Snow Plow Project

September started off weirdly in the indie game dev community, with Unity announcing unilateral and retroactive changes to it's pricing plan. In a bizarre and opaque move, they completely changed how they were going to charge developers for using Unity3D, now charging runtime fees on every install for every game that has ever been published with Unity. This placed many studios and developers in a tricky situation, with their hands tied and no backup solution. After a massive boycott from the industry, Unity backed down and came back about 10 days later with a new announcement along with excuses. After this bold move, saying they were going to listen the community came a bit late. Many studios were already evaluating the possibility of transferring their project to an other engine, or at least considering a switch for future projects. Some right away announced they were walking away from Unity. More importantly, they realized the upsides of open source, non-profit engines, as being more transparent and viable long-term. This being said, Unity's new pricing plan is back to something that shows a bit less disrespect to people who trusted Unity as the right partner for their project. But the harm is already done and it is sad to see so many developers turning their back to an engine and community that has long been the best option for indie projects. I guess Unity's priority is now shareholders, not developers. I won't talk about it more extensively, but you can read plenty about it on the internet.

This being said, I followed the situation closely along with other devs and organizations to have a clear picture. I made a proper evaluation of the possibility to migrate the project to an other engine and of what the benefits would be. I can only come to the conclusion that it is in our project's best interest to remain on Unity. In the light of this saga's outcome, and unless any more changes, this is the plan that offers Snow Plow Project the brightest future.

We are now slowly building a great alpha version. Again, the goal is to build a long-term supported, state-of-the-art simulation game that we'll all be passionate about. And it starts with the first few bits of this alpha.

Development has shifted. To what?

We're slowly moving away from the sandbox, and now focusing on the open world and the next game modes. Thanks to the playtest that has been running for about 16 months now, we have a better idea of what works and what doesn't, and this data guides us in the development of what's coming. We are now building a magnificient wintery county and enhancing the existing mechanics. Sooner than later, you'll have a whole new world to plow. In the meantime, have a read at Dev Blog 12. Cheers!

Dev Blog 12: The shift - Snow Plow Project Creation of new content now has started. The roads are being redone with a much higher quality, the assets a being overhauled with better shaders. And the new world map is being created.

Dev Blog 11 is out! In this one, we do a 2022 wrap up and talk about futur developments and priorities.

Dev Blog 11: 2022 Wrap Up - Snow Plow Project It's always a good sign when you read the last devblog and conclude that everything that was said to be "in progress" or "to come" has been delivered! 2022 was a big year for Snow Plow Project with the project being accepted on Steam, the playtest being launched and major mechanics being implemented...

For those who are participating in the playtest, the long-awaited controller update is here! Click here for more information.

Snow Plow Playtest - Update 0.0.12 - The controller update - Steam News There it is! Summer is getting towards the end and Snow Plow Playtest is rolling out a major update that will lay foundations for the rest of the development. This update includes several fixes and upgrades, but the biggest is the controller support. That includes steering wheels, panels, and consol...

Hey! Dev Blog 10 is out! It's been a while, but it doesn't mean nothing happened!

https://www.snowplowproject.com/dev-blog-10-whats-next/

Dev Blog 10: What's next? - Snow Plow Project After a few months of playtest, community feedback has been overwhelming! Even though some features or fixes were already planned for the future, it was made evident that they were needed quickly.