re working on?
The greatest thing about Alaskan Truck Simulator is the game’s realism. It is not an idealised racer or simplistic sim. In our game it’s not easy to drive around – there are obstacles on the road, weather conditions can seriously impact your experience, you need to put the chains on your tires when the road’s ice-covered, and so on. The gameplay is not mindless driving but you actually have to think about what you’re going to do next.
What more can you say about yourself?
I’m not really a gamer myself, I don’t have the time for it. I also don’t focus only on gamedev. I can animate and draw. I did start with drawing, then turned to digital painting. I have great respect for talented painters. I was interested in comics and mangas, I even drew some comics myself. There is no one person who inspires me. With comics it was Rosiński. But my interest in that kind of art is already in the past. Now I’m into animations and 3D.
Regardless of the season, I ride a bike to work, even in winter. Cycling is my second passion, right after graphic design. I cannot imagine driving a car every day. Today it’s a blizzard outside my window but it doesn’t matter to me, I just love riding a bike. I used to participate in cycling marathons in Mazowsze where you race at a distance of several kilometres through a forest. I got bored of it eventually but I still keep riding a bike for fun.
Did you enjoy the interview? Stay tuned for the first part of an interview with Iwona Blecharczyk, the Trucking Girl!
Become a street food tycoon in Food Truck Empire!
Ever wanted to become a businessman? A cook? Or maybe a designer? Now you can be all three at once! Our publisher, Movie Games, has announced a new upcoming game – Food Truck Empire.
[previewyoutube="DYFyKPP_N6Y;full"] What’s the game about?
Become the ultimate food truck tycoon. Create your fleet, manage menus, optimize your mobile kitchens and conquer the streets. From cheap burgers to gourmet masterpieces. From shady alleys to posh neighbourhoods. Find your customers, fill their bellies and build your Food Truck Empire!
Survival horror Lust from Beyond: M Edition is out now – stream, bundles & more
Lust from Beyond: M Edition is finally here! We have prepared for you a host of attractions for this day, including a launch discount, stream with the voice actors, game bundles, and more.
Right now, we’re offering you a 10% launch discount. You will also be able to save an extra 15% in numerous Complete the Set bundles with our fantastic partner studios. The available games include:
Moons of Madness
Chernobylite
Gas Station Simulator
Drug Dealer Simulator
Gamedec
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
The Beast Inside
Succubus
All bundles will be available at a 15% discount. Bundle discounts do stack with individual games’ main active discounts.
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!
