PowerWash Simulator News

Hey Everyone!

It's the Steam awards and we'd like to ask people to vote for us in the category above as we think we fit in quite well and could have a chance at being in the awards later this year. Thank you to anyone who votes for us, it is massively appreciated. (Just a heads up, this year you can't vote for a game in two categories and if you try to it will just delete the first nomination.)

Thank you to everyone for the incredible feedback and overwhelmingly positive reception to PowerWash Simulator so far! From all of the devs here at FuturLab, thank you so much for your support and invaluable feedback on the game!

It has been an incredible and heartwarming ride since our launch. We couldn't have imagined the response we've already gotten and the wholesome community that has built up around the game. That said, we're still early access and have so much more to give. We can't wait to reveal more of the lore, introduce some big features, improve quality-of-life and we aren't too far from another content drop with 0.7 which comes this week!





We're also participating in the Steam Autumn Sale, with 15% off of the game for the duration until the 1st of December. So if you've been waiting to pick up the game or know someone who might want to play, be sure to give them a nudge that now may be the time!

Our next update is coming soon, so keep an eye on our Steam and socials for all of the teasers that are ramping up ahead of its release! It will bring new jobs, power washer, FOV options, and more!

Thanks again everyone!

Hey everyone,

We originally opened up this dev log as a guessing game as to what the new level would be, you can scroll down to see the old part of the log with the teasers and also go into the comments to see how close everyone was with their guesses.

Today we're excited to reveal that it is the Ferris Wheel, congrats to all of you who got it right! Also, big news, update 0.7 comes later this week keep your eyes out for when it splash lands!



With that, we'll be going straight to Nick one of the designers here at FuturLab that worked on the level for their insights:

The Ferris Wheel is next ultimate test for your powerwashing business. It's the tallest job in the Fairground and as such requires an expert use of your powerwashing skills and equipment to complete.

She's dusty, she's rusty, she's graffitied and in desperate need of some TLC. We've even created a new dirt type for this job called 'cracked paint' which should be a fun challenge to find and remove.

Also we felt this job wouldn't be complete without giving players the ability to control and ride this attraction very similar to The Carousel. I encourage players to use this control to their advantage as they explore and clean this towering object. Will you sit back and clean each pod as they pass by you? Or methodically stop and start the attraction to give each pod the pressure clean its sorely in need of? We've made each pod unique in its dirt design so I hope you enjoy discovered and theorising what dirty disaster might have happened in each of them.

The Ferris Wheel job went through a lot of iteration towards its final form. We knew scale and complexity of this object would present an interesting new challenge for players but also wanted to ensure that the attraction itself was functional and suitable to the navigation and washing gameplay of PowerWash Simulator.

The initial design for the Ferris Wheel was a lot more skeletal with lots of beams to make up both the inner and outer structure of the ride. We soon realised that there was simply too many beams and not enough other challenges on the main wheel. To solve this we filled out the center area of the Ferris Wheel with a star. This injected a whole new personality into the attraction by giving it a large and interesting centerpiece while also creating a lot more surface area to cover in different kinds of dirt. The front and rear faces of the star provide a nice flat surface to setup on the scaffolding and satisfyingly wash as the wheel turns around. While the sides of the star encourage players really get in and onto the attraction, jump on a pod and enjoy while they ride around to clean them.

Another pivotal design decision during the development of this level was to remove the canopies from the pods. With a roof on each pod the player we felt the player was too enclosed while riding around as we could only really effectively wash the pod that we were standing in. By removing these canopies we opened up the player's ability to clean the other parts of the Ferris Wheel while also enjoying the ride. Having open pods also allows players to get a bit more adventurous about how they navigate around the job.

We can't wait for everyone to take the Ferris Wheel for a spin and test their skills to reveal the wonderful attraction beneath layers of grime, rust, flaky paint, and even a spilt milkshake. Also don't forget to also enjoy the view from the top!

We're going to try something a little fun and maybe not done before here on Steam! That's having a live thread here as our weekly developer log to guess a career job coming in update 0.7. We'll be updating this thread occasionally with teasers - screenshots and gifs of the new level. Make your guesses in the comments section below, and it shall be revealed with some more dev insights into the behind-the-scenes development of this new level.

We're also in the Steam Autumn Sale with 15% off and are asking for people to vote for us in the 'Sit Back and Relax' category in the Steam Awards, more info here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3150826346189718514

Last week we also showed off the new washer coming in the update. For a demonstration of this fully operational wash station, go here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3150826346191893465

Initiate your inner detective and tell us - WHAT'S THAT POKE LEVEL?







Take a step in the right direction!



Wood you like to know what the new level is?



This preview is metal!



This preview will make you see red.

[h3]New teasers added 25th Nov, morning:[/h3]



Don't get your wires crossed.



Color me yellow!



[h3]New Teaser Added Nov 25th, evening:[/h3]



Let's get a move on with these guesses!

Thanks for reading this interactive dev log please leave your guesses in the comments below and keep an eye out for more teasers dropped into this thread!

