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! [b]So Pawel, tell us what you do for the game.[/b] 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. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//33660248/eaf835be501282888920de4406bff5bbfaa8abec.jpg[/img] [b]Do the partners add anything to the game aside from their brands?[/b] 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. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//33660248/cf956c36d9bf828899ae1846822ccb21f635e201.gif[/img] [b]You’re a total automobile buff, right?[/b] 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. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//33660248/e0491436d83ce5e62ba3998e66a01e3b6cf085f5.jpg[/img] [i]Pawel’s game collection (or rather a small part of it)[/i] 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. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//33660248/178f2ccd6ae560498cc5b69c8f927b282d106155.jpg[/img] [i]The incident in question and its aftermath[/i] 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. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//33660248/adc841c3013fc4b8e2220f862a31bc9714d99b0a.jpg[/img] [i]Confirmed: Pawel is a car buff[/i] [b]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?[/b] 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. [i]You can meet Pawel on our [b][url=https://discord.gg/GWmtpZ5b3k]Discord server[/url][/b], so feel free to join our community! [b]Add our game to your Wishlist and follow us for more updates.[/b][/i]