If you’re anything like us, then you’ll understand the therapeutic power of a long drive. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in a good car or on amazing roads – just getting behind the wheel for a few hours with nothing but some good tunes and maybe a couple of other people you’re happy to share close quarters with is a tonic for the mind and soul.
That’s a view evidently shared by indie developer YCJY Games, which has announced a new title, Keep Driving. It looks like it’ll be a laid-back driving game with a difference, that difference being that, by the looks of things, you don’t really do any actual driving.
Rather, it’s pitched as an RPG set just after the turn of the millennium, where you play someone who’s just picked up their first car and is setting off on a road trip across an unspecified nation to head to a festival on the other side of the country.
With a charming pixel art style, you’re given a choice of cars that we can see from the game’s trailer and Steam page screenshots. These are a ‘1981 sedan’, quite clearly inspired by a Volvo 240, a ‘1970 muscle car’ that seems to be based on an early second-generation Chevrolet Camaro, and a ‘1988 truck’ that looks like… a truck from 1988. What do we look like, car experts? All three will be customisable.
It’s hard to ascertain from the trailers, but it looks like the player won’t necessarily control the car, or if they do, it’ll be in a very basic way. Instead, the car’s fixed in the centre of the screen while a procedurally generated world rolls by. The core gameplay will come from a turn-based ‘combat’ system, although ‘combat’ is used in quite a loose sense here – instead, it’ll be used to solve problems and challenges; everything from encountering a flock of sheep to an abandoned car.
There’ll also be various hitchhikers to pick up and help, and an inventory system, the capacity of which seems like it’ll be affected by your choice of car. The final game will feature multiple endings and different paths to take, with each one taking anything from one to four hours to complete. Oh, and in a nod to YCJY’s homeland, it’s all soundtracked by Swedish indie rock bands. Nice.
Keep Driving – gameplay
There’s no word on a full release date for Keep Driving yet, but those on Steam can currently play an early demo.
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