If you want to vote on new game ideas, talk to the community, find some tough dirt - then join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/powerwashsimulator

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim
PWS Wiki: https://powerwash-simulator.fandom.com/wiki/PowerWash_Simulator_Wiki

Hey everyone,

It's time to level up your cleaning. You were once a washing heavy but now, the world will kneel before your spraying power as you become a professional! In today's log, we take a close look at the highly anticipated Professional Duty power washer the Prime Vista PRO which arrives next patch.

Last week we showed off one of the accessibility additions coming with the FOV slider, you can learn more about that here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/4351035102300600897

We don't have a date for 0.7 just yet, but keep an eye on our socials for intensifying teasers and the launch announcement soon. Now, to unleash the power of the clean side.





The ‘Prime Vista PRO’ has been revealed! This eagerly anticipated professional-grade power washer eclipses the heavy-duty washer’s cleaning abilities, cutting through rust with ease. It can also deal with oily stains while using the yellow or even green nozzle.



It’s a great upgrade to help tackle the upcoming jobs in career mode. And once you’ve purchased Prime Vista PRO, why not try using it on some of earlier jobs in Free Play mode to see what a difference it makes!

Behold, stats! Oh, and how much money you'll be dishing out for this washer!



This week we have some insights straight from the devs both on creating this new washer from its art and gameplay design aspects.

For more on the design side, here's Dan:

Originally posted by Dan

Since the very start of the project, we were careful to leave ourselves enough headroom to create four different duties of pressure washer, each with increasing power.

In the game’s shop the Professional Duty power washer slot has been waiting to be populated since our early access launch and has always been something we looked forward to finalising and balancing.

The stats and variables for each washer duty class have been following a steady upward trend and the professional washer continues that trajectory faithfully, making it feel like a natural step up from the Heavy-Duty washer before it.

A new tier of dirt type has always accompanied each duty upgrade also. For the Medium Duty washer, it was ‘Stubborn’ dirt (mainly represented by Graffiti). For the Heavy Duty it was ‘Ingrained’ dirt (most commonly Rust). This time the final dirt tier ‘Oily’ will start to make an appearance in the jobs. The ‘Professional’ power washer certainly helps with removing those Oil spills!

Torger, who worked on the art side of making the Prime Vista Pro, had this to say:

Originally posted by Torger

The new professional washer was a much-awaited addition to the game as our first new washer, so we wanted to make it a bit special. We had a few challenges with this washer design. So far we've generally increased the size of higher tiers to indicate their more powerful nature, but we found this difficult with this washer. Both due to it losing its believable look and also due to some constraints with reusing our common washer animations and grab poses. Instead, we changed the Prime Vista brand colour scheme and design language somewhat to be sleeker and more modern as an indication of its high quality and power.

References included sleek modern white coloured appliances such as popular cellular devices and smaller elements from a couple of sci-fi designs. In addition to the new white colour, we also moved slightly away from the mostly plastic look common to previous washer models and most real washers in general. Instead, we added prominent chrome metal elements in several places to indicate a high-quality finish.

We also created new chunky circular nozzles and, although our game is a peaceful one they are slightly reminiscent of gun muzzle brakes. If you look closely, in addition to the standard nozzle colour coding they also re-use shapes from the older washer nozzles to assist with readability. Mixed together with a few design cues commonly used on the rest of the prime vista washer range gave us most of our design, a more refined tool for the real professional.

Overall we hope you have a blast when the new update drops and you can take on the role of a true professional power washer.





Thanks for reading this pro dev log. we still have big surprises coming in 0.7, be sure to keep an eye on our socials and tune into our next dev log for more teasers!

Next week we'll introduce one of the new levels coming, can you guess what it is from this screenshot?



We'll see you there.

If you want to vote on new game ideas, talk to the community, find some tough dirt - then join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/powerwashsimulator

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim
PWS Wiki: https://powerwash-simulator.fandom.com/wiki/PowerWash_Simulator_Wiki

Hey everyone,

We're taking a wide look at the next update with this week's developer log and that's because Field of View (FOV) options are coming in 0.7! In today's log we'll deep dive into this new feature and insight from one of our developers who implemented it.

Last week we also celebrated our 18th birthday here at FuturLab and all the success we've had this year: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3110292680171793001

Now for some fresh perspective





Increasing the FOV has been planned from the start to reduce the risk of motion sickness. We've done smaller tweaks to help this in the past by allowing the crosshair to be toggled permanently on, higher FPS options, and a few others. Now both the default has been raised but also you can choose what is comfortable for you on the FOV slider.



Every game has a FOV angle. If it's significantly different from what the eye/brain expects to see, it can result in motion sickness. FOV is one of the biggest contributors to queasiness in games for PC players as you are more likely to be close to the screen. With a higher FOV the more likely it is to match your brain's expectations of what it is looking at through your monitor.

Sorry that this wasn't implemented quicker but the system wasn't simple to work into the game and required dedicated programming time to rework some of our integral game systems. So to explain, here's a deep dive into the process from our Senior Gameplay Programmer Louis:

Originally posted by Louis

"Our aim for the new custom FOV system was to keep the hands/equipment visuals consistent across the FOV range, while making sure that the water spray VFX render correctly from the nozzle all the way to the surfaces you're cleaning, regardless of how low or high the FOV is.

