Swooning over Blazing Legion: Ignition before departing for the weekend was also very effective in reminding me of what I’ll be missing out on at the Game Developers Conference.

I won’t be at GDC, which is sort of like being the odd kid at the playground with @GDC/GDC18 suffixed to nearly every indie handle on my social feed. It’s also a stark reminder of the early builds/prototypes/concepts I wish I were trying all-at-once.

Take Mike Blackney’s Dead Static Drive for instance.

always make an entrance pic.twitter.com/QRzKEvHgpv

— michael j foxney 🌵 (@kurtruslfanclub) March 14, 2018

With a Twitter moniker that spells Kurt Russell, all Mike seems to want to disclose is Grand Theft Cosmic-Horror, racing-striped Mustangs and the classic Americana road trip to go with.

Throw in ‘pre-apocalyptic’, a foreboding comic-book climate, plenty of desert sun/explosions/burnouts, and the allusions to Quentin Tarantino, Mad Max and Bullitt-like zeal are aplenty.

This while an end-of-the world in-game clock has been set to the count of 30 days across a narrative that’s equally reminiscent.

Within these players must get from an unspecified point A to an unspecified point B, driving across the vast expanse of an Unreal-rendered world overridden by Lovecraftian spawn, living/breathing civilian life and hitchhikers.

ok, needs polish but you can use vans to get to otherwise inaccessible places, so I'm happy pic.twitter.com/64TtNkxR7v

— michael j foxney 🌵 (@kurtruslfanclub) March 1, 2018

Real-time events unravel across this expanse regardless of a player’s position at any given point; while physically impossible to attend to all of these, Dead Static Drive’s roguelike element resets itself once 30 in-game days have elapsed to commence a subsequent playthrough.

The narrative repeats, following the same branching paths, only this time with the attained knowledge of the previous game-loop enhancing progress; in-game deaths simply mean players miss out on real-time events while they ‘rest & recover’, retaining appeal for non-roguelike enthusiasts.

The Grand Theft Auto inspired action/exploration notwithstanding, Mike seems equally keen to infuse mechanics of his own a la management of road-trip essentials, backpacks, guns, boot space and more via an inventory system.

now inventory is an overlay that pops up and is realtime so monsters can get you when you're tetrising your gear pic.twitter.com/gsLcV2CVgv

— michael j foxney 🌵 (@kurtruslfanclub) October 9, 2017

Rest/Recovery ties-in to an insanity meter that correspondingly impacts player perception of the horrors/hitchhikers/NPC’s they encounter; scary, but with the tones of Reservoir Dogs, Fast Times at Richmond High and Twin Peaks I’ve even heard Mike say.

Plus coasters for your beer.

There’s no release date announced, but Dead Static Drive is part of the GDC Edition of Double Fine’s/iam8bit’s Day of The Devs indie showcase. You can monitor progress on Cartrdge and/or ping Mike if you’re going.