”We needed an excuse to experience the idyllic side of rural life - being a courier in the middle of nowhere seemed like a simple and neat way to achieve that goal.”
We sat down with Truckful developers MythicOwl to talk about their cozy puzzle-mystery title, bringing together the right blend of cozy, dark, and idyllic in the perspective of a rural courier.
Truckful Delivers Cozy and Dark in the Idyllic Countryside
The “DREDGE on Wheels”
Truckful was under development for over two years after being first announced in July of 2024. Back then, it was only a prototype that built on the idea that “driving around with cargo that reacts to physics” was fun. From that, they added more and more—-the type of content, the setting, and the type of gameplay and experience they wanted to offer to would-be players. Since then, it had grown to be what they are today.
“Now—during the final stretch—we can proudly say that Truckful shaped up to be something we always had in mind and can’t wait to put in players’ hands.”
As development continued, the game also became a result of various influences. One of its strongest influences was another delivery-themed title over on the high seas—DREDGE.
“We're all avid gamers at MythicOwl and Truckful has plenty of inspirations outside and inside games … Our delivery adventure is often described as ‘DREDGE on wheels’ and it's quite a fair comparison, particularly because you face horrors and spooky stuff along the way,” MythicOwl shared. Its main “antagonist,” the Ghost Truck, inevitably drew comparisons to Steven Spielberg’s 1971 film about a demonic oil tanker, Duel.
Wasn’t Always A Casual Game
Despite its warm hand-painted visuals and inviting outlook, Truckful wasn’t always meant to evoke the sense of coziness and fun with that mix of mystery—it was actually a bit more difficult to play.
“Initially, Truckful wasn’t meant to be a casual game,” MythicOwl said, sharing that player feedback brought about by Steam Next Fest demos and on-site physical events shaped it to be what it is now. While most of the feedback aligned with the studio’s already existing plan, some of the responses suggested that the difficulty was a little high for casual gamers.
“In the end, we’ve added more accessible solutions for casual players.” Options for easier driving and gameplay were accommodated, such as upgrades like Sticky Cargo that makes the cargo become practically glued to the truck bed regardless of driving skill. Upgrading the pickup truck in general will make delivery jobs easier. The addition of a map, a journal, and a compass to keep track of jobs, and the winding roads also made exploring less time-consuming, as many demo players struggled with getting lost in its world. For overall difficulty, a Story Mode was introduced as well with more forgiving missions and easier-to-evade enemy encounters.
Nevertheless, the core gameplay vision remained consistent from its initial concept. Building up from the fun driving game with the physics puzzles idea in its early days was more about improving the experience, polishing its presentation and mechanics, and making it more enjoyable and accessible. The prototype was already a solid foundation they built upon.
The Fun, Idyllic Rural Life as a Courier
Driving and deliveries are at the center of Truckful’s gameplay and identity, concepts that stemmed from the idea that MythicOwl wanted players to experience—”the idyllic side of rural life.” To the team, being a “courier in the middle of nowhere seemed like a simple and neat way to achieve that goal.”
Aside from delivering and driving, players will also get to sightsee the rural countryside, getting to know the colorful characters of the village and their stories. The game won’t just offer one facet of that rural life experience that they wanted to deliver, and at the same time, it will cater to both casual players and those who want more of a challenge. “If you're looking for a relatively stress-free playthrough, the darker experiences can largely be avoided; meanwhile, players who aren't afraid of challenges and bold exploration in dark, secluded corners will also find plenty of interesting routes and obstacles here.”
The team also shared that they believe driving as an activity is also “fun on its own"; thus, driving is the element of gameplay that they made “as best as possible.” The combination of driving and puzzles in the form of deliveries amps the fun factor as well. Fun and humor are central to the Truckful experience as well: “Personally, we really enjoy the sense of humor in the dialogues, as well as several visually beautiful moments and scenes—from the bright and cheerful ones to the darker ones—and the fun of transporting oversized packages.”
