Heavy Duty Challenge Devlog #17: the HDC development update
Hi All and welcome to another Heavy Duty Challenge devlog. How have you been? Because we have been busy! Here’s the HDC development update:
1. New Levels – plural
Do you remember last time, when we promised a new level? Well, we decided to go a little further and build more of those. We are still using the environment of the Polish Jura region, but we have made two maps to play:
- “Jurassic Highland, Poland” is a truck trial level which will allow you to beat hardcore challenges in a sports competition. We use this terrain for the (separate) tutorial levels, too
Source: Nano Games, Jurassic level with a view of the castle.
- “Disenchanted Forest” is an open level for cross-country play and exploration
Why build an “open world” level in an obstacle-course-based truck trial game? To introduce a new game mode, of course, which we called Five Gates. It is a scavenger hunt of sorts – but in a truck! You go on a cross-country drive into a forest and search for gates to pass, for which you get points. But the forest hides many secrets and there is plenty of exciting, beautiful and funny locations to visit for bonus score.
Looking at the screenshots from the new levels, you will surely see a difference to previous iterations of the game – we’ve finally added foliage, bushes, grass and trees. Hopefully, you’re just as excited about this as we are – the feature was challenging to implement and keep the game optimized. But the team did great!
So far, all trucks looked awesome but very, very clean. Now they will get dirty as you play, to capture how real truck trials always end: with everything and everyone happy, but covered in dirt from top to bottom.
The game will be available in the following languages: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese & Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
6. Leaderboards
Getting leaderboards to work got us pretty competitive at Nano Games, and we’ll keep trying to beat each other in the trials until you, the Players, come along and put us to shame with your scores.
7. Platforms
As you remember from the last devlog, the game will be available on PC Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Porting is going well, thanks for asking.
On top of all that, we’re bug-fixing, optimizing, and testing, to make the game fun and high-quality.
We hope you enjoyed this devlog, stay tuned for more. Add the game to your wishlist, and leave a comment or a question below. Join our Discord and Steam Forums, or find us on social media for more HDC news.
Heavy Duty Challenge Devlog #16: the first devlog of 2023
Hi everyone! Welcome to the first Heavy Duty Challenge devlog of 2023.
We’ve been working hard this year and thought you may want to know what our priorities have been recently.
1. New level
We are adding another environment to the game, we’ve called it Jurassic Highland. It is based on a region in Poland (where some of our Team Members come from) and features a medieval castle’s ruins (Tenczyn), as well as amazing rocks dating back to – you guessed it – the Jurassic geologic period.
Source: Nano Games.Tenczyn castle in the game engine's editor. Work In Progress.
2. New trucks
Three new trucks are coming to the game, each in a different category. A two-axle IFA, a three-axle ZIL and a four-axle Mercedes-Benz, from Europa Truck Trials teams called Zwickau, Zebra ZIL and BF71. We will have 12 trucks available to play when we release the game.
Not a trivial task, mind you. We’re working on tutorial levels to teach newcomers how to operate basic and advanced off-road mechanics of the trucks in the game.
4. Rewards, leaderboards
Still at it. Winning championships and completing truck trial events in the game will get you in-game money, XP and other rewards (trophies and such). High scores will also put you on online leaderboards, so you get bragging rights and internet fame.
5. Achievements
For those of you who like difficult challenges and are most dedicated to your games, we’re adding achievements. You can’t have a game without them.
6. SFX & music
Those players that have been with us longer than others, remember sound used to be an issue. If you listen to the game now, you will hear the sweet sound of real-life trucks and environment sound we’ve been all waiting for. We’re also adding awesome music to the game menus, loading screens, etc.
7. UI updates
We’re getting close to adding all necessary menu screens and popups to the game. We love the style and visual identity of the game, and we hope you’ll like it too.
8. Visual quality upgrades and VFX
A big and complex task, but we’re confident the changes we make now will bring smiles to your faces. We’ll show you more next time, we promise!
9. Porting
The game’s coming not only to PC (Steam), but also PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. We’re hard at work on the console ports and they’re going to be awesome.
10. Optimization and bug fixes
Finally, we’re making the game work well and smoothly.
