I'm making an Atari-themed game based on the 1983 video game crash

[Jake Riley]

Hello! Strap in, because this isn't the kind of thing you'd usually see here. I'm Jake Riley. I'm making a game 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. I thought this forum would be a good place to talk about it, considering the Atari theme. Anyway, my 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.

 

The project is called “Randy’s Crazy Mission!”, which 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

As you're about to see (or have seen if you've already scrolled down), even though this project's about a 2600 game, it won’t look like one. Considering this game has dialogue and humor, and considering my background in hand-drawing, I didn't want it to have the 2600's very basic visual style. 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 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 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 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 come together to create an interesting blend of aesthetics. In-game, the pixel graphics will have a filter 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

You'll play as Randy, the mascot of the sucker brand that created him and the player character of their advergame. He's a living mushroom. There's a conflict that's happening while his 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 the conflict to gain appreciation from his family. 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 (outright) fully revealing how just yet though, at the time of posting this.

 

WE ARE ALL JUNK

The fact that the characters live in a poorly-made game had caused some of them, including Randy's family members, to develop a poor outlook on their game world’s denizens as a whole and generally gain dumb and bad views. Views that most people in the game rightfully and unanimously look-down-upon. Randy's upbringing (if you can call it that, considering the timeframe) has consisted of him being surrounded by backwards folk who, among other awful things, say that all the sentient characters who live in their game world are "junk" simply for living in a bad game, relishing in this "fact" on top of that, and Randy has to just suck it up. This particularly radicalized a certain someone who Randy is very, very close to. And these peoples' reactions to the video game crash of 1983, oooh man, how dreadful!

 

A big focus of the story is how certain CREEPS who live in the game react to the then-current 1983 crash, and the trauma that the crash gave Randy due to his upbringing. Yeah, if it wasn't clear already, this is not your average Atari-related project.

 

Oh, one more thing though! After the start of 1983, the characters, through a few different things, discovered even more of how broken their game is. This is relevant as well.

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

Here's the game's logo:

 

Now here's art of Randy himself:

 

 

Here are some mockups I made of what this game will look like in action:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 didn't know if AtariAge would particularly like for me to show off this game, since it's not Atari homebrew as usual, so I actually emailed them a while back, asking if it was alright for me to promote here. They never seemed to respond, so I took it as a yes. Hopefully this is okay for me to do here, moderator....

 

I also made a couple of devlogs for Randy on itch.io, and the indie game development site TIGSource. And I'm about to published a page for the game on GameJolt later. I'll provide a link when I release it. There will be devlogs over there too. Hopefully, you'll follow along as I talk more about this game.

 

Here's the link to my blog: https://jakerileygamedevblog.com/

 

Feel free to ask questions if you're at all interested! Some of them might not get answers though.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Jake Riley

[donjn]

Don't worry about this being weird. A lot of Atari games were weird, heck look at Beany Bopper!
I will read through this and your blog.

[+x=usr(1536)]

My perception (and by all means correct me if I'm wrong) is that you're looking to enter the video game industry.  If so, worry less about documenting the development process and put the majority of your efforts into making as playable of a game as possible.  In terms of a portfolio, that will ultimately serve you better.

[Jake Riley]

12 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

My perception (and by all means correct me if I'm wrong) is that you're looking to enter the video game industry.  If so, worry less about documenting the development process and put the majority of your efforts into making as playable of a game as possible.  In terms of a portfolio, that will ultimately serve you better.

 

Well, whenever I end up hiring more programmers (this game’s going to be more complicated to make than it seems), the real development will get started (as in not just art, music, etc., but actual coding). I'm pretty bad at coding, so most of the technical work will be done for me by other people. And for the time being, I’m not going to showcase the development process per say, but I will discuss the world, characters, and all that stuff.

[Jake Riley]

The GameJolt page is out now.

 

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

[LatchKeyKid]

Looking forward to see what you come up with.  Just make sure that the ending of the game wipes out 93% of your score to go along with the theme. 

[Zonie]

Sounds more like a movie...

[Jake Riley]

1 hour ago, Zonie said:

Sounds more like a movie...

Because video games shouldn't have plots?

 

In all seriousness, the story is clearly my number one priority for this game, so it makes since that you'd feel that way. The question now is, if the film rights get purchased, who should direct it? 

 

Wait what am I saying!?

[Zonie]

3 hours ago, Jake Riley said:

Because video games shouldn't have plots?

 

In all seriousness, the story is clearly my number one priority for this game, so it makes since that you'd feel that way. The question now is, if the film rights get purchased, who should direct it? 

 

Wait what am I saying!?

What about a breakfast cereal, a Saturday morning cartoon, and a board game too?

[Jake Riley]

Those probably exist in-universe.

[Jake Riley]

 

"EVERYTHING WILL BE DESTROYED."

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Jake Riley

[Jake Riley]

[Jake Riley]

Quackers.

[Jake Riley]

I just released a post on my website discussing a couple of this game's characters, and in the post, I shared the musical themes I made for those characters, which I'll share here too. These are the first songs I'm revealing for this game, and two of the game's earliest tracks I conceptualized several years back. These aren't the final products of the songs, as they're temp tracks using the SGM soundfont. I'll eventually use better samples.

