Believe it or not, My Summer Car is fully assembled and ready to leave Early Access

Fire up the sauna. My Summer Car, Amistech’s bizarre car-assembly ennui simulator, is finally ready to leave Early Access. It’s a little awkward right now, but it sounds like the switch will be flipped tomorrow.

Wow, can you believe it’s been eight-ish years since My Summer Car launched into the world via Early Access? I can’t. In fact, it feels like a bit longer than that for me, since I was eagerly anticipating it for quite a while before it finally reached my hands.

It reached a rather surprising level of popularity. It’s an extremely unconventional and unfriendly game. While its main focus is around putting together a junk heap of a car, you have basic needs like thirst, hunger, hygiene, and stress. Also, piss. Every so often, you have to relieve yourself, and it doesn’t matter much where you do it. And to cap it all off, you can die. Finland is an unforgiving land of inebriated drivers and moose. You can be killed picking up the telephone during a thunderstorm or forgetting to switch off the main breaker before replacing a fuse.

Even if you turn permanent death off, it has little regard for your time. You may find yourself stranded after a bad mistake, struggling to make money, or just waiting for something to happen. It feels deliberate in the way it forces you to slow down and take things in. I love it. It’s one of my favorite games ever.

The last update before it leaves Early Access isn’t its biggest one, but it adds a few interesting features, like more voice lines for your cousin (the guy who drives around drunk and will give you a lift if you’re stranded). He’ll also sometimes end up as your cellmate if you get arrested. What a weird game. Its developer, Johannes Rojola, has some strange priorities for what to add to gameplay. For a while, brewing booze at home and selling it to a friend was the best way to make money, and then he changed it so your friend will ask you to drink with him. You can only get so drunk before you completely pass out, so it’s actually a big hindrance. I could go on about the strange design.

Amistech is currently working on a follow-up, My Winter Car. As the name implies, it is a similar concept but set in the winter. Like I was before the release of My Summer Car, I’m pretty amped to get my hands on it. It sounds like My Winter Car will hit Early Access soon, but how soon is soon? With the way Amistech works, it could be soon or it could be less soon.

My Summer Car is available now on PC. It leaves Early Access soon (probably very soon).