Today, we’re sharing news from pdx_Peanut, our esteemed Content Creator Manager for Cities: Skylines II. This Developer Diary offers an insider’s view into the development of the Region Packs. So, let’s delve deep and uncover the details!
Introduction
Hello everyone! I’m known as pdx_Peanut, but many of you might also recognize me as BadPeanut! As the Content Creator Manager for Cities: Skylines II at Paradox Interactive, I’m thrilled to take you behind the curtain to unveil the creation of the Region Packs from my point of view. We’re on the verge of publishing these Region Packs on Paradox Mods, where you’ll soon have the opportunity to download them gratis to adorn your beloved cityscapes! These packs represent the collective creativity of numerous cherished community creators, contained in 8 distinct offerings.
In my role as Content Creator Manager, my duties include (but are not limited to) a profound understanding of the asset creation process, networking with community creators, facilitating hands-on tutorials, managing resources, assisting with scheduling and time management, and keeping creators updated with evolving project timelines.
Asset Pipeline and Crafting a Region Pack
Back in 2020, as the Region Packs project commenced, I was working at Colossal Order, and thus served as the primary developer liaison for the Region Pack creators. I provided them with an Asset Creation Guide—an early version of what’s now on the official wiki—while addressing any of their inquiries during the initial stages, and kept them informed with updates in the development pipeline.
Partway through the timeline of the Region Packs project, I transitioned to the role of Content Creator Manager at Paradox. This position allowed me to engage more directly, helping creators manage their packs and evaluate the contents based on the sign-up agreements made by the creators.
My initial step was ensuring every team had a detailed asset list, covering everything from assets to prefabs and any props they wanted to include. This thorough tracking helped us avoid missing out on any extraordinary buildings!
While most teams were already employing some form of content tracking, it was crucial to harmonize their formats for easier oversight and management. This standardization enabled me to assist creators in monitoring progress and maintaining a healthy balance between their project timelines and personal lives.
Throughout the course of the project, we encountered several timeline shifts, rendering the asset list a vital tool for adjustments. Whether due to a contributor stepping away for personal responsibilities or introducing new creators to evenly distribute the workload, we could smoothly update our documents. Marking tasks as completed offered a great sense of accomplishment!
Fostering Collaboration with Creators
From the project’s inception, we established a private space for creators to access information, pose questions, and collaborate. It was essential for team members to work in unison in strategizing the content to be included in their packs.
Upon assuming the role of Content Creator Manager, I enhanced our workspace by creating a dedicated Discord section for the Region Packs. This facilitated channels for each pack, a general collaboration channel, how-to guide channels, and a crucial voice channel where we regularly convened to address challenges and brainstorm solutions.
Within these channels, creators could post inquiries with visual aids, receive direct feedback from me or their peers, share insight in modeling, texturing, and prepping, or requests one-on-one voice sessions for hands-on support. Whenever a creator required my presence in the voice channel, I ensured my availability to support our collaborative efforts. I deeply appreciated the dedication of each creator and wanted to make myself readily accessible to work alongside everyone.
Managing Feedback and Iterative Design
We embarked on the creation of the Region Packs before having access to the editor, dedicating significant time to scrutinizing the meshes and textures crafted by our teams. By highlighting areas that required improvement and identifying potential issues for a smoother import once in-game testing commenced, we prepared ourselves for a seamless asset import process. I stood by to assist with troubleshooting any hiccups encountered.
This feedback mechanism was pivotal to the success of the packs, enabling our creators’ innovative spirits to flourish while allowing room for edits and iterations as we gained more insight into the game. This synergistic flow carried into asset importing and propping phases. Upon accessing the early editor versions, we explored new propping tools and developed a more agile workflow over time.
All our creators were remarkable partners, receptive to feedback from their peers and me throughout. This openness cultivated a creatively rich environment, fueling excitement for the new game both before and after its launch.
Navigating Challenges
Throughout our journey, we encountered our share of trials. Starting this project with our creators in early 2020, we soon faced community-wide delays in accessing the asset editor, challenges we continue to navigate.
With limited access to the editor initially, we segmented the timeline—first emphasizing creators’ abilities to craft meshes and textures, setting the stage for importing into an alpha editor version as soon as it became viable. More recently, our creators accessed an early editor version to import and test their assets within the game environment, making necessary refinements for a finalized state. Although this editor isn’t publicly available yet, it enabled Region Pack creators to refine their assets extensively.
Through collaborative efforts between Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, we devised a provisional backend solution that allowed us to manually process the creators’ nearly finalized assets, adding essentials like texts, translations, and thumbnails before packaging them for manual upload to Paradox Mods. This required extensive manual work and testing to ensure the assets were ready for enjoyment.
We continue efforts towards refining the editor, but that’s a task for the future!
Balancing Creative Freedom with Limitations
We began the project with clear technical guidelines to ensure creators’ work aligned with anticipated game compatibility once the editor became accessible. This included guidance on texture composition and modeling intricacies.
For each zone type, we defined average, minimum, and soft maximum triangle counts, informed by the base game’s existing assets. While Cities: Skylines II doesn’t enforce strict triangle limits, these guidelines offered creators a tool for gauging appropriate detail levels. Smaller lots were advised to lean towards minimum values, whereas larger lots could utilize higher budgets approximating the soft maximums. Typically, most assets fell within the provided average triangle count.
Ultimately, asset creation in Cities: Skylines II is devoid of rigid limits. We deliberately chose not to include this guidance in the wiki Asset Creation Guide to avert restricting our talented asset creators, though we shared zoned building triangle counts for those keenly interested. Our primary message to creators has been: model necessities without overindulgence. Essentially, be mindful of triangle usage without compromising design integrity, allowing creators to sculpt exquisitely detailed assets while maintaining a practical approach.
If any uncertainties arose or validation was desired, I was readily available to evaluate their models, offering suggestions to refine techniques or address areas for improvement.
Conclusion
There you have it—a peek into the creative process behind the Region Packs. Collaborating with such talented creators has been immensely rewarding, and I eagerly anticipate continued partnerships with our thriving community. Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask questions on the forums. I’ll drop by to respond whenever time permits. Meanwhile, share which regions you’d love to see in future packs! We hope you enjoy the French Pack launching Monday, October 28!