CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Behind the wheel, navigating a stretch of I-277 in Charlotte can be a trip. At Exit 3A, motorists are forced to maneuver in a hurry.
“That danger is kind of exciting, too,” says Mike Ramirez of Charlotte.
“Like we’ve all had this shared experience [at exit 3A]” Ramirez told Queen City News. “If you mention it, everyone has a story or two about it.”
The well-traveled interchange inspires a lot of anxiety, but Ramirez has channeled his angst into a video game.
In the car, he usually rolls with the exit strategy that gets him to NoDa in one piece.
“Cause there’s kind of the dread as you’re approaching it, and then kind of stress like, ‘Am I going to make it? Am I going to have to go to another exit or something like that?’” Ramirez often asks himself.
Less than a year ago, the software engineer stayed in his lane and began developing “Exit 3A: The Game.”
“I like how the truck like wobbles,” said Ramirez, taking the game still under construction for a spin.
“I started joking with my friends about [the game] and they said I should make it,” he explained.
The game puts Player One behind the wheel of a truck on 277. First, choose your cargo and hit the road.
Once finished, Ramirez hopes to release “EXIT 3A: The Game” on the STEAM gaming platform.
“Everyone cracks up when they see it,” Ramirez says.
His goal is to finish making the game by the end of the year, but he’s kind of a perfectionist, so fasten your seatbelt.
“It has this like cartoony vibe,” said Ramirez.
“I’m always questioning myself,” he added. “I’m always like, ‘It needs to be more like this and more like this. This needs to be lined up, I need to fix that.’”
“Challenging but fun,” he says of his goal. “Striking that balance is kind of hard.”
Turning a highway exit into gaming gold makes perfect sense, he says.
“So, I like making games influenced by my life in some way,” said Ramirez.
His past titles include “Doing Chores and Killing Bugs” and a pinata game called “Quien Es El Mechaburro?”
This is the most ambitious effort yet.
While he has had a lot of fun with his side project, he says in real life 3A is no joke. Ramirez urges drivers to make sure to take every precaution to ensure that it is not, ‘Game Over.’
“I’m like poking fun at the exit a little bit and everyone’s kind of laughing about it. But I do want to stress, like, people should be safe,” he said.
He says reaction to the game concept has been overwhelmingly positive on Instagram, so he can’t wait to share his rendition of that shared road experience.
“Just going through the lanes, it feels like a game to me,” says Ramirez.