And that will be all info for now. Thanks for your time, stick around for more news on Heavy Duty Challenge. Don’t forget to join Discord and Steam Forums. Find us on social media, add the game to your wishlist, and leave a comment or question below.
We would like to thank our Heavy Duty Challenge Community for your support, incredible energy, and insightful feedback. Thanks for your activity on all social media channels, questions, comments, and interactions. Thank you for adding HDC to your wishlist, there are so many of you there! You are awesome! Your enthusiasm means so much to us because we do this for you! We wish you a great new game this year;)
Wishing you all the best! Nano Games
Heavy Duty Challenge | Wishlist Now
Did you enjoy the last Devlog about upcoming features in Heavy Duty Challenge?
If so, don't forget to wishlist the offroad sport simulator on Steam! 😉
Heavy Duty Challenge Devlog #15: New Features and Content
Hi everybody! Welcome to HDC Devlog #15.
In the past months, we’ve been working hard at Nano Games to bring new features and content to Heavy Duty Challenge and push the development of the game closer to next year’s release. It’s time to share some info about the work.
If you have any feedback, suggestions, or simply don't want to miss out on HDC news, please join our Discord or follow the Steam Forums.
So what has changed in Heavy Duty Challenge? - New level. Do you remember our post about the trip to Iceland? All the scans, photos and videos we took back then were used to build a brand-new level, Dimmuborgir, the Dark Castles. Completely new terrain, a distinct visual style, even more challenging obstacles. We hope you’ll enjoy it all.
Marek - our Environment Artist and Łukasz - our Lead Designer at work;)
Dimmuborgir
Dimmuborgir
- Quality enhancements. Of course, we’ve enhanced the looks of our French championship locations and the sound of trucks after a visit to Europa Truck Trials in Montalieu-Vercieu, another trip we talked about in a previous blog post.
- VFX. It was time to add some visual effects. We hope the gif gives you an idea – the particle system is fully operational, and now we’re just introducing more VFX. It all adds to our fun with the game, so hopefully, you’ll enjoy it, too.
- The damage system. Not only will the “hit points” of the truck change when you ram into obstacles or crash down a cliff. Now, it all affects the truck’s performance. Drive a damaged truck, and your engine will stall, your gears won’t work, suspension will sag too much, and wheels may start to slip.
- Upgrades. You can now upgrade your truck to match your play style. You can tweak engine power, suspension stiffness, steering angle, and more.
- Reinforcements. Do you enjoy reckless driving, but it causes massive damage to your truck? Don’t worry, you can now reinforce the vehicle and protect vital systems.
- Tire air pressure. The behaviour of the truck on different terrain changes depending on the amount of pressure in the tires. So, we now allow players to change that pressure.
- Save game. Your best scores, truck damage, level progress, and many more details are finally saved safely by the game.
- UI. All the above system changes and modifications required upgrades in the user interface. It has better UX, looks and performance.
- Bug fixes and optimization. Always.
Thanks for joining us for this update on Heavy Duty Challenge development. We’ll be posting more when we have a bunch of new features to talk about. Don’t forget to join Discord and Steam Forums and say hello.
Hey Drivers, a new devlog is currently in the making!
Look forward to information about some VFX like smoke particles and much more. In the picture, you can get a first glimpse at the new smoke over the Unimog 416 already. 🧐
Heavy Duty Challenge | Release Postponement
Heavy Duty Challenge will now release early 2023 instead of the original planned release date of late 2022.
Thank you for understanding.
If you haven't yet, feel free to join our Discord to always stay up-to-date with HDC: https://discord.gg/nwf3GDua3m
Heavy Duty Challenge | Poznań Game Arena | Live Tournament
Today is the start of the Poznań Game Arena! For this reason, we would like to share our programme at the Aerosoft booth with you. Make sure to stop by booth 7c in hall 7 to participate in the Live Tournament and win a Logitech steering wheel:
If you are at the Poznań Game Arena, make sure to stop by at the Aerosoft booth 7C in hall 7! Among other things, you can experience Heavy Duty Challenge in the exciting MotionSim and win an awesome prize. More information on Thursday. We are looking forward to seeing you!
We are at gamescom! If you want to play #HeavyDutyChallenge, come to Aerosoft booth B034 (Hall 8.1)! We have prepared many surprises! We are looking forward to see you!💛 Nano Games Team
