SOEDESCO and Triangle Studios have announced Truck Driver, a game that allows players to start their own virtual career as a – you guessed it – truck driver. Truck Driver will give players the chance to get in the cab of a real tractor-trailer and complete a variety of transport jobs, experiencing the career life of a trucker. In a press release, SOEDESCO said:
Unlike any other trucking experience, Truck Driver is completely focused on the career mode. By valuing the ‘game’ aspects over the ‘simulation’ aspects, SOEDESCO aspires to bring the fun-factor back into the trucking genre.
SOEDESCO also indicated that Truck Driver will focus on the player’s experience as a truck driver and their interaction with the local community. Players will “start off as a contractor and work your way up by taking on jobs, earning money and making a name for yourself amongst the local community”, and also “get to meet all sorts of unique characters and build relationships with them by successfully completing transport jobs.” The press release claims that Truck Driver‘s features will include:
- Enjoy a trucking experience focused on your career as a truck driver
- Build stronger relationships with the local community with each job
- Customize your truck with tons of parts and tune it to your liking
- Explore a vast open world and watch it progress with you
- Navigate through beautiful landscapes and fully explorable cities.
A teaser video shows a serene setting, interrupted by a large truck driving by and honking its horn. It is worth noting that the truck shown in the teaser does not appear to have a recognizable brand, which may indicate that there won’t be licensed brands of trucks in the game.
You may recall that SOEDESCO and Triangle Studios collaborated previously on Real Farm, which was released on October 20, 2017. In my review, I praised its beautiful graphics and fresh gameplay elements, but was disappointed overall by some difficult-to-control machinery and some general buggy-ness. However, the CEO of Triangle Studios, Remco de Rooij, has stated that the developer gained a lot of experience from their previous collaboration with SOEDESCO, which has inspired them to approach the process differently this time. For example, they intend to involve the community as well as field experts in the development process. A second video released by SOEDESCO shows the development team working with a veteran truck driver who was asked to provide feedback on the game, and the video also includes a commitment to bring Truck Driver to Early Access on Steam in order to facilitate better communication with players. As of this writing, no release date (for Early Access or otherwise) has been given by SOEDESCO.
While games like Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator have had a near-monopoly over the truck driver-simulation market for quite some time, SOEDESCO and Triangle Studios’ approach to focus on ‘game’ elements rather than ‘simulation’ elements may bring a fresh flavour to the genre. Also worth noting is that in addition to a PC (Steam) version, SOEDESCO intends to bring Truck Driver to both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well. This would be the first time that console players would have the opportunity to play a truck driving game (games like Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator are PC-only), and it may just be a welcome addition to the console domain for fans of these types of games.