This ended up being a trickier task than anticipated for us because PowerWash Simulator works a bit differently from most FPS games. The washer spray interacts directly with the environment as a continuous unbroken stream of water, rather than muzzle flashes at one end and bullet decals at the other!

After some R&D, we disassembled and rebuilt the whole camera setup, added lots of vertex shader magic, implemented new custom projection matrix calculations under the hood, as well as some forced perspective camera trickery to get things looking as they should.

All in all, if you haven't noticed any differences in how the player looks in-game when playing with the new settings, it means it's working… so I hope this makes the game more accessible for the people who need it, thanks for your patience and happy washing!"

FOV options are also generally expected in the FPS community and now you'll be able to customize to your liking from 60 to 100 degrees FOV with increments of 1. With 100 feeling more like Quake and 60 may be handy for some macro screenshots!

Some examples (FOV setting below each image):



60 FOV



80 FOV



100 FOV

We hope this will help players prone to motion sickness and many of the legitimate negative reviews we've received on this issue. Overall we think it will reduce the perceived motion of the washer which is constantly in motion and look forward to everyone getting their hands on it next patch.



We'll be listening closely to feedback following this and will be looking at further potential tweaks/features to help prevent motion sickness in the future. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!



Thanks for reading this visionary dev log. This is the first of several big surprises we'll be revealing for the 0.7 update, be sure to keep an eye on our socials and tune into our next dev log for more teasers!

Can you guess what it will be about from this?



We'll see you there.

If you want to vote on new game ideas, talk to the community, find some tough dirt - then join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/powerwashsimulator

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim
PWS Wiki: https://powerwash-simulator.fandom.com/wiki/PowerWash_Simulator_Wiki

Hey everyone,

This week is our 18th Birthday as a studio, so from everyone here at FuturLab, we invite you to celebrate with us!



In the last toilet humor-filled dev log, we covered the Washroom job that came with 0.6; take a flush and read that here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3069759028627492491

[h2]PowerWash Simulator[/h2]

Birthday Gnome

We'd like to thank everyone for helping us make PowerWash Simulator such a great success, and we haven't even fully launched yet! Fantastic feedback continues to pour in and allows us to shape the game to be the best it can be. Even now, we have come a long way since the Early Access launch with many new quality of life features and content. Though it's now clear the feel-good nature of the game has really resonated with people!

Our developers are constantly delighted by checking the review score on Steam and seeing it is still soaring in the high 90s! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to give us a review; it really is such an honor.

We don't have anything to tease just yet but don't worry, we've got some great surprises coming in 0.7!

[h2]Develop Awards[/h2]

Last week we were at the Develop: Star Awards, which celebrate the best games and talent in the UK. This year, we were privileged to be nominated in 3 categories: Best Original IP with PowerWash Simulator, Best Studio as FuturLab, and Tomorrow's Star with our Community Manager.

Although we didn't come away with any prizes, it was incredible to be on the pedestal with other amazing games and studios. Congratulations to smash hit Fall Guys for winning Best Original IP and Sumo Digital for taking the studio spot. Fingers crossed that we'll be back next year!



[h2]FuturLab Bank Holiday [/h2]

Sorry that there wasn't a dev log or stream last week; internally, our studio now takes the Friday off during every October half term to celebrate our Birthday! Our very own FuturLab Friday, if you will!

You can catch this week's stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196662287

[h2]Grads In Games[/h2]



As a studio, we know how important it is to foster new talent coming into the games industry, so this year we've partnered with Grads in Games to help guide new graduates and ultimately hope to take some on as FuturLab team members. We have been part of similar programs before and even have development superstars that are still with us! You can read our announcement on that here: https://gradsingames.com/news/futurlab-joins-grads-in-games-studio-partner/

One of our designers, who you may have seen regularly featured in these dev logs, Nick, has given a live Q&A to over 200 students via the program. They were surprised at how interested they were in the everyday tasks in the role but were delighted to delve into the often unspoken parts of work in games

[h2]Party Time[/h2]

We celebrated our 18th Birthday in style with our Back To The Futur party; current and previous employees from over the 18 years of the studio were invited to sunny Brighton to celebrate. With PowerWash Simulator play stations, gnome cakes, and lots of fun, it was great to celebrate the studio's journey together.



[h2]We're Growing[/h2]

It's also been an excellent year for growth at the studio, reaching over 40 employees. This is the most people the studio has ever employed - all of our new starters have been hired and started remotely, which has been a real challenge, but thanks to our small but excellent team, our new employees have been onboarded smoothly.

We still have roles available, and you can check to see if something relevant to you comes up here: https://futurlab.co.uk/jobs/

Thanks for reading this celebratory dev log, sorry there are no teasers in this week's log. However, don't miss our next one because we'll be revealing the addition of one of the most requested quality of life features coming in 0.7!

We'll see you there.


If you want to vote on new game ideas, talk to the community, find some tough dirt - then join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/powerwashsimulator

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim
PWS Wiki: https://powerwash-simulator.fandom.com/wiki/PowerWash_Simulator_Wiki