My Summer Car, Finnish Cottage Simulator and Finnish Army Simulator – “Retrosanism” is a confusing game trend

Finnish They seem to have recovered from their lower complex and woke up to a different, healthy patriotism.

At least it seems when you look at domestic indie games published in recent years.

My Summer Carissa Datsun and shaved in Finnish rural landscapes in the 1990s beer basket in the back seat.

Finnish Cottage Simulatorissa We are in the pursuit of Finnish cottage activities such as sauna, grilling and fishing.

Finnish Army Simulator Again, as its name implies, Finnish army experience.

Even in the latest video game of the great Finnish Remedy game studio Alan Wake 2 There are several Suomi references such as the actress Martti Lemmalo Singing tango in a shabby cup. The character presented by a favor is a caretaker named Ahti.

What explains the increased number and popularity of Finnish -flirting games?

Down university doctoral researcher Haron Walliander has studied the expression of Finnishness in games.

He sees the phenomenon as the opening point in 2016 My Summer Carinwho was finally finished last month. More than 100,000 copies of the game were sold only during its first month, and with its exotic Finnish image, it aroused cheerfulness from abroad.

My Summer Car gave birth to a new kind of game genre called Walliander Finnish lifestyle as Simulator. It mimics Finnish lifestyle and its distinctiveness. The language spoken is often rally English or dialect Finnish.

“Here in Finland, we may have stopped the shame of speaking rally English and turned it into an asset. It has been found that Finnish culture and language are interesting things not only among us but also internationally, ”says Walliander.

In addition to Retrosian aesthetics, the games are united by their inward -warming humor, which is mainly aimed at Finns Finns.

“It is even a powerful way to stand out from other games in the international market. Finnish Army Simulatorin and My Summer Carin Humor may not even open up to an alien player who has no experience in Finnish culture and how to deal here, ”says Walliander.

It also brings their own fun to the games that they are more tough than the average game.

Especially My Summer Car It is famous for its fabric: you can’t get ahead unless you can first assemble the car and its engine from numerous spare parts. Each nut and bolt must be tightened one at a time.

“You really have to go to the game to find out. There are no accustomed elements, and the game is not so well done that everything is pre -lit. It will have such a fun Finnish Sisu thinking. That life should not be easy. ”

My Summer Carin factor Johannes Rojola It seems to follow the philosophy of challenge in the marketing of his game: his phone number is secret and he did not respond to an interview request sent to his Amistech company.

Finnish Cottage Simulatorin developer Veeti Kurkela Instead, answers to the phone at home in Jyväskylä.

Kurkela, a twenties studying information and communication technology, did Finnish Cottage Simulatorin With about a thousand euros on a shoe -tape budget of their friends Juha Palo-Ojan and Patrick Kurolan with. It took three years for the project.

At first, the friends were not meant to make a cottage game. They just tested and reconciled the Finnish landscape into the gaming world.

“There was a rowing boat, a wood -burning tree and one, but then it was a little quietly developed into a cottage project. It was thought that when winter came, people would surely remember the summer cottages and think that they could get to the cottage, ”says Kurkela.

The fun of the game was partially born unintentionally.

“This is when such a small indie game, it is forced to have all kinds of fun. There are also bugs that were not necessarily intended, but it has been fun to watch the players’ Youtube and Tiktok videos. ”

Published in November Finnish Cottage Simulator Immediately during its publication week, the game store Steam was the third best -selling game of the week in Finland. So far, about 35,000 the game has been sold.

According to Kurkela My Summer Car did not act as a model Cottage Simulatorillebut its popularity gave me the faith in developing one’s own game.

“It was thought that people probably like this type of game then.”

Finnish Cottage Simulator, Finnish Army Simulator and My Summer Car They are typical modern indie games that they are all published as Early Access, or virtually unfinished.

The advantage of Early Access is that when the game gets out, it begins to generate some kind of return to its creators. After that, the game may sometimes be completed.

Small The author team and budget have not prevented games from gaining widespread visibility. On the contrary: thanks to digital distribution channels and free game engines like Unity, anyone can, in principle, make a hit game today.

All you need is a good idea, an interesting implementation and a sufficient amount of national madness.

“Rojola is a good example of this,” Haron Walliander says. “All you need is really one person to make a game, and it succeeds and succeeds.”