Development ĭevelopment of the game was preceded by a demo game made by Pavel Zagrebelnyy for the 2009 Intel Level Up game development competition, where the game won the first prize in the 'Best Multithreaded Game' category and finished second in the 'best game optimized for Intel graphics' category. The game's camera is positioned outside the vehicle and can be moved around using the mouse there is no in-car view. In hardcore mode, fuel consumption is increased and routes the player charts on the map won't be displayed as a guide on the road as they drive. Players can choose between casual and hardcore mode. Due to the challenging terrain, players must take all conditions into consideration and drive accordingly for example, they cannot simply just press "forward" on their keyboard to drive straight. The game takes into account several properties such as physics, mud, terrain deformation, as well as driving controls and a day/night cycle.
There is both a single-player and multiplayer mode.
The aim of the game is to transport cargo to its destination without depleting resources (such as fuel) or damaging the vehicle. Spintires is an all-terrain simulation video game which tasks driving through muddy unpaved Russian roads in aging Soviet vehicles with nothing but a map and a compass.