Our interest has quite a lot of niches and corners that don’t typically get reported on, and the long-haul driving sim is considered one of them. It’s there for individuals who prefer to sit back and chill out, however it’s additionally the house of fans who construct their very own cab, from luxurious steering wheels to reproduction seats.
It’s considered one of gaming’s kinks, and Alaskan Street Truckers is the most recent to feed it. If we’re sincere, we don’t absolutely perceive the style, however we’re curious to know extra. With that in thoughts, we jumped on the likelihood to speak to Michal Puczynski, the creator of Alaskan Street Truckers, to search out out what brings individuals – notably these sim-loving Germans – to its wheel.
Hello, may you please introduce your self and your function on Alaskan Street Truckers?
Hello, I’m Michal Puczynski, the CEO of Street Studio. I make sure the staff has all the things they should understand our imaginative and prescient and if we encounter a fork within the street, I’m the one to decide on the trail, or at the very least to approve the staff’s selection.
May you give us a fast overview of the sport?
Alaskan Street Truckers is a trucking sport first, however one which comes with all the extra layers of what you’d anticipate from a full trucking expertise. You play as a trucker, not as a truck, which suggests you’ll be able to (and need to!) depart your car, go to outlets, put together for journeys, and eat and sleep as you’re taking up jobs that’ll take you to totally different elements of Alaska.
We’ve got an enormous open world, a full seasonal cycle, all types of climate, truck repairs and customization, and likewise base improvement. You’re a trucker, not a truck.
There’s such a big and passionate viewers for long-haul simulations like Alaskan Street Truckers. For individuals who haven’t skilled this type of sport, how would you describe the attraction?
On one hand, it’s about vans themselves. Who wouldn’t prefer to drive these big, monstrous automobiles? However, it’s concerning the Alaskan expertise. Do you know that Alaska is the most important state within the US however its inhabitants is lower than one million? There are big areas the place it’s simply you and the wild. The cities aren’t that massive they usually all really feel cozy and good. There’s something romantic about dwelling there.
For a trucker, each day is an journey.
The place do you even begin in mapping a complete US state for a participant to drive round? Did you and the staff get to go to Alaska for that course of?
Sadly we didn’t get an opportunity to go there, however we studied all types of maps, and spent a whole lot of hours on Google Road View. In consequence, we created a map that’s a condensed, however fairly devoted model of your complete central a part of Alaska. We’ve got all the key cities and plenty of small however memorable locations comparable to North Pole, a city with Christmas decorations.
If we sat an Alaskan in entrance of Alaskan Street Truckers, would they recognise a lot of the place they stay? What landmarks have you ever included?
I definitely do hope you’ll acknowledge at the very least some cities or landmarks. Nevertheless, these aren’t 1:1 depictions, however fairly locations closely impressed by actual Alaskan areas. Aside from cities, we have now a system of Factors of Curiosity that you could uncover, take a photograph of, and create postcards of to your assortment. These are locations just like the Igloo Resort or the well-known (however now eliminated) Magic Bus.
We even have some locations that we created which can be both “mushy” easter eggs or maybe foundations for one thing sooner or later. However I’ll hush about that for now.
It’s unimaginable how detailed a simulation that is, as you store for items and preserve your individual rig. It’s virtually 1:1 with the actual expertise. However is there a actuality of truck driving that you just selected to not embody, or a line you wouldn’t cross on this manner? Bathroom breaks, maybe?
For positive, there are issues that have been mentioned however didn’t make it to the sport. A few of them, like the bathroom breaks you talked about, would simply cross a line that we didn’t need to cross. We additionally determined to not embody looking for now, partially because of the complexity of the mechanics, and partially as a result of it takes you away from trucking which remains to be our foremost focus within the sport. However the world we’ve created is ripe for growth. First, we need to make an excellent trucker life sport. Then we are able to begin increasing it into one thing extra, if that’s what our followers want to see.
What’s your favorite element on the planet that you could’t anticipate gamers to search out?
My private favourite is a sure place impressed by a sure present I’m a fan of. I requested the designer to get inspiration from the present’s location. It’s an easter egg, however not a laugh-out-loud one, only a nod to a bit of artwork that I like. I’m wondering if gamers will discover it and make the connection.
Alaskan Street Truckers has a vibrant Discord group and also you often replace them with blogs and so forth. How essential has your group been to the event of Alaskan Street Truckers?
It was essential. Loads of preliminary concepts for the life/survival mechanics got here from the group. Their suggestions from the demo impressed some key adjustments to our mechanics. And their suggestions to what we present on Steam or social media makes us tweak the sport or artwork within the sport, generally in methods which can be refined however really feel essential to the followers.
We additionally acquire concepts for future expansions which can be ceaselessly shared on our Discord.
Can we anticipate extra content material for Alaskan Street Truckers sooner or later?
That’s the plan! We didn’t create a map of an enormous a part of Alaska to only drop it after the sport’s launch. We’ve got tons of concepts on the right way to increase it. And I don’t simply imply new map areas, but in addition what you are able to do within the locations that we have already got. It’s not at all times instantly associated to trucking as a result of we’d such as you to have the ability to finally expertise many, many various elements of life in Alaska.
What’s subsequent for the staff? Are you transferring state by state, or are there totally different challenges on the horizon?
We hope the sport will probably be profitable sufficient to allow us to maintain including to it. On the identical time, with a purpose to full Alaskan, we paused our different mission: American Motorbike Simulator. It’s a unique beast, extra story-driven. It will be good to renew work on it as a result of it’s a really distinct sport with a soul. We even have an concept for one thing else that might make the most of our expertise in simulators and add a totally contemporary new layer to them, however it’s waaay too quickly to debate it.
And eventually – Cash isn’t any object: what do you get put in in your long-haul truck?
A luxurious compartment for my pet companion!
Give the trailer for Alaskan Street Truckers a watch if you wish to see it in motion. Alaskan Street Truckers is due for launch in 2023 on Xbox Collection X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC – try the Steam web page. That doesn’t depart a lot time to get the fluffy cube and cup holders on order.
Enormous thanks exit to Michal for offering additional perception into the world of Alaskan Street Truckers.
