The Eastern European road trip Jalopy has almost completed its journey through early access, after nearly two years, and will properly launch next Wednesday, March 28th. You know, Jalopy, the game set in the 90s about driving your uncle from Germany to Turkey in a scrappy Trabant 601. Lots of things to pick up and fiddle with. That one. I enjoyed packing my car and pressing buttons in the old public prototype released way back when it was called Hac, then decided to wait until it was properly finished, so I’m keen to finally see how it’s ended up.

Since that 2014 prototype, I’ve mostly known the game through delightful GIFs of packing and washing the car, as well as Pip’s accounts of accidents and incidents which were definitely not her fault okay.

I am excited to see what it has become. I know development has been slower and more difficult than planned at times, and certain features have been cut or scaled back, but if I get to pack a car and drive quietly through the rain I’ll be pleased enough.

In a step rare among early access games, one of the fellas from publishers Excalibur has looked back over the game’s early access plans to judge how they panned out. Creator Greg Pryjmachuk has been quite candid about difficulties on his blog over the course of development too. Turns out, making a road trip across a procedurally-generated Eastern Europe is quite a big task for (mostly) one man.