March 14th, 2024
Since I initially decided to show the project publicly years ago, I had always wanted to stay transparent with my goals and intents as a solo, indie developer. I was, and still am, inspired by many other developers who also, in their own way, share their game dev journey with the world. And I strongly believe remaining transparent and honest with regards to what to expect builds confidence with supporters, followers and fans and builds a strong community. You’re enjoying the game, I’m getting feedback, we’re building a better game together.
As I said, I allow myself to be inspired by other devs. Some are awesome communicators with their YouTube channel; some are great game designers, gameplay loops have no secret for them; some are awesome coders and can make anything work; some are just outstanding artists. I follow the journey of many of them and try to learn as much as I can from them: streamlining development, planning ahead for a better gameplay, cleaning my asset development workflows, etc. I'm doing my very best to put everything I learned into making the best quality game possible, especially now that I'm working on the alpha of the game. The playtest was developed in some sort of testing mode, there's a lot of unpolished work as the goal was primarily to test the feasibility of the project. It turned out to be outstanding, and it's only a glimpse of the potential it has.
Use of the term "playtest"
Quick note before moving on. My use of the term "playtest" has been questionned a few times lately. With reason. Usually, a playtest is conducted with a closed group, both internally and externally to the studio. It is normally a version of the game with is much more advanced in development, with at the very least some sort of gameplay. What we have right now is more a tech demo or a prototype: showcasing only basic mechanics. However, the program that I'm using on Steam to give and control access to the tech demo is called "Steam Playtest". No matter how I would have wanted to called it, it would have been called a playtest by Steam, and they would have added the word "Playtest" after "Snow Plow" anyhow. Maybe I should have insisted a bit more the term "tech demo", but hey, regardless if you're trying the tech demo (prototype) or you'll be trying the upcoming alpha, consider the word "Playtest" as your type of access.
As long as we're running Steam's playtest program, you'll keep your access. At some point into the alpha's lifespan, we'll terminate the playtest and it will fall under Steam's early access.
Shifting point
Our game is getting major changes. The playtest we’ve been running for more than a year now served well as a prototype or tech demo. Many things from it were good, some were okay, some were bad.
For most of last summer, from a development point of view, I’ve been working on basically building a brand-new game out of the best of the playtest. In other words, the playtest that you know right now won’t be getting any more update. It has served its purpose. Making a 3D simulation game as a solo-dev is a big endeavour. The playtest proved it to be realistically doable. The proof: you’re enjoying it!
This “new” build will be the Alpha version, or if you prefer, version 0.1.0. I took this opportunity to migrate the whole game to the most up-to-date Unity 3D engine long-term support (LTS) version. This opens the door to many technological improvements. So the codes, mechanics and assets that were a success in the playtest are being ported to the Alpha, with most of this porting already completed. The playtest was only a start, we're only building from it now.
For instance, the vehicles are getting physics upgrades, part of which is a new 3D wheel controller update, allowing for much better and precise physics and behavior on the ground, especially on uneven surfaces and over obstacles. The mechanic simulation is also being reviewed for better simulation. Every category of asset (buildings, props, vehicles, etc) is getting a new development workflow as well as proper level of details (LOD’s) and optimized shaders for better performance. As a player, what you'll see is more consistent graphics and better performance. In a near future, customizable vehicles and equipment and systems simulation will be a thing.
The overall goal is to build a clean, performant, and innovative Alpha version of the game. I'm all into details in regards to the quality of the simulation. I want the trucks to behave realistically, the environment to be immersive, and the snow simulation to be credible. This is a simulation game, not an arcade.
First person view and vehicle interior
Having a first-person view and vehicle interior models was one of the most requested features from the playtest feedback. It is not a small task.
I’ve played too may driving games or game mods where the interiors were very poorly modeled. It totally breaks the immersion: you don’t really believe it. Not that a game needs good graphics to be good or immersive, not at all. But in a simulation game like this one, like American Truck Sim, like Farming Sim, like Snow Runner, you can’t cut short on the model quality.
For the past weeks I’ve been working on modeling, shading and texturing realistic, high-resolution interiors. Parts that should light up do, gauges work, switches flip, steering spins and handles move. Vehicles in the game are highly inspired by, although not exact replicas of, real-world vehicles. The interiors reflect that as well. Some features are very similar, some are just loose interpretations.
