Our Story
Hi! We are Mitch & Karolina, husband & wife from the Netherlands. We have a mutual interest in computers, games, arts and crafts, and many other fascinating subjects. We’re following courses and studies closely related to the game industry. Tractor Pulling Simulator is both a personal and a study-oriented project for both of us. Mitch focuses on 3D modeling, game programming, and PR. While Karolina focuses on the game’s level design, artwork, and marketing.
Below you can read our stories and how all of this leads us to the point of creating the Tractor Pulling Simulator game.
Mitch
With both of my parents involved in a car repair shop, my passion for tech and engineering was pretty much inevitable. Around the age of 5, my parents took me to a local pulling event, and I was instantly hooked, dreaming of driving one of those myself once I grew up.
A few years and many pulls later, I started building lego pullers with my friends, and we did competitions at home during the winter months to keep ourselves busy. At this age, I got handy enough with computers to start wondering why there were so many games but no tractor pulling related game at all. Around the age of 10, my parents got me a lathe for the workshop to build some more serious projects than lego. The first multi-engine RC puller was born a few years later, which I built with my dad and grandpa, and later multiple other pullers with my friend.
We visited pulls nearly every week during my teenage years, and I got connected to a few local pulling teams. I still maintain websites for some teams to this day! In 2008, I was invited to drive a demo pull on the “Cobra II” garden puller, which my dad sponsored at the time. Driving myself really infected me with the pulling virus, as they say, and the same year just after my birthday, my dream came true: we bought the old “Easterbunny” garden puller and prepared it for the 2009 season. We named it “Mean Machine” and hoped it would do justice to its name.
In 2011 we ended 2nd in the championship, our best result to date. We started making plans to build a Compact Diesel in cooperation with the Moving Mountains pulling team. In 2013 it was ready, and we drove our first season with the compact diesel tractor. Sadly, in 2014 I was forced to give up on the dream because my chronic heart disease no longer allowed me to participate in tractor pulling or any other high-adrenaline sports.
So to keep myself busy and stay somewhat in the pulling scene, I went back to RC pullers. I’ve built many cool projects, many have gone to the United States, where I met some great people as well.
Besides tractor pulling, computers have always been a big interest too. In 2012 I met Karolina. In 2016, she moved from the Czech Republic to the Netherlands, and we moved in together. In 2019 we got married. Then COVID turned the world upside down, and we decided to follow some courses to keep ourselves busy. I focused on 3D modeling for games and film because that’s something I’ve always wanted to learn. Karolina already had a great talent for drawing and art, so she focused on 2D.
2021 has been one of the roughest years for both of us so far. We started juggling with some ideas for a pulling game, we could work on it in our free time to relax from the daily drama in the world. And that is exactly how the concept for Tractor Pulling Simulator came to life! Working on the game is my way to stay in touch with the tractor pulling scene, and it’s also a way to keep me sane during all the lockdowns and what not.
Karolina
Ever since I was a kid, I was always interested in how things work. I remember “helping” my father when he was working on his car, and I proudly handed him the tools when I was just around 4 or 5 years old.
I spent most of my childhood living with my mother only, though. Since I had the male example missing the majority of my bringing up, we had to figure a lot of technical struggles on our own. It was usually complicated for us to pay for such luxurious things (for that time) like a computer, but I learned a lot with just trial and error.
Even though my huge passion was always singing, I’ve always had a really strong bond with art as well. Leaving primary school, where “arts and crafts” is part of the primary education in my country, made me miss art tremendously. I kept drawing crappy portraits and was eager to get better. However, I was always scared to step out of my comfort zone. In 2012 I met Mitch, who showed me a brand new world. My passion for understanding computers and gaming grew and other technical aspects.
He became my huge support in art. I also learned about this strange sport he did – Tractor Pulling. I’ve never heard of it before, but soon enough, I understood that it’s Mitch’s huge passion as much as singing or drawing is mine. It didn’t take us long to figure out that we were the perfect match and that we still had a whole world to discover together. Then, in 2016 I did the scariest step of my life. I packed my life into a few boxes and bags and moved in with Mitch, and three years later, we got married.
My passion for gaming grew even more, and art was basically the only thing that interested me more than anything. Even when the COVID decided to burn the world, the art was still here, and I was happy enough to start taking some courses and get to taste what concept art looks like. I’ve always admired all the great concept and digital artists and wanted to know more myself. I had the pleasure to try out how the background design for animation works. Working on environments was a big game-changer as I got fully dragged in.
Nowadays, I help Mitch a bit with the RC pullers. Since we both love gaming, I felt like supporting him in this project wherever I can so he stays in touch with his biggest passion is all I can do for him. Besides contributing my ideas and views on this project’s direction, I will do my best to create some cool concepts to build the game further!
Get in touch
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