Today we're super excited to welcome Iceberg, one of the most popular SnowRunner modders around, and no wonder, considering his impressive body of work!
How did you get into gaming?
I got into gaming at a very young age. My first game device was a Nintendo Gameboy with a copy of Super Mario, which was a gift from my mother for performing well at school.
Could you tell us a little bit about your background?
I am an ex-military mechanical engineer turned design and robotics engineer, originally from the Caribbean, and now residing in the United Kingdom. I have a passion for creating things digitally and physically so I design/build/fly racing drones and undertake various robotic projects as a hobby.
What got you into modding?
I first got into modding during the recent event 2020 where the global pandemic brought saw me working from home with a lot of down time. SnowEunner was released and I found myself really enjoying the game and thought It would be great if I could create my own content for the platform.
Have you modded for any other games?
I had never previously modded for any games other than SnowRunner, but after starting that, I have been tinkering with modding for Farming Simulator and currently planning on converting some of my Snowrunner mods to FS22.
What's your favorite SnowRunner mod?
My favourite SnowRunner mod is my Hummer H1. I absolutely love that truck but I don’t own one in real life so modding gave me the opportunity to really express my creative desires on the digital vehicle with only the sky being the limit on what I could do.
If someone could only download one of your mods, which would you suggest?
That’s a tough one. I would probably suggest my “Old Betty” mod (Ural 4320), reason being it can be used as a scout, and most importantly, it can complete contracts and perform well on any of the released maps whilst being reasonably optimised for a balanced gameplay experience.
What would be your dream change or addition to SnowRunner?
If I could change/modify SnowRunner in any way, I would add track mechanics to the game engine. Then this would allow for the creation of tracked vehicles. As an offroad driving game I think this would greatly improve the game and also bring more players to the platform.
What’s your favorite thing about SnowRunner?
My favorite thing about SnowRunner is the visually appealing way the trucks behave and react to the offroad environment.
What advice would you give to people who would like to get into modding?
My best advice to would-be modders is to try to surround yourself with like-minded individuals. Join Discord servers and social media groups with other content creators, because that way you can ask for help whenever you get stuck on something, because you will.
Working on any exciting mod at the moment?
I find it better to work on multiple mods at the same time so that when I get bored of one project, I can spend some time on another. I am currently working on a tri-platform Peterbilt 389 Semi, an Oshkosh M1070 and a Volvo 10x10 road train.
What’s your all-time favorite real life vehicle? What about SnowRunner vehicle?
As mentioned earlier, my all-time favorite real life vehicle is the Hummer H1. It is a very versatile and customisable rig that can be tailored to almost any environment. My favorite SnowRunner vehicle is the Royal BM-17 because it is very reliable offroad, has great fuel efficiency, and offers great customisation options.
Wildcard Question: If you could go on holiday anywhere right now, where would you go and why?
If I could go anywhere on holiday right now, it would have to be to the Swiss Alps at a ski resort. Skiing is something I really enjoyed as a sport in my past military career and would really love the opportunity to do it again. The feeling of floating down the summit at speed feels almost as if you’re flying and that gives a sense of complete freedom.
Couldn't agree more. Hope you go on that holiday soon! 🙂
Smaller update this week than I would have liked. I received my booster covid-19 shot last week and it took a lot out of me. Still better than getting the virus though.
Anyway. This week I have finally finished sketching up the last level of the game. It’s going to be one heck of a level. It spans 4 floors and involves just about everything the game has to offer. It’s certainly going to be very interesting playtesting it in a few weeks time.
As well as that playtesting of the World 4 maps continues and I believe we’re just over halfway through. I myself have tested all the levels in world 4 but I use my results to work out the 3-star timings rather than as proof that the average player can complete them. For that, my friend steps in and plays. He has a very different way of looking at the puzzles and that helps me to make sure that things don’t go wrong and that the puzzles do actually make sense. After all, as I designed the puzzles I know the perfect way that they’re supposed to be done but it’s not necessarily the right way.
While my friend works through world 4 levels I’m still going through the world 5 maps. I’m currently halfway through. My process includes making sure that the shadow maps and lighting are positioned correctly; if something is off I have to adjust the level and try again. Once the shadow map is correct I can then bake it into the game so that the engine doesn’t have to regenerate it each time. It’s time-consuming but it meant that I could get the same visual fidelity on the Android version as I can on the desktop version.
For those not in the know, the game was designed specifically for PC but with the plan of releasing on Android a month or so after the final release. The game works really well on Android despite being touch-based. I don’t have access to Apple devices so I have no plans to release on the Apple App Store.
Fireworks Mania - An Explosive Simulator - Laumania ApS
Mainly a "engine room" update where most of the changes are stuff you can't see, but is important to enable modders to do more things.
CHANGES
- Updated "fire" effect to performe a tiny bit better - Changes to how the game render its graphics and manage memory which should give a tiny performance boost - Updated translations - Updated billboards in City as it is no longer New Years - Added Reddit link in the bottom of MainMenu. Yes, we have a sub Reddit now because we are not boomers - Lowered the volume in MainMenu as the explosions in the background could be a bit too loud
BUGS
- Fixed bug where fireworks from mod would tip over even if placed "static" - Fixed bug where particles for a short while spawned at 0,0,0 if a lot of fires were starting at once. At least it should happen a lot less now - Fixed bug where no mods where loaded if one mod crashed due to wrong version - Fixed bug where crossair would come back even if HUD should be hidden via pressing BackSpace
When loading a game under dertain conditions the custom cursor was invisible, this should be fixed,
The last research card still wasn't counted in the final tally, you should normally now be able to see "71/71 research cards" in your Defeat/Victory screen,
It was possible to equip/unequip an equipment with a "+ X to all attributes" stat to keep getting attributes, this has been fixed,
The skill tree assets and effects have been reworked so that they should take a lot less resources to display, fingers crossed ːsteamthumbsupː
This weekend keep an eye on the Free Spin!👀🕵️ Don't let it scape and get your Free Spin every hour to take the most out of it! Spin it to get unbelievable prizes!💰💰💰 Best of luck Governors!🍀