Lately, work has been performed to port and code the interior model into the game engine. At the time of writing these lines, all the major functions are coded and operational: camera switching, first person view control (tilt, pan), steering wheel spining, even the CB cord swings around! The work is not 100% done, many features are yet to be completed, but I wanted at least to get the important stuff working. Now that there is no doubt that it's working fine, I'm sharing my dev time along with world building and snow system overhaul.
Map
The map’s major layout has been figured out for a while now. I already had a good idea of the world I wanted to build. Since I even started thinking about this project a decade ago, I could see a small city in a valley, by the river, surrounded by mountains.
Earlier this winter, I shared on Discord a mockup of what the “world” will look like. On paper I have sectors laid out, major roads as well, and some other features. But with this mockup, I didn’t reveal any details for now, only the world layout and landscape. More will be revealed later. For now, I present you the region of Wintervale!
So this mockup is only a miniature 3D representation of the world layout. Obviously, the real map will be to scale and much much more detailed.
World building
I've been hard at work building the "open" world, which is, let's admit it, an other big endeavour. I'd ideally like the game to be happening in a world where you can freely navigate between sectors instead of having to choose in which map you want to play. In all transparency and honesty, it's going to take a bit more developement to find out if it will be doable or not. You might say: of course, we've seen it in many games! Yeah, but my resources are much more limited and the ones of AAA studios. I'm working with a game engine that wasn't developed for this scale, even tho it doesn't make it impossible. Some impressive games are made on Unity (ex: Escape From Tarkov). I've been doing much research over the past few years to find out the best ways to proceed, and I'm using all the best practices to make it happen. It is not as simple as just modeling a huge world, as it would be way too heavy, performance-wise. It has to be managed one small chunk at a time.
So I'll eventually find out if I hit a limitation of if I did it right the first time. So far, and the playtest proved it, my endeavours have been pretty successfull.
Worst case, you'll have to choose a map when starting a game. Best case, here's how I see it...
The world will be approximately 5 km by 5 km (3 miles by 3 miles). A big part of that world will be mountainous, as seen on the mockup, hence unaccessible. But throughout this 25 km² world will be laid out sectors. Sectors will be "maps", if you'd like. Downtown, fields, village, Old Wintervale, suburb, national road are examples of planned maps. These sectors will be loaded one at a time depending on your location in the world. In other words, the world will be streamed to show only relevant parts. Each sector will be further streamed in tiles in order to enhance performance even more. You might not notice it, but the playtest is already streamed in tiles. The goal in 3D games is always to show as little as possible with the player thinking the whole world is there. Parts of the world that are being unloaded will be replaced by low-resolution meshes so you don't see the difference from far away.
So the goal is basically to have different maps, except that they stream seamlessly at runtime which will allow the player to freely navigate around the world.
In order to build the world realistically, I'm using real-world mountainous heightmaps that I've tweaked for the needs of the game. Heightmaps are then used to procedurally generate basic topography in a realistic manner. Same for textures and vegetation: algorythms are used to realistically apply texture based using a bunch of parameters such as elevation and slope and populate vegetation as appropriate. It's a very efficient workflow that looks very promising. Sneak peeks will be provided as soon as it takes shape.
Performance
While most playtesters are getting very good performance, I've been seeing reports saying some are getting very poor performance out of the playtest. First thing to consider, the playtest has been only roughly optimized. It's hard to guess the performance of the final game, or even the alpha, as many parameters will play a role. Yes, the alpha and further versions will be much better optimized, but at the same time, they will contain much more elements. Also, more graphic setting options will be available in order to allow the players to deactivate or reduce settings that might be harder on their system.
One sure thing, you do need a dedicated GPU (graphic card). You don't need a high-end gaming PC, but a PC with integrated graphics will most likely not make it. Several elements of the game, including snow simulation, rely solely on the GPU. More precise minimum requirements will be published after the alpha is released.
Financing the project
As we discussed earlier, the project has proven to be realistically doable. Many people have been enjoying the playtest for almost two years now. That was the first step. “Can I put out a snow plow simulation game that will work?”. It can only get better from now.
Over time I’ve had people asking me for merch. Yep, Snow Plow merch! Other people who have been enjoying the playtest for free want to say thanks in the form of a financial contribution.
