Physics-based delivery adventure Truckful gets a first demo

This an Aether & Iron are two surprise demos that I get to try today! I'll try the A&E on my desktop during lunch, and then tonight after the kids go down I'll try this truckful demo in bed. Super excited for this one since I've had it on my wishlist forever.

I see a lot to like about this, but every time the cargo bounces around or out, I'm mentally screaming "JUST . . . TIE . . . IT . . . DOWN!!!"

So I did wind up trying this last night on the Deck, and ....... I don't understand it. For me it's completely unplayable, but I just don't even understand how that happened.

This is a vehicle driving game.

You cannot position the camera behind the vehicle.

The camera is locked at a bizarre isometric side angle that changes randomly as you drive along but is NOT controllable by the player. I couldn't even get past the intro area as I was constantly crashing into everything because I cannot see where I'm going. I wound up driving off the road getting stuck multiple times and had to restart the entire area. As soon as I picked up my very first mission to haul stuff, within like 2 seconds I had crashed into a brick wall BECAUSE I CANT SEE WHERE THE HELL IM GOING and dropped the package and failed the mission.

It's absolutely beyond baffling how this is a driving game that doesn't have a camera behind the vehicle. Just writing this, I'm thinking "...what? ..."

edit: I went to the steam discussions (which I often don't do these days anymore because they're such a cesspool, but I digress) and checked and sure enough there at the top is a thread complaining about the bizarre camera and steering (exactly as I have above) and here's the dev's response:

So the camera angle while driving on more isometric roads is a part of the game's design, however we noticed quite a lot of players having issues with the exact same thing when we showcased the game on PAX West earlier this year.

We probably won't change the general steering mechanic, however also understand that it needs to be fine-tuned to address the matter you described. We wanted the camera to be more useful for transporting cargo and feel like this 'side view' angle helps with controlling the cargo better than with a 3rd person view. Can't yet tell if we will introduce the camera-relative control scheme but we might offer couple camera options in the game's setting.

Let me get this straight. They KNOW that "lots" of players hate this design decision and go "we know. we won't change it."

Amazing.


Last edited by R Daneel Olivaw on 10 Oct 2025 at 12:42 pm UTC

The camera is locked at a bizarre isometric side angle that changes randomly as you drive along but is NOT controllable by the player.

It didn't bother me too much, but I did play Micro Machines as a kid...

The camera angle is terrible, I agree, but like Renzatic, I coped and completed the demo. I doubt I'll pick it up unless they offer a better angle though. I found playing it like that tips the scale pretty far from "satisfying", past "mildly frustrating" and all the way towards "infuriating". Especially when you're getting chased, and you have to go flat out!

The loading mechanic was also pretty baffling for a while. I got there in the end, but again - pretty frustrating.

I'm so disappointed because I was really looking forward to this, along with Easy Delivery Co. Now neither game looks like it's going to live up to my weirdly high expectations! I got a couple of hours out of Easy Delivery Co at least.

The demo is really short - 10 to 15 minutes maybe, so it can't hurt to try it out at least.

I'm a bit torn on it myself. I love the look and feel of it, and the premise is really neat, but the camera really isn't the best fit for a driving game.

I'll buy it at some point, but I'll probably wait for a sale before I do.

Let me get this straight. They KNOW that "lots" of players hate this design decision and go "we know. we won't change it."

It's an interesting question. One the one hand, not all games have to be for all people, and I can respect a developer who sticks to their guns about making something they specifically like even if it means a game isn't for me (I'm hardly short on choice for other games to play, after all, plus modding is a thing). On the other hand, sometimes the hoi polloi are right that a particular design decision is holding a game back from being even more fun, and learning when to kill your darlings is a valuable skill. I don't know what the answer is in this case.

I suspect that for an indie dev, the answer will be (or at least should be) "whatever sells the most units". So it really is odd to stick to your original design in the face of such feedback.

Of course, it's probably far from trivial to simply offer an over-the-shoulder camera here. They've probably designed every level/track/road with that static viewpoint in mind, so there's probably heaps of "missing" world that they didn't bother to populate because it's never seen from that angle.

The game has a lot of charm though, so I hope they pull it off.

It's just a sad decision for me, because I would LOVE to play this for a few mins at night on my Deck, but without a proper camera angle, it's not going to happen, so maybe I'll check back in a year or so and see if they eventually added it.