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Keep Driving
We keep learning about the just-released Keep Driving - DevGAMM Interview
Hands on the wheel, eyes on the road: Olle Tibblin, who was in charge of quality on the project, told us much more about the nostalgic road trip that parked on Steam just a few weeks ago.
Audio transcription
"Hi friends, I'm in Gdańsk for the DevGAMM day 2 and now I'm taking a look...
This is weird, this is one-off, because this in the game is the only one that has been already released from the ones that I've been checking out here in Gdańsk, so thank you so much for joining us, Olle."
"Of course.
This is Keep Driving, so, you know, hands on the wheel, eyes on the road.
Hell yeah.
I drove Citroën ZX back in the day, so this game was... I saw it on Twitter, I think."
"It was striking to me, you know, the look, the nostalgia vibes, the music, the models you're using, the pixel art, so what do you want to convey with this type of game? Very unique.
So, I think something that a lot of people have talked about in general about this game is especially the art style and the music and a feeling of nostalgia."
"The setting is, it's supposed to be early 2000s, late 90s.
You just got your first driver's license, you're a teenager or maybe early 20s, you don't really know what you're doing, you're going on a road trip to try to get to your friends and life happens to you while you're trying to get there."
"Maybe you'll get sidetracked, maybe you won't.
Alright, alright.
That is the vibe we're going for.
What do you actually do in the game?
I saw, you know, it's a road trip, of course, but what do you have to do?
So, I would classify the game as kind of a management RPG, which I don't think is super common, but it has the aspects you would expect of a normal RPG game, such as skills, builds, items and upgrades that you can use."
"And the main thing is you're just encountering a bunch of different people, doing quests and side quests, getting different endings.
That's a little bit of a spoiler, if you are interested in that.
Just a warning."
"But there are different endings, which will allow you to unlock new stuff while you're going on this road trip.
So, we're going for a bit of replayability as well.
Alright. Where are you guys based?
Sweden."
"Of course, you can see the Volvo in there.
Yeah.
So, what can you tell me about the inspiration in the different cars we see and the different vehicles?
Of course, there's this legendary Volvo model, inspired by Volvo, I guess."
"So, what can you tell me about that?
So, the art is made by Josef in our team and he is absolutely amazing.
He is so talented and most of it has been inspired from the countryside in Sweden, or a lot of it has.
I've had a lot of people come out today and say, oh, it feels like it's in Latvia or it feels like it's in Belarus or something like this."
"So, I think maybe the aesthetic fits in with a lot of other countries in Europe, which is fun, because they can live into it and feel like it was their young home that they're going back to when nostalgia was something we pushed for.
Okay."
"So, yeah.
What can you tell me about the things you can fiddle around in the car?
As in the sort of the menus, you can change the, of course, the radio station.
Yeah."
"Can you smoke?
You can smoke. Oh, no, you can't smoke, actually.
You can have cigarettes, though, but you can't smoke them.
You can smoke weed, though."
"All right.
But not tobacco.
Okay.
Weed is allowed.
Weed is allowed."
"That's why you're next to Darkstreet.
Exactly.
Because that game is all about drugs.
Okay, so what can you do with your car?
You can customize it."
"You can install upgrades.
You can choose different models.
There is a truck, there is a muscle car, there is the standard sedan.
So, you can change the color."
"You can equip different upgrades like a roof rack that gives you more inventory space, and it also shows on the model.
What you manage is you have a music player or maybe the radio, but it's really a music player where you put in and out CDs, and you can customize your playlists, and you will also unlock more music as you play the game by finding CDs or getting endings as well."
"And I do really believe the music is very good.
It's one of the highlights.
Actually, the main highlight, it's audiovisual in our review, so both graphics and music are the main highlights."
"The only gripe our reviewer had with it is that they found it a little bit monotonous.
But I guess that goes with driving as well.
Is that something that you wanted to convey?
This is going on in a very… You don't have peaks, you don't have something that is very different."
"Is that something that is part of the experience, or what would you say to people saying it's a little bit monotonous?
I think it's interesting.
I have had a lot of feedback regarding that, but that feedback was usually mostly from people who didn't change the playlist."
"Oh, really?
I will ask them.
Maybe they did and still found it monotonous.
And then, obviously, that is a fantasy you can go for."
"I think the beautiful thing about game development is that you can have people experience things that you didn't even intend to.
Exactly.
And, obviously, we talked a little bit about this."
"One thing I really wanted was to increase the length of the playlists, so the people who don't interact with the thing a lot actually do get a little bit more length of the playlist.
But, yeah, it's six songs now instead of five, which is better."
"Good, good, good.
Yeah.
Alright, so the game released already, as I said.
Only on Steam for now?
Only on Steam for now."
"Are you planning on releasing it on consoles?
I can't say anything officially yet, unfortunately.
Alright.
So, when I first mentioned that I knew about this game, it was on X, I had this video that really stood out for me."
"So, how did you guys approach the marketing of the game pre-release?
So, I actually don't know a lot about how we did the marketing.
I know we have a PR agency that does a lot of things for us, and also when we have content creators reach out, a lot of that gets sent to the PR agency."
"I know Christopher, who is the main guy who's been coding everything, also an amazing guy, Savant at GameMaker.
And he has meetings with the PR agency, like, I think he had it every week or something.
Alright, alright."
"I am not sure exactly what they were talking about on those meetings.
I think it was mentioned, actually, in that post that it was kind of a solo developer, so I think it also grabbed my attention.
So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to playing this, hopefully on the Steam Deck or on the Switch so that I can play while on a car."
"Yeah, you can play on Steam Deck as well.
It is Steam Deck supported.
Okay, so I can...
But don't play while driving.
No, not while driving, but while being driven by someone else inside a car."
"Yeah, of course.
So, that's the meta game here, right?
Meta game, yeah, for sure.
Okay, thank you so much for your time, Olle."
"Thank you so much.
Enjoy the show.
It's been nice talking to you.
Nice, bye-bye."
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