Hello, Truckers!

Some time ago we’ve started sharing with you on our social media recommendations of films taking place in or featuring Alaska. Some of these recs come from our community. Here’s the first batch of recs summed up.



The first thing to recommend was quite obvious. Into the Wild is a classic film about a real person, Christopher McCandless, who hiked across Alaska. A gorgeous film full of emotions which will certainly put you into the Alaskan mood.



Another rec by a community member is Big Miracle, a 2012 drama film, based on Tom Rose's 1989 book Freeing the Whales. The plot tells the story of Operation Breakthrough, an international effort to rescue grey whales trapped in ice near Point Barrow in 1988.



If you want to see the wild face of Alaska, try Grizzly Man, a documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who dedicated his life to grizzly bears. For 13 years he visited the Katmai National Park, featured throughout the movie. Be warned though: it’s a sad story.



The last rec from the first batch is a bit different from the rest, as it is a 1995 animated film. Balto, half-wolf and half-husky, gets a chance to become a hero when an outbreak of diphtheria threatens the children of Nome. The animation is based on real events of the winter of 1925, where two huskies Togo and then Balto led the sled dog team to deliver the cure to Nome.

If you want to see more film (or book) recommendations, follow us on our social media pages: Facebook and Twitter

What films or books about Alaska would you like to recommend to other Truckers?

Hi Truckers!

Meet Pawel Stolarski from our team and join him on a tour around the less-known aspects of game development. You’ll learn some fun and surprising things about our title, and see what kind of automobile buffs we have on the team!

So Pawel, tell us what you do for the game.

Pawel Stolarski: I’m a business development specialist with a touch of community manager. The latter means that you can always talk with me on our Discord. But what I do first and foremost is looking for interesting partners that we can add to the game. Let me explain why we’re doing this.

So basically, our game is set in a real place and we want it to be as realistic as possible. To support the realism, it would be nice to use real brands for such things like parts, your CB radio or a dashcam, instead of some fictional substitutes. This goes beyond the truck too, because you can get out of the truck and walk around. You will visit stores or gas stations, so having real places and real objects would be really nice. My job is to find partners who’d like to have their brands featured in the game.




Do the partners add anything to the game aside from their brands?

Yes, they add their expertise which translates to authenticity. Here’s an example. We’re in touch with someone who actually drove trucks up in the North of America. We had our trucks modeled after real trucks, so before this person came on board, we naively thought we'd done everything right from the get-go. But it turned out that the back part of the trucker’s cabin is arranged differently in the North. They have lower temperatures and they have a different way of preparing for the road than, say, in California. Even if you’re a fan of trucks, even if you scan a real truck, such details are not obvious. You need a real, experienced person to point such things out, so a partner who knows everything about the subject is invaluable for the developers.

Here’s another example. Working with companies from the trucking industry gives us deep knowledge about the design of the actual trucks. Not just how they look, but also their physics, the limitations of certain parts, the way they vehicles are assembled. It’s something that you can’t just google, and even truck drivers don’t realize many of these things. We’re making a simulator, so this too is invaluable. And we know that our community is demanding and trusts us to take care of such details.





You’re a total automobile buff, right?

I am! This is why I joined Road Studio. I’ve never been a game developer. However, I’ve always been a gamer and a petrolhead. After doing business development for IT companies for a couple of years, I decided to look for a job in a game studio to combine both my hobbies.

Road Studio was a blessing because it’s exactly what I had hoped to find. It’s a small team where you keep your voice, and it’s a team focused on road games. I have loved this genre since the early Need for Speed titles. Or even older racing games, because my first rig was the legendary ZX Spectrum.



Pawel’s game collection (or rather a small part of it)


As for myself being a petrolhead, I fulfilled my lifelong dream of having a Subaru. If you were raised on the Colin McRae series, you can understand why this was my dream.

Anyway, I got a used car and started my Subaru adventure. I’ve been tuning it for over three years now… with many hardships along the way. F.e. I got hooked with a local community of offroad Subaru fans and... well, I drowned my ride in what seemed like a tiny puddle. It turned out to be as deep as the car.



