Randy’s Crazy Mission!–A 70s-inspired game based on the 1983 video game crash

Indie Game

Randy’s Crazy Mission!–A 70s-inspired game based on the 1983 video game crash

Amazoniangames

November 16, 2023

Randy’s Crazy Mission!–A 70s-inspired game based on the 1983 video game crash

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JobLeonard

Did bad games cause the video game crash? Did home computers cause it? Did non-video game brands “cashing off of” the industry cause it? No, not really. There are actually myths about the 1983 video game crash that a lot of people think are true. Something I neglected to mention is that Randy’s Crazy Mission! actually addresses these myths in the story. People who live in the game are aware of the industry and the then-current crash, and most of them (Randy’s family included) believe these myths. So, given the gratuitous ubiquity of word about the crash in Randy’s game world, people in the game dish out this misinformation left right and center.

What the story especially focuses on is how certain sick dolts in the game use this misinformation to their advantage, and how Randy’s mind has been affected by the 1983 crash because of said dolts. The myths had dumbed-down some of the people who live in the game. I’ve actually got a lot to talk about on this aspect of the story. But, I’m saving that for a loooong blog post on my website. You’re not ready for it, nor will you ever be. This game’s going to be like no other.

Here’s another thing. Earlier I said that I’m soon going to post on my website about this game’s soundtrack and who’s composing it. Well, it, along with a character-related post that will come before it, has been slightly pushed back. This is because recently, after getting an idea, I started planning to work on *something* related to this game. Not a blog post or anything, but something that might help get the project some more exposure. Hopefully that’ll come within two months. By the way, regarding the soundtrack, the composer happens to have my name.

To close this post off, here’s this bit:

“H̴͖̭͉̗̬̖̑̂̉͂̕ͅe̶̤̬̬̰̹̥̺͂͛̀̾̈́͌̿͋́̓ĺ̷̖̟͌̒͗̊͆͗́̓l̴̢̛̪̗̀̾̂̍̓́͒̐̚o̸͍̪̖̫̯̽̓͐̎͂́̚͝.̴̥̞̬͔̤̎̍͜͝ ̸̼̟͉̥͍̠͕̄̏̂̍̓́M̵̩͙͕̖͔̤̔̓͜ẏ̷͈̫͚̤̰̺͇̀̊͆̄̌̏̎͆̚ ̴̨̩̞͙̹͖̱͋n̵̖͍̩͑͗͘a̸̛͇̖̩̤̼̟̲̝̫͂͌̓̒̈͒m̶͇̮̙̹͂̑̍̀̉̈̚ȩ̶̨͖̜͇͓̠̍͆͘ ̸̨̮̟̳̪͖͍̱̩̬̉́̒̈̉̋͂͂͘i̴̪͇͓̳̍̉͛s̷̱͎͖̳̆̓̈́͝ ̴̜͇̗̫̠̽̈̑̚R̸̡͉̱͗́o̴̧̻̥̐̎́͗̒̋̐͜b̴̨̛̳̺̹̯̽̈́ͅe̵̡̱͕͉̘͖̝͕̥̿͗̆̈̋͜r̴̤̙̻͙̺̣͕͙̼͂̓ț̵͈͈͓̳̫̙̦͈͗͐̈͑̃̑̚͘͜.̸̹̭̟̝̞̼̮͉̄̅ͅ”

“Uh, can you speak up man? It’s kinda hard to tell what you’re saying.”

“Ah don’t care if we can’t hear him, feller! Ah just like his face! With them blue, white, yella, black, OOOOH, RED, excetera! ‘TS DONE GOOOOTTEN MEEEEE EXCIIIIIIIITED FOOOOR-

So I’m a bit confused: are you going to write your own fictional explanation of what happened, or is this game secretly going to be a history lesson in disguise?


« Last Edit: May 18, 2023, 12:38:15 AM by JobLeonard »	Logged

Jake Riley

To close this post off, here’s this bit:

“Uh, can you speak up man? It’s kinda hard to tell what you’re saying.”

“Ah don’t care if we can’t hear him, feller! Ah just like his face! With them blue, white, yella, black, OOOOH, RED, excetera! ‘TS DONE GOOOOTTEN MEEEEE EXCIIIIIIIITED FOOOOR-

So I’m a bit confused: are you going to write your own fictional explanation of what happened, or is this game secretly going to be a history lesson in disguise?

