Construction Simulator 2 reaches its first birthday: astragon tells us how it’s marking the occasion

Construction Simulator 2 debuted iOS and Android devices exactly one year ago, and publisher Astragon is marking the game’s first anniversary with a range of time-limited discounts.

It’s been a successful debut for the civil engineering sim, which shot to the top of the App Store chart in 25 countries upon release in March last year, and made the top 10 in no fewer than 66 territories.

The game gives players the chance to head up their own construction business and take to the wheel of more than 40 officially-licensed vehicles. If you dig that sort of thing and want to try it out, Construction Simulator 2 will be available at the discounted price of €0.99 (89p) between March 23 and April 2 on the App Store and in the time period between March 23 and March 30 on Google Play. Players who use the free Lite edition can upgrade to the full version for the same price during the anniversary period.

Moreover, Astragon is offering time-limited discounts on various entries in the series, including Construction Simulator 2014 for mobile devices and the earlier instalments on PC and Mac, along with their DLC packs, while the festivities are in full swing.

If anniversary discounts aren’t enough for you, we caught up with the folks at astragon to discuss Construction Simulator 2’s first-year success, how they went about building the sequel and how its new features have been received.

When you set out to make a sequel to the 2014 mobile instalment, what steps did you take to ensure the new game would be even better than its predecessor?

On the technical side, we took the time to switch to a modular based development to be able to expand Construction Simulator 2 by continuously adding new vehicles, missions and features during its lifetime. Next to this, we made sure to make use of numerous new mobile capabilities in regards to UI and performance resources to increase the performance of the game in different levels like visual quality, physics, etc. These technical steps made it possible to create an even bigger and more detailed game world and to get closer to the gaming experience of the successful PC predecessor by to adding new features like road construction, the ability to build skyscrapers, and even more gameplay features and goals. This also enabled us to create a living town and to make the whole gaming experience more realistic in general.

There were plenty of new features included, such as road construction and repairs. What kind of response did these additions receive from the fans?

Our fans are very pleased with the new features. Most of them are mirroring the most fervent wishes of our community. To be exactly, the fans just can’t get enough and want even more. So, the next bunch of wishes is already on our to-do list.

What kind of response have you had from people within the construction industry?

People in the construction industry were positively surprised by how faithfully reproduced our vehicles and machines are, as well as their realistic functions and behaviour in general.

The game provides an in-depth simulation of the construction business. How did you ensure it was accessible to players with no extensive knowledge of the industry?

All of us working on Construction Simulator 2 are gamers ourselves and have been with the CS franchise since 2010. Due to our good contacts within the construction industry, we were able to learn a lot about the business. In order to make sure that the game would also be easily accessible to newcomers to the simulation genre, we have spent a lot of time creating and optimizing our in-depth tutorials. Their function is to introduce all important game steps and vehicle functions to the players. In addition to this, we organized a large closed-beta test event that gave us the opportunity to get into close contact with the test players. We took each and every feedback serious, closely looked at it and then discussed how to improve the game even further before its release.

How has the feedback you have received from the community help shape the game’s updates?

We are always listening to the feedback of our great community. It’s a tremendous help in all aspects (e.g. new licenses, game flow, controls, etc.). With every new update we are trying to fulfil wishes of the community based on their feedback. That’s very important for us - or even the most important part, to be exact.

This article is sponsored as part of Steel Media Preferred Partners.