The incident in question and its aftermath


But I repaired it! But there came another “surprise” my tuned engine exploded with a little help with local rodents... But let’s not delve into details. I rebuilt it again, and it’s beautiful. I also have a less dangerous hobby of collecting Hot Wheels, which I always buy in pairs--one is always for my son to play with.



Confirmed: Pawel is a car buff


You’re not developing the game yourself, but you play it pretty much every day. What can you tell us about it from your point of view?

From my perspective, the most amazing thing is seeing it grow. I have the privilege of being an observer with unlimited access to new builds. While I don’t have the knowledge of the code, I’m an experienced gamer. From this point of view, seeing how the game evolves before your eyes is quite astonishing. The core game is really great and it’s being built upon now. But don’t take my word for it. You’ll see it once it’s ready.

You can meet Pawel on our Discord server, so feel free to join our community! Add our game to your Wishlist and follow us for more updates.

Hello, truckers!

Have you ever heard about the Alaska Veterans Memorial? It is the first memorial dedicated to the state’s veterans. Today we want to give you a sneak peek into how it looks in our game. Yes, we decided to include the memorial, as it is a very important landmark of Alaska.

Here is how it looks on Google Maps:



And here is how it looks in the game:



If that’s the first time you’re hearing about the memorial, here’s some info. The memorial was built in 1983 and features five 20-foot tall concrete panels representing the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. On each panel is a short history of that branch's contribution to Alaska. In later years two more plaques were added to honour the Alaska National Guard and Merchant Marines.

The memorial is located in a very picturesque place, between Anchorage and Fairbanks, both of which are represented in our game. The site is surrounded by trees, and on a clear day, visitors can see Denali (previously known as Mount McKinley) which is only 35 miles away from the site.

We could not dismiss the importance of this place, so we simply must have included it in the game! Are you going to stop, get out of your truck and visit it while passing by?

Hi, Truckers!


We thought it’s time to let you know what’s been going on in our studio. At this point of development, we’re adding to the well-established foundation of the game and we’re polishing it.

Let’s take a look behind the shoulders of one of our developers, Greg!



He’s now working on optimising the graphics, so our sim runs good on different hardware configurations. In the case of this particular photo, Greg is setting the cull distance for the trees. It’s Alaska, so you have to see quite a number of them. But which, how many and where? It’s a matter of balancing that’s light on the GPU but maintains the illusion of being in a densely forested area.

It can be tricky, and it takes time, but we have our best people on the case. :)

Hi folks!

We have great news: our friends at DRAGO entertainment, the team behind the hit Gas Station Simulator, have organised a contest where you can win the game for free! All it takes is joining their Discord.



Gas Station Simulator recently topped Steam charts, and for a good reason. It’s a unique and fun game loved by gamers and streamers alike.

If you haven’t played it, take this chance for a shot at a free copy. It’s also a great opportunity to discover other titles from DRAGO entertainment.

Good luck, and have fun!

Hello, Truckers!

Today we want to show you one more magical Alaskan landmark which you can find in our game – the so-called “Into the Wild” Bus or the Magic Bus.

Here it is in a screenshot from Google Maps:



And here is how it looks in the game:



The bus has a fascinating history. It is probably best known from “Into the Wild”, a book and film adaptation about Christopher McCandless, a hitchhiker for whom the bus served as a home for three and a half months before he succumbed to starvation. He was the one to call it the Magic Bus. After the book was released in 1996 and the film in 2007, the bus has become a peculiar pilgrimage destination for those who wanted to retrace McCandless’s steps.

Originally, however, the bus was just Bus 142, a part of the Fairbanks municipal transit system. In 1961, Yutan Construction Company purchased three busses, removed their engines, and towed them with a bulldozer along the Stampede Trail. They served as temporary site accommodation for the company’s workers who were building an access road between the Alaska Railroad and a nearby mine.