Truckful is not just another ‘wacky physics game’—it aims to deliver an experience in a world filled with content, from characters to meet, places to explore, collectibles, and bits and pieces of the world to find.
Hand-Painted Visuals Inspired by Studio Ghibli, Gravity Falls, and the Polish Countryside
Visually, the team pulled inspiration from Studio Ghibli, the Gravity Falls series, and, as a Poland-based studio, the rural Polish countryside, particularly the agricultural landscapes of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region, and local forests, all coming together as an “evolution” from their art styles in their previous games, Harmony’s Odyssey and Planetiles.
“That was where our strong attachment and attention to color first emerged. At the same time, we are still developing other prototypes, and one of them introduced a color palette system, as well as references to 8-bit and 16-bit aesthetics in 3D. We wanted to take those experiences and this new direction and apply them to a completely different visual style.”
The team went through various prototypes of the game with different visual characters before landing on what it is today. Building the game’s atmosphere and framework came from a place of constant processing and tweaking, and the team always asked themselves, "Does what I'm seeing while creating this properly convey the feelings I had when experiencing beautiful views, films, and games?” while also not overwhelming the player with aggressive audiovisual stimuli.
Take Your Time and Drive Slow
In the end, games are all about the enjoyment and the fun of the experience—there is no rush, there is no finish line to chase within the first few hours. MythicOwl themselves encourage this, especially for Truckful.
“Take your time. Driving slowly and carefully is much better than flooring it, at least at the beginning of the game.”
Given the overall vibes of the game and how much of its world there is to slowly explore, that advice is sound. And there’s no problem with taking it down a notch when things get harder. “And if it feels too difficult, it's worth trying the story mode.”
Full Interview with MythicOwl
Truckful was first announced in 2024. Looking back over the past two years, how has the game evolved, and how does it feel to finally be launching it?
Truckful evolved significantly since the announcement in 2024, and we're beyond excited to be able to finally share it with the world. In the beginning, it was just a little prototype, but we already had tons of fun driving around with cargo that reacts to physics. When we decided to pursue it further, everything became clearer as [to] what type of content, setting, and gameplay we wanted to offer players. Now—during the final stretch—we can proudly say that Truckful shaped up to be something we always had in mind and can't wait to put in players' hands.
What were the biggest inspirations behind Truckful, both inside and outside of games?
We're all avid gamers at MythicOwl and Truckful [had] plenty of inspirations outside and inside games—the most obvious one that only became obvious to us after adding more mystery to the mix, was Dredge. Our delivery adventure is often described as 'Dredge on wheels' and it's quite a fair comparison, particularly because you face horrors and spooky stuff along the way. Outside games—the Ghost Truck couldn't avoid being compared to Spielberg's Duel (1971) and the presentation might also be the side effect of our love for Studio Ghibli and Gravity Falls series. Completely outside games and culture? Rural Polish countryside, the agricultural landscapes of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region, and local forests.
Driving and deliveries are at the core of Truckful's gameplay. Why did you choose these mechanics, and what kind of experience did you want them to create for players?
We needed an excuse to experience the idyllic side of rural life—being a courier in the middle of nowhere seemed like a simple and neat way to achieve that goal, from sightseeing to getting to know the characters and their stories. At the same time, the game doesn't offer just one kind of experience; if you're looking for a relatively stress-free playthrough, the darker experiences can largely be avoided. Meanwhile, players who aren't afraid of challenges and bold exploration in dark, secluded corners will also find plenty of interesting routes and obstacles here.
Driving is fun on its own, and we wanted to make this element of gameplay as best as possible. At the beginning, you start with a rusty old truck with a beaten-down engine, and you install a number of upgrades and equipment to make it handle better and, most importantly, help you transport cargo easier.
Deliveries are at the core as well, and we chose the mechanic of loading the truck because it's a kind of a puzzle itself—the better you load cargo of different shapes and sizes, the easier delivery will be, and we wanted to emphasize this element in Truckful. It's our little nod towards puzzle fans—you can plan and drive carefully or just put stuff on the truck bed and enjoy chaos!
