Pacific Drive, the video game road trip inspired by the weird fiction of Jeff VanderMeer

Creative director Alex Dracott explains why he decided to make a driving game with a supernatural twist

The rain was pouring as game director Alex Dracott drove through the wilderness of the Pacific north-west. There wasn't anyone in the car with him, but nonetheless, Dracott didn't feel alone in his trusty station wagon - a dependable, durable vehicle he'd been driving ever since he was a teenager. As the game maker was bludgeoned by the elements, he describes feeling a camaraderie with the car", sheltered by its windshield and the metal of its body.

This experience inspired Pacific Drive, the game Dracott has been making for the past three years with his team at Ironwood Studios in Seattle, capital of the famously verdant region. He describes it as a run-based driving survival game," played in first-person. You must make it out of an exclusion zone using nothing but your smarts and your beat-up vehicle. There are conspiracies to untangle, anomalies to avoid, supplies to gather and repairs to be made - if you make it back to your garage after each hair-raising excursion.

Pacific Drive will be out on PC and PlayStation 5 in late 2023.