It’s always tricky in my opinion to accept money now for something that will be sold in the future. That’s why I’ve always been careful with this. But again, I went to see what other devs do. And indeed, merch is frequent, so are contributions or patronage during long-term developments. Some games rely on patronage to keep the price of the game lower for everyone to enjoy while financing continued development. Some developers share Dev Vlogs with access to development builds of their game with their supporters, just like content creators.
I would never dare asking for money for a product that is not yet to my standards. That’s why I made the playtest publicly accessible for free; not only for its playtest role but also to… share with the world! But if people whish to and can support the project, and for them it’s a way of saying thanks, well, sure! That’s what I do with projects I believe in as well.
Before we go any further, I won’t be talking about crowdfunding. Let’s make it clear. I’m not relying on a monetary milestone to complete the project. Since the beginning, I’ve been developing Snow Plow myself at negligeable costs. But, of course, there still are fees and expenses at developing a game. And it takes a lot of time, years, before seeing the first dollar out of it.
My goal has never been to make money out of this project. It started out as a personal project that got out or proportion and everyday it is fueled by passion. But let’s be realistic: at some point, it will have a commercial potential. So I’m expecting to put it for sale in the future. I’ve always said the price would be reasonable for everyone to enjoy. And I am strongly against microtransactions and other shady game industry strategies.
Nonetheless, it is thousands and thousands of hours invested in developing a game like this, and I can’t say no to funding this development time, covering some of the development costs, hiring more for faster development, and lowering the sale price in the end.
So I’m making a few announcements here…
Merch
Merch is here! No matter if you’re a snow plow operator, a gamer, or just a follower of the project, I’ve created a few pieces of merchandise that will please all of you. The merchandise is printed on-demand and regionally, based on you shipping address, from factories located in the USA, Canada and various locations in Europe. This way, we avoid over-production and minimize transportation. For every item sold, part of the amount goes directly to finance the project. Plus, you get a cool Snow Plow item. If there is great interest in this merch, more wintery items will be added next winter (Beanies? Hoodies?).
Merch can be accessed from our website's main menu. For now, what we offer is two coffee mug designs. One with the project's logo, one with the artwork.
Note that all merch purchases are made directly with FourthWall. Hence, for any inquiries regarding a merch order, you will be redirected directly to them.
Single-time contribution
For those who simply want to say thanks, just like you tip your barista, you can tip your dev!
Subscription
Finally, for those who want to offer a continued support to the project, you can subscribe to a monthly payment. Subscription will get you access to all dev blogs, monthly updates, sneak peeks, and dev chat all in one place, here on our website. Note that all donations or subscriptions are made through FourthWall, who will handle the whole process and payment.
If you happen to have a Patreon account and rather stay on one platform for all your subscriptions, you can alternatively head over to our Patreon page.
Supporting, tipping or buying merch doesn’t mean you won’t have to buy the game when it comes out. I want to be, again, very transparent about this. All those who have access to the playtest have equal access and will do so until the termination of the playtest program. At which point, everyone will have to buy the game to keep playing. But we’re still very far from this. So, based on the requests I’ve had, if you’re currently enjoying the game, or believe in this project and want to support it, or want to drink your coffee in the coolest mug, well you now know your options.
At a glance...
- In the snow lab, I'm working on upgrading the snow system. We already have a good foundation, but much more is needed to make it a state-of-the-art snow simulation. Work is already underway and more details will be provided in a future update.
- There is no date for the initial Alpha release, and there won't be any as I don't work with deadlines. You may follow the progress through dev blogs and monthly updates and make up your own idea. I'll provide a date when release is imminent.
- Many people have been proposing that we license brands in-game. For example, brand real-world truck brands within the game. Easier said than done, since this comes with some obligations in terms of accuracy and model quality, and puts some constraints on development. However, I have been approached by smaller manufacturers that offered to finance development in exchange to adding their brand on some snow-related equipment in the game. It's being seriously considered for the near future.
- We are just about to proceed with our first real-world truck sounds effects recording session. Part of the Snow Plow Project development team is a sound engineer and a plow operator, who secured permissions and equipment to proceed with a recording session which is scheduled by the end of March. This should really increase the realism of the simulation from an audio point of view and will be implemented as part of the initial alpha release.
In closing
If you're still reading, thank you! This was a long one, but it's a good thing! It means things are moving and the project is advancing. Many thanks for the support and feedback.
I hope you enjoyed the read, and I'll keep you updated with all the progress and post screenshots via our various platforms.
Cheers,
Eric