Hello! I'm Jake Riley. This is Randy's Crazy Mission! It's a game I'm making that's based on the video game crash of 1983. The idea for this project has been in my head for quite a while now. It's been in inactive development during that time. It is a story-driven 2D platformer that’s a homage to the Atari 2600. The game will have a unique spin on the Wreck-It-Ralph-style formula, where video game characters are sentient. It takes place in the world of a poorly-made Atari 2600 game during the 1983 video game crash. This concept was really fun to come up with plot points and jokes for. In fact, there's even a character whose whole shtick is that he keeps on getting gruesomely killed, only to then respawn. This happens so much that he just doesn't care anymore.
The moniker “Randy’s Crazy Mission!” is also the title of the Atari game it's set in. The game was made by a fictional sucker company (The Buscal Candy Company) to tie-in with their brand’s cartoon commercials. Think something like that old Tootsie Pop ad. It’s like how Coke and other brands made tie-in games for the Atari.
Aesthetic
Even though this project is set in an Atari 2600 game, it won’t look like one. Considering this game has a lot of dialogue and humor, and considering my background in hand-drawing, I didn't want it to have the very basic visual style of the 2600. I decided to give it a 70s animation art style instead, since the game within this game is based on 70s cartoon commercials. That’s how the characters actually perceive their world. Sources of influence include the classic cartoon Tootsie Pop commercial, Schoolhouse Rock!, and The Point! (not sure how many of you’d know about that last one). There'll even be a period-appropriate old-school film filter to make the 70s-style animation look more authentic. The 70s cartoon style fits the time period of the Atari 2600 well.
The presentation will still have elements of the signature pixelated 2600 look however. The HUD and text will look like they came straight from an old Atari game, some sound effects will use the Atari 2600 sound, and the characters' Atari sprites (what they actually look like on TV screens) will come up in certain places. Dialogue prompts will use NPCs' Atari sprites. Randy's 2600 sprite will appear on the grey HUD bar on the top of the screen when players can interact with something. And, the very beginning of the game will look like an actual Atari 2600 title, before flashing to the 70s cartoon style seconds later to highlight the contrast.
The 70s cartoon style and retro Atari look both come together to create an interesting blend of aesthetics. In-game, the pixel graphics will have a filter applied to make them look like they're on CRTs, similar to what I'm doing with the hand-drawn stuff. Here's a picture of some of the characters' sprites:
Story
Randy, the player character of both this project and his in-universe game, is a living mushroom. He's the mascot of the brand that created him and his advergame. He's also partially an analogue of myself. Sadly, he's sometimes pushed-around, insulted, infantilized, and even outright ignored by his family and treated differently than his brothers, even though he's the main character of the game they live in. They all-around view him as a lower (and invisible) lifeform. Overall, Randy feels the deck's stacked against him. Unfortunately, this is based on how my own family have always been to me.
Randy's Mission
There's a conflict that's happening while Randy's game is on the shelf in yet another disappointed buyer's home. Yeah, the game was returned to the store repeatedly. Randy wants to solve this conflict to gain the respect and appreciation from his family that he should have. You know, to show his family that he can work hard and actually do things, and not just whatever someone tells him to do, and similarly, not just being manipulated by someone playing his video game.
Randy figures that solving this conflict himself without the aid of his family will make them end their negative and dismissive attitude towards him, and actually view him as something. He needs the spotlight on himself by being the hero, in order to stop the insulting treatment his own family gives him, and finally be even with his big brothers.
Randy is The Buscal Company’s mascot for crying out loud, the brand’s premier character! He’s the reason the brand’s other characters exist. He shouldn't be disrespected like this. And, as I suggested earlier, the times he's been controlled by someone in the real world accomplishing a fake, programmed plot don't count as something Randy meaningfully did.
Also, bringing the video game crash of 1983 into this, the characters who live in the game within this game are aware of the video game industry and the then-current 1983 crash, and that factors into the story. I'm not fully revealing how just yet though, at the time of posting this.
Gameplay
Moving on to the gameplay, the game within this game is poorly made, as I said earlier. When players boot this game up for the first time, they get exactly what the game is in-universe. Though, it's using the 70s cartoon art style, just as the story is. It starts out purposefully frustrating and shoddy, what lots of people associate with games around the time of the crash. If you can tolerate beating the six levels, the real game will begin. It's actual story will start after the game's put on the shelf by disappointed customer number whatever.
The interesting thing is that, during the story, you replay all six levels (with a few more courses thrown in), but they'll be better. Stuff will be added to the levels to improve them, and alleviations to the previously frustrating gameplay will take some edge off. On top of that, story cutscenes will take place in them, you can talk to NPCs (who just stand there in the in-universe game), there'll be new NPCs, and there'll actually be music playing in each stage (which, by the way, I'm also composing the soundtrack).
There'll even be moments to take advantage of the game's shoddiness, and there'll also be gameplay nods both big and small to classic games of its time period, complete with new spins on them and perhaps even more challenge. There will be a couple of creative liberties when it comes to it actually being on the 2600, but not too much.
Art
This is kind of redundant, since you might've already saw these even if this is your first time discovering this game, but whatever. Here's the game's logo:
Now here's art of Randy himself:
Y'know, I originally created Randy for another game idea I had brewing in my mind until I started thinking of Randy's Crazy Mission!, to which I then scrapped the old idea. He wasn't going to be the main character in that game, but he was still fairly important. He was also going to look a little different. I may or may not talk further on that old idea in the future. There's a reason why I scrapped it after all. I liked the Randy's Crazy Mission! concept more. I decided to reuse a few things from the old idea for use in this game though.
Anyway, here are some mockups I made of what this game will look like in action:
Wanna guess what I named the background image of this fields level?
Ugh, what did that dumb rat do this time? Bring his health to zero!
"Just look at this piece of technological craftsmanship!"
As a side note, I'm planning for the game's cutscenes to be quite dynamic. There'll be zoom-ins, close-up shots, cutaways, and all that fancy stuff. It'll almost be like you're watching an actual cartoon. Fitting, considering that the game within this game is based on cartoons.
Summary
So, to summarize, Randy's Crazy Mission! will feature:
A surprisingly rich story based on the world of an Atari game during the video game crash of 1983, with wacky characters to talk to.
Unique visuals that blend the looks of Atari 2600 games and 70s cartoons, complete with an old-school filter to give some authenticity to the graphics.
An interesting gameplay shift where you go from a frustrating experience to something more interesting once the game's actual story begins.
Gameplay nods to classic Atari-era video games with unique twists and maybe even more challenge.
A diverse soundtrack, also made by me. The OST will use the Atari 2600 sound here and there, but it will mostly just sound like "real" music to go with the hand-drawn look, and it will use a lot of different styles.
Closing Words
I will admit, this is a pretty strange concept for a game. That's why I'm planning to make a demo as a sorta proof of concept. I also created a website focused on discussing Randy's Crazy Mission! in detail. I get more into where the game's currently at in development and why it hasn't been in active development yet in the first blog post of my site. For some more info about the game, check out the blog. There is one new thing to say about the development as of late. I'm considering switching the engine for this project, for, well, reasons.
I also made a couple of devlogs for Randy on itch.io, and the indie game development site TIGSource. And I made a thread about it on the AtariAge forum just before releasing this very devlog. Hopefully, you'll follow along as I talk more about this game.
Here's the link to my blog: https://jakerileygamedevblog.com/
Here's the game's AtariAge thread:
Please check out my post there. It's pretty much the same as this one, but it's not a carbon copy. I just didn't want to bloat either one (they're both pretty long already).
Feel free to ask questions if you're at all interested! Some of them might not get answers though.
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