There is a book published in 1974 called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. It’s a philosophical book that, to simplify things, explores a concept it calls ‘quality’, using a road trip and motorcycle repair/maintenance as parable. Most of us would recognize this as the idea of being in the ‘zone’, being so focused and in tune with your work that there is a sort of inner peace achieved, a Zen like oneness with what you are doing, complete immersion. Pirsig posits that the pursuit of ‘quality’ is the key to living a purposeful life.
Jalopy
Developer: Minskworks
Platform: PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a Steam code for preview
Finished Jalopy ready to hit the road!
Jalopy is at its core a car driving and maintenance simulator, with procedurally generated survival RPG flairs. You start the game by building your car and putting the engine together piece by piece. You pull the latch, lift the bonnet, place the Engine Block, Fuel Tank, Carburetor, and Battery until you have a unified whole and an understanding on how to maintain it. Then you add gas, oil, and water. You do the same ritual for the tires and door.
Jalopy is incredibly realistic when it comes to the car itself, the flow of repair and maintenance is exactly how it flows with a real vehicle. Eventually, you get to customize your car with new and better parts and do side stuff like build a stock portfolio in the emerging capitalist economy. The core of the game, though, remains the time and care you put into your Laika 601 Deluxe to keep you going on your journey through the Eastern Bloc. Uncle, your guide and mentor on your journey through the Eastern Bloc, says something along these lines after you make your first repair, “Good mechanical work is like good relationship work, it’s all about time, effort, and care. You must be actively involved with your vehicle.”
In this way, you can see something of a layman’s Pirsig in the character of Uncle, as he teaches you how build and maintain your Laika 601 Deluxe and eases you into the flow of this gameplay mechanic. He also educates the player on the world around you through dialog as you continue your journey. His role is to help you find that ‘quality’, that immersion, in your experience with Jalopy. Not everyone will find this mechanic enjoyable. After all, driving simulators and survival RPGs simply aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. For those people, I’m afraid immersion in this game will be impossible.
One of a number of game breaking tutorial bugs I ran into. I was stuck holding that engine block while Uncle danced in circles for all eternity.
Jalopy, however, currently has bigger problems in terms of immersion than simply a somewhat audience limiting core mechanic. Jalopy has more bugs than a roach motel at a Denny’s. It’s important to note of course that Jalopy is currently in pre-alpha and I have high hopes that by full release all the bugs will be ironed out. That said, the bugs in the current version make the game, which goes early access in less than a week, nearly unplayable.
The biggest issue is the save game bug. Currently, the save game function doesn’t work at all with any attempt at loading your progress placing you back at the start of the tutorial. Worse, however, is the effect that it seems to have on your ability to continue playing the game. It took me seven tries and roughly an hour to finally get through the tutorial. After saving the game, I ran into one game breaking bug after another, each time I restarted the game it seemed to come earlier and earlier. Eventually I quit out and when I came back to it the next day I decided to start a new game, which seemed to fix the issue.
First time setting out into the Eastern Bloc!
Once I was out on the open road most of the bugs were less serious, if immersion breaking, mainly graphical glitches and broken AI. Certain features are also currently unimplemented, such as a proper world map or working achievement menu. The former of which, when combined with the apparently eternal night, caused me to get lost and run out of gas more times than I can count. The game as it is isn’t a playable one, but games in pre-alpha tend to be buggy messes so take all these complaints with a grain of salt. It has a long way to go before we will know if it will live up to its potential and become the immersive adventure the current version only hints at.
The thematic parallels between Pirsig’s parable and the core gameplay aspects of Jalopy, has kept my mind focused on the importance of immersion for the gamer. Whether through story, creative potential, or gameplay, all games are attempting to engage a player in such a way that they can find something resembling Pirsig’s ‘quality’. In this, Jalopy has a long way to go, but a firm conceptual base to build upon. If you decide to pick up Jalopy on April 14th, you aren’t so much buying a game, but rather the potential for real quality.