Pretty much the latter. Those are real myths. The reason why the crash happened was mostly because, since the video game industry was new, companies didn’t properly handle things financially. The myths aren’t a huge part of this story, but just a small part of a larger thing. Something that, like I said, I have a lot to talk about. I could write about it and stretch it out to twenty minutes at least. I’ve only ever vaguely talked about it so far.


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Jake Riley

Will the in-game characters have dialogue? And if so, will the text have that “generated bleep-voice” effect that old games used to do a lot (and some modern retro indy games still do)

Because I’m curious what you’ll come up with for the glitch character in that case

The characters will indeed have dialogue. Thought that was pretty clear considering everything I said about this game, mostly the fact that it’s story-driven. I’ve mentioned that dialogue prompts will use characters’ Atari sprites, and the first gameplay mockup I made even shows this. In fact, the next post on my blog (which’s coming soon) is going to have snippets of the dialogue.

Anyway, to answer your other question, yes, the dialogue will have the beeping effect you’re talking about. It’ll be using genuine-sounding Atari noise. For the characters with glitched faces, I’ll probably alter how it sounds. The idea is that it’s difficult to hear them when they’re like that. I’m also going to have their dialogue text look corrupted (I must add that this game’s speech boxes will look 2600-esque, using an Atari typeface). By the way, those glitch characters don’t naturally look like that. Echoing the (hard to read) quote on the bottom of the post, some people wear glitches as a kind of accessory and obsess over them, for… reasons (Yeah, this is a little weird, but it’s also plot relevant). I know the image in the post before my last may make it seem like otherwise, but it has nothing to do with that. That’s, uh… something much, much different…


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Jake Riley

Soundtrack Composer Announcement

I just released a post on my website talking about this game’s soundtrack. It’s high time I reveal who’s composing the music. The soundtrack is actually being composed by me. Yes, I’m also making the music for this. I get a little more detailed about the soundtrack in my blog post, but basically, it mostly won’t sound like Atari 2600 music. Though there will be instances of the 2600 sound being used in the OST. Sometimes for entire songs. But overall it will sound more like “real” music. It fits, since the game’s art style is mostly hand-drawn, rather than resembling 2600 graphics.

And, for the most part, I’ve been trying to make the music fit the game’s visual style. I say “for the most part” because some songs will sound intentionally out of place. This applies to I’d day about 1/3 of the songs in the game. Get ready, you’re in for the surprise of a lifetime with that 1/3 of the soundtrack! That may be hyperbolic, but whatever.

The game will be silent when you play the six levels for the first time. The part when the actual the in-universe 2600 game is being played. This is because Atari games of the time didn’t have music for the most part. Like I said before, the game’s real story begins after beating these six levels. You’ll replay improved versions of the same stages, and there’ll be actual music. The addition of real music will really highlight the shift.

I’ll eventually share some songs on my website (and possibly here). I’ve got a lot to choose from. There’s actually gonna be a lot more music in this game than you would expect. The songs I’ll share for the time being will mostly be character themes, as the “Miscellaneous Character Showcase” series I’m doing there will occasionally feature them. Like I’ve said before, most of the songs I share for the time being will be temp tracks. I’ve yet to get all the perfect instrument samples for the soundtrack.

Here’s my blog post regarding the soundtrack. I get slightly more in-depth there:

https://jakerileygamedevblog.com/2023/07/06/randys-crazy-mission-video-game-soundtrack/


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Jake Riley

Living in my family, I’ve learned that there’s nothing worse than unrecognized talent… Just kidding, there are worse things. Anyway, to give the project some more visibility, I made a thread about it on, fittingly enough, the AtariAge forum. I also made a page for it on GameJolt today. There’ll be DevLogs over there too. I even made a bunch of new gameplay mockups for this occasion!

Remember earlier when I said I was working on something that will hopefully get this game some more attention? Well, that was it… Though, at the time, I was actually planning on making a teaser trailer using all of the mockups I made. But then I figured it would just be unnecessary considering its simplicity (I mean, it would mostly be just mockups) and the time it would take to make it. Getting all of this ready alone has sucked up most of my free time, as does working on other things for this game.

I also made a footer image for my website to spruce up how it looks a bit. I want to give a wider audience a good first impression, after all!

Oh yeah, here’s the link to the AtariAge forum thread about the game:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/355257-im-making-an-atari-themed-game-based-on-the-1983-video-game-crash/

And here’s the link to the game’s GameJolt page:

https://gamejolt.com/games/randyscrazymission/836946

You’ll find the new mockups I made over in those places.

New thing to probably add to the docket: Move the project to another engine, for, well, reasons… Might switch it to GameMaker or something.


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