When the construction was finished, the other two busses were towed away, however, Bus 142 was abandoned due to its broken axle. As the years passed, the bus has become a shelter for moose hunters and hitchhikers.

In 2020, the Magic Bus has been airlifted and removed from the Alaskan wilderness. It is now being renovated at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, where it will become an exhibition.

Here comes the great part – in Alaskan Truck Simulator players can still visit the bus in the wild! Will you look for it?

If you’d like to support us, add our game to your Wishlist and tell your friends about it, it will greatly help us out. Thanks for sticking around, and see you next time!

Hi, Truckers!

Today we want to tell you a bit about how we translated the Alaskan landscape into the game.

For one, we’ve made sure that everything you see in the game actually comes from Alaska, meaning the Alaskan flora, architecture etc. But we’ve also created many landmarks inspired by their real counterparts. When playing, you’ll be able to discover many fun facts about these places.

One of such locations is the Igloo Hotel, based on Igloo City, an abandoned hotel from Cantwell that was never opened to customers. Here it is in our game...



And here’s how it looks on Google Maps:



Why the differences? Why not make a 1:1 copy? Actually it’s the same reason why you won’t find the exact same buildings in any games set in the real world. Building designs are copyrighted and it costs a lot of money and effort to get a license to use them. So the best that game designers can do is create something that channels their spirit.

And that’s exactly what we’re doing: we’re trying our best to imbue ATS with the spirit of Alaska.

If you like this post, we can turn it into a series where we’ll show you more examples of the places you can visit in the game. Let us know what you think about this idea!

If you’d like to support us, add our game to your Wishlist. This way you’ll give us an extra boost in visibility on Steam. Thanks for being with us, and until next time!

Greetings, Truckers!

One of the topics you raised recently was the uniqueness of our game. What is it that makes Alaskan Truck Simulator different and worth playing? We’re happy to tell you!

Long story short, it’s what we told you last week: you play as a trucker, not as a truck. But allow us to expound.

Creating a compelling simulation of the trucker’s profession (not just limited to driving!) was the main focus from the start. We wanted to make you feel like you’re an organic part of the world. Thus, you can exit the vehicle, you need to go and get groceries, cook food, eat, sleep, fix the engine, etc., etc. You even have your own headquarters that feels like home when you reach it after an arduous journey, and that serves as your base of operations.

Many of these ideas were implemented after we got your feedback, on Discord or here, on Steam, after our initial showing. The game has changed since then, and you’ve had a strong impact on its evolution. We’ve implemented many ideas from you, and we hope to talk about one of them in our next weekly post.

Also, we’ve put a lot of effort into the weather system. You could already see in our trailer that we have a simulation of the entire yearly seasonal cycle. But this goes deeper, with different intensity of rain or snow--which isn’t just for decoration.



The weather affects the way you play, not only by changing how your truck drives, but also because if you drive more carefully in winter, you’ll need to prepare more thoroughly for the ride. Tire chains will cost you so you’ll need to plan ahead and spend money. Your fuel usage will change, so you have to account for that. It’s like a system of interconnected vessels which we created to add depth.

So, if you were wondering what makes our game stand out, we hope you got your answer! We’re putting a lot of effort into making your digital trucker’s life feel like… life.

See you next week! We’ll make sure to answer your comments to the best of our ability.

If you’d like to support us, add our game to your Steam wishlist, and share the page among your friends.

Also, join our Discord to find more people with similar passions.

Hello everyone!

Our friends over at DRAGO entertainment have been working on a new game that is being released today, September 15th at 7pm CEST.
As we are all part of one big developer family, we would like to spread this exciting news for a really deserving and fun game.

If you ever wanted to restore and run an old gas station on Route 66, that is your chance.
Visit their Steam page below for more information:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149620/Gas_Station_Simulator/

Happy National Truck Driver Appreciation Week!

This week, we're celebrating the tireless people who pretty much make the world go round.

Can you imagine any business without truck-based logistics? Neither can we.

All the best, Truckers!