Driving Is Hard began with a ridiculous idea tossed around a coffee machine and eventually became a physics-heavy climb starring Jeff, a semi-nude bald man riding inside a bathtub with massive off-road tires. The game is now available on Xbox with Xbox Play Anywhere support.
Elegant Horse Studios shared the story in an Xbox Wire feature about Driving Is Hard, tracing the project back to a time when co-founders Liudas, known as Hangeris, and Tautvydas were still working toward their own indie studio. The trio was already involved with Sheep Sweep, although Tautvydas was working for another company and was nowhere near the conversation that started the bathtub adventure.
From a mouse to a bathtub
The initial pitch was inspired by Chained Together and the punishing games often described as part of the Foddian genre. Hangeris imagined a standalone Foddian racing game where players controlled a car with only a mouse. It sounded funny in theory. In practice, the first prototype was awkward, frustrating, and difficult to enjoy.
Hangeris built that early version over one sleepless weekend and sent it to the rest of the team. After trying it, the developers abandoned mouse-only steering and moved to more familiar arcade-style controls.
The revised version received a much warmer response. What started as an office joke quickly became a studio project, with the team refining the vehicle handling and shaping the terrain around playtest feedback.
The first vehicle concepts included an RC car, a stylized racing car, and a buggy. The buggy won out because its exposed suspension suited the rough hills, but the design still felt too ordinary. A memory about Hangeris’ childhood provided the answer: his family once had a bathtub that disappeared after an apartment renovation, leaving him with a long-standing wish for one of his own.
That personal detail led to the game’s defining vehicle: a bathtub on wheels carrying a bald pilot. The team tested the new design, approved it, and never looked back. It is a much harder vehicle to explain at a traffic stop, but it makes considerably more sense on a mountain built to ruin your afternoon.
Jeff’s name came from a developer associated with the horror game Baisu. During a walk, the developer suggested the name simply because Jeff was his own name. The protagonist kept it, and Tautvydas later joined the project to add features and support development.
What Driving Is Hard includes
Driving Is Hard sends Jeff across seven worlds filled with different challenges and terrain mechanics. Players can choose between Driving is Easy, which includes checkpoints, the original Driving is Hard challenge, and Driving is Insane for an even harsher climb.
The game also includes unlockable bathtub skins and 21 soaps to collect. Beneath the strange vehicle and punishing physics, Jeff has a story about family pressure, self-acceptance, and finding his own path. The game is priced at $9.99.
The result is a compact indie game built around simple controls, steep climbs, and the constant possibility of losing progress. Elegant Horse Studios’ coffee-break joke has become a real bathtub-racing challenge, and Jeff is waiting at the bottom of the next hill—or possibly halfway up it, depending on how carefully the last turn went.
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