Truckful combines cozy delivery gameplay, physics-based puzzles, mystery, and darker elements. How did you approach bringing these different elements together into one cohesive experience?
When we were sure about developing Truckful further, the scope and all these elements came together pretty naturally. We didn't want just another 'wacky physics game,' but rather a bigger game and a world filled with content—characters to meet, places to explore, and stuff to find. We played a bunch of games with similar scope and kind of new were we're heading.
From the development team's perspective, what feels like the most uniquely Truckful
experience or moment in the game?
There are several moments like that. Personally, we really enjoy the sense of humor in the dialogues, as well as several visually beautiful moments and scenes—from the bright and cheerful ones to the darker ones—and the fun of transporting oversized packages. It lets you combine the problem-solving skill involved in figuring out how to load everything with your driving skills, making you feel like a true master of transportation.
Truckful has a distinctive hand-painted visual style. How did you develop the game's art direction, world, and overall atmosphere?
Apart from the inspirations mentioned in Point 2, Truckful was also an evolution of the techniques we used in Harmony's Odyssey and Planetiles. That was where our strong attachment and attention to color first emerged. At the same time, we are still developing other prototypes and one of them introduced a color palette system, as well as references to 8-bit and 16-bit aesthetics in 3D. We wanted to take those experiences and this new direction and apply them to a completely different visual style.
It's worth mentioning that early Truckful prototypes had a somewhat different character. Building the atmosphere itself is essentially a constant process of asking ourselves questions based on our own experiences: does what I'm seeing while creating this properly convey the feelings I had when experiencing beautiful views, films, and games? The framework for this comes from the chosen creative directions and technical solutions, as well as the philosophy of not overwhelming the player with intense and aggressive audiovisual stimuli.
Many players had the chance to try the demo through Steam Next Fest and other events. How did player feedback influence the final version of the game?
Events like Steam Next Fest played a huge role in identifying what players want to see in the game—also all the elements they don't like. We received tons of feedback during SNF and it was quite reassuring to see that most of it aligned with our existing plan. We showcased early demo versions at different events during +2 years of development and would say it was very beneficial to observe how players interact with the game.
On the other hand, many players started suggesting that we lower the difficulty. Initially, Truckful wasn't meant to be a casual game. In the end, we've added more accessible solutions for casual players.
You mentioned that the game received feedback about its difficulty and that some solutions have been added to accommodate casual players. What aspects of the gameplay were players originally struggling with, and how did the team address that feedback through specific changes?
For players struggling with difficulty, we prepared a couple of solutions such as certain skills that ease cargo transportation. If they're struggling with crashing and stuff falling off, there is an upgrade called Sticky Cargo that, once enabled, makes all the cargo stick to the truckbed regardless of your driving, speeding up, jumping, etc. In general, upgrading the pickup truck makes deliveries easier, and different types of truckbeds also allow more reckless driving.
Another difficulty we noticed during the first demo showcases was that players often got lost in the world and needed some kind of guidance. We addressed it with a map & journal—tools that help players navigate and track missions. We also added a Compass that's available as a skill and constantly points to the current goal.
On top of that, there is Story Mode, in which mission requirements are more forgiving, and enemies are also much easier to evade.
Were there any ideas, mechanics, or features that changed significantly during development and ultimately made the game better?
We made many refinements throughout development, but the core gameplay vision remained remarkably consistent from the original concept. Rather than making major changes to the foundation, we focused on improving the overall experience, polishing the presentation, and making the game more enjoyable and accessible while staying true to what made the original prototype fun.
What part of Truckful is the development team most proud of, and is there anything you especially hope players will notice or appreciate?
It would probably be the audio-visual presentation, as we paid very close attention to the looks. We hope some locations will really make players stop to take a screenshot.
Finally, is there anything you'd like to say to players who are about to experience Truckful for the first time?
Yes. Take your time. Driving slowly and carefully is much better than flooring it, at least at the beginning of the game. And if it feels too difficult, it's worth trying the story mode.
