A Swedish independent video game developer just dropped a YouTube trailer for Keep Driving, a pixel-art management role-playing game about a nostalgic cross-country journey in an old car. The first comment I saw from user @SemperCallide pitches it perfectly: “Modern Oregon Trail with neo-retro graphics and 90s grunge aesthetic? Holy shit yes.”
Here’s the actual rundown from the game’s producers [sic]:
“It’s the early 2000’s, and you’ve just bought your first car. A long, slow summer lies ahead. Hearing about a festival on the other side of the country, you fire up your engine, plot a course on your map, and hit the road. How, if you get there at all, is up to you.”
“Keep Driving is a management RPG about slowly making your way through a procedurally generated pixel art open world. Pick up hitchhikers with their own personalities and stories; upgrade, customize and repair your car. Solve challenges on the road using a unique turn-based ‘combat’ system, using your own skills and whatever’s lying around in the glovebox to make it through.”
I don’t often play slow-paced casual games like that. But they can be a super-fun way to relax and step into a world if the aesthetic is right. Based on this trailer, I think the look is absolutely spectacular and I’m really eager to get lost in this for a few hours on a rainy night.
The vehicle choices look spot on for that early-aughts era cheap used car, too. Doesn’t look like they’re licensed cars but the “1981 Sedan” is pretty clearly meant to make us think of a Volvo 240. (Shoot, now I gotta hurry up and finish writing this so I can take a lap around Facebook Marketplace and see if anybody’s got one for sale nearby.)
The truck looks like a little bit of Toyota (cab window) mixed with a later-model Ranger (round fender flares). And the muscle car, hmm, old Ford Maverick maybe?
It looks like they’re all cosmetically customizable, which is fun, and if they have different attributes, it should help give the game more replayability.
As for playing it at all, the release date is TBA but you can “wishlist it” on the Steam gaming platform to stay posted on that.
The game studio YCJY is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, one of the country’s bigger cities (Volvo has corporate offices and a museum there). It’s been in business since 2014 and has turned out a few games already, none of which I’ve played but its titles Sea Salt and Post Void both have really good reviews which bodes well for Keep Driving coming out as good as it looks in the trailer. Here’s hoping we get the final version sooner rather than later!
Know about any other indie car games that should be on our radar? Email the author at andrew.collins@thedrive.com.