The Bus DLC Lübeck | Developer Diary #1 – The Holsten Gate

As with our first The Bus DLC – Hamburg City, we also want to accompany the development of Lübeck with a developer diary.

At irregular intervals, we will give you insights into the ongoing development. We will introduce landmarks along the bus routes and highlight regional characteristics. Technical implementation and the challenges we face during development will also play a role.

Our goal is to show how the virtual Hanseatic city takes shape step by step and how much attention to detail goes into bringing it to life. The positive feedback on our Hamburg DLC has confirmed that we are on the right track. With more than 80 percent positive reviews on Steam, we want to maintain the same standard with Lübeck.

We are starting with a landmark that represents Lübeck like few others: the Holsten Gate.

The Holsten Gate will probably be familiar to many people, even if they have never been to Lübeck. In 2026, it is featured on the German €2 commemorative coin dedicated to Schleswig-Holstein. Older readers may also remember it from various Deutsche Mark coins and banknotes. The landmark can even be found in the company logo of the well-known Lübeck marzipan manufacturer Niederegger.

Completed in 1478, the Holsten Gate marks the western boundary of Lübeck's Old Town. The late Gothic structure is one of the last remaining parts of the city's former fortifications. Alongside the Burgtor, it is the only surviving city gate in Lübeck.

For more than 300 years, today's Holsten Gate stood here as the “Middle Holsten Gate” together with several other gate structures. The other Holsten Gates were demolished in the 19th century. The surviving structure has undergone several restorations, most recently in 2006.

Since 1950, the interior has been home to the Holstentor Museum. It explores the history of Lübeck and its importance as a major trading city.

The Holsten Gate also occupies a special position in terms of urban planning. It lies on a direct line of sight from Lübeck Central Station via Puppenbrücke and Holstenbrücke to Holstenstraße. From there, the route leads directly into the historic Old Town.

A Landmark Takes Shape in The Bus

For The Bus DLC – Lübeck, the Holsten Gate has been recreated as a detailed 3D asset of its own. The goal was not simply to reproduce its iconic silhouette as accurately as possible.

Inscriptions, windows, façade elements and numerous decorative details were all taken into account during the creation process. Even details that are difficult to see from the bus have made their way into the model.

If you leave your bus and walk through the gate, you can therefore discover even more. Looking up, for example, reveals the decorative elements of the ceiling structure.

The images in this developer diary show the Holsten Gate at various stages of development. Some screenshots were taken directly in the Unreal 3D Editor and show different development stages of the 3D model. Other images show the Holsten Gate already integrated into the Lübeck map and surrounded by its environment.

This provides a direct look at how the DLC is being created, from an individual 3D asset all the way to its final location within the map.

Why the Holsten Gate Isn't Standing Straight

One particular feature of the Holsten Gate presented the developers with an interesting challenge. Anyone who takes a closer look at the real Holsten Gate will quickly notice that the building is not perfectly straight.

The difficult ground conditions caused parts of the heavy structure to settle to different degrees over the centuries. As a result, the Holsten Gate did not simply tilt in one direction. The two towers are also no longer positioned exactly as they would be in a newly constructed building. These irregularities therefore had to be taken into account in the 3D model as well.

If both towers were modeled perfectly straight and symmetrical, the result might look correct at first glance. However, it would not accurately represent the Holsten Gate as it exists today.

That is why these characteristic deviations have also been incorporated into the virtual recreation. What might initially look like an imperfection in the model is actually part of the real landmark.

Extensive restoration and stabilization measures have prevented the building from sinking any further. However, the shape it has acquired over centuries has remained. And that is exactly how the Holsten Gate will also appear in The Bus DLC – Lübeck.

If you ever find yourself in Lübeck, we recommend taking a closer look at this landmark. A visit to the Holstentor Museum is also well worth it. There, you can learn more about the history of the gate and the city of Lübeck. We have linked the museum's website at the end of this news post.

All images shown are from the ongoing development. Content, details and visuals may still change before the release of The Bus DLC – Lübeck.

The Bus DLC – Lübeck is planned for PC and console in 2027. It is still too early to announce an exact release date.

In upcoming editions of our developer diary, we will show you more locations along the route. We will also continue to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the development process.

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