 

Below is the theme of a duck character named "Quackers". There's not that much to say about him, he's generally just a funny character you mostly meet in level 1 who likes to play instruments, like the accordion concertina. He doesn't talk, only quacks, so most of his humor is visual. There is one hilarious scene I came up with involving him and another character. I don't want to spoil it though. Just wait for the demo. Here's the song:

 

 

 

 

Below is the theme of a squirrel character named "Corny", short for "Cornelius". He's actually one of the main characters of the game. His role in the game within the game is that of the antagonist, as he is in the cartoon commercials it's based on. And as the characters point out, he's a pretty "lame" antagonist at that. He likes to act more sinister than he actually is. Here's the song:

 

 

 

 

Feedback on the songs would be appreciated. If you want to see more information and artwork of these characters, below is the blog post covering them. If you're wondering about the huge gap in-between this blog post and the last, I explain why in this post. There are a few reasons. Maybe one of them being my good old depression flaring up to cripple me again lately? Here's the post:

 

https://jakerileygamedevblog.com/2023/12/12/misc-character-showcase-2/

 

There's also a bit of new development info in that blog post as well.

[Jake Riley]

Development update:

 

Today, I released a post on my blog about Randy's Crazy Mission! offering a couple of coding jobs for professional video game programmers. I'm not very good at programming, and so I need professionals to help me actually make the game. I also offered a job for people who can translate the game's text into a bunch of other languages, so that it can have as wide an audience as possible. I shared the post in a few different places. My intent is to hire people when I finish outlining the demo. Hopefully, enough people are interested. I want to build a catalogue of potential people to hire soon. I want to get the programming started and release the demo as soon as possible.

[Jake Riley]

[Jake Riley]

 

This is what video game enemies do in their free time.

[Crazy Climber]

@Jake Riley

You aren't by chance friends with AA member @HardWork are you? Just curious...

[Jake Riley]

21 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

@Jake Riley

You aren't by chance friends with AA member @HardWork are you? Just curious...

@Crazy Climber No. What makes you ask that? That user seems to have disappeared in 2006.

[Jake Riley]

Here's the musical theme of a character named Gene the Simpleton.

 

https://jakerileygamedevblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Gene_Theme_Beta.wav

 

It was an exercise in making a song that sounds intentionally bad, but not completely unlistenable. Remember, this is just a temp track using placeholder samples. The finished version will sound better. Well, as better as it can be.

 

I just released a post on my website talking about Gene, alongside discussing the enemies that will appear in the demo and how they'll work. It is a lot more insightful than just showcasing characters, so please check it out. If you want to see art of Gene and more, please read it. Here's the blog post: https://jakerileygamedevblog.com/2024/02/07/misc-character-showcase-3/

[Jake Riley]

I made an Instagram page and a DeviantArt account dedicated to promoting this game.

https://www.instagram.com/jakerileygamedev/

https://www.deviantart.com/jakerileygamedev/journal/My-Atari-Themed-Game-About-the-1983-Game-Crash-1020486819

Instagram might just be the least nice place I've promoted this game on so far, so... Wish me luck, I guess...

[Jake Riley]

Two months ago, I released a blog post asking for help on this game and shared a link to it on other parts of the internet. Later, I realized that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to just give a link to a post on my website rather than reiterating the job requirements here. Some people might not be so comfortable about a random guy relying on them visiting his website for info. Possibly a little suspicious. I know they might not want to risk their computer getting a virus (even though my site is safe). So, I decided to give them excerpts from my post. I’m doing the same here. If you’re a video game programmer, or you can professionally translate English to another language, please read this.

 

"Here is the list of requirements I need for potential programmers:

• You need to have worked on at least one game before.
• You need to know how to code a 2D platformer, but should also be versatile in what kind of stuff you can program for games.
• Preferably you should know how to program for a GameMaker project.
• I want at least one of you to know how to bug fix. Both of you would be ideal. [I need about two coders]

I think that’s everything."

 

I also want to have all of the game’s text translated to a slew of other languages, so that Randy’s Crazy Mission! could have as wide of an audience as possible. This is also a video game translation job offering. I want to get someone who can (professionally) translate English to a bunch of other languages too. With that said, please consider applying.

 

"On a somewhat related note, I want at least one of the people I hire to look at the game’s script and see if it needs improving. I have a weird writing style, so bouncing-off ideas with someone could help. If none of you consider yourselves to be good at telling what decent writing is, I might possibly get someone else to solely help me with improving the script."

 

"My email address is jakerileygamedev@proton.me. To apply for the video game programming job, you need to email me your resume of games you worked on. For the translation job, you can show me the games or other projects you’ve converted to other languages, and tell me all the languages you work with.

It will be a while before I’ll hire anybody, maybe around a few months. I have to finish outlining the demo. I’m just doing this to build a portfolio of potential programmers and translators to hire. If I waited, it could take longer to assemble a small team, so it’s better that I do it now."

 

I would still like for you to read the whole thing if you're willing, so here's the post: https://jakerileygamedevblog.com/2023/12/20/video-game-programming-job-offer/

 

While I'm currently learning more about programming, I still probably won't become great at it anytime soon. So, I am still desperate at this point. I want to release the demo and gain an audience for this game as soon as possible.

 

By the way, I was originally going to have this game's programming be done in C# back when it was running on Unity, but upon researching GameMaker after downloading it, I found out the engine doesn't seem to support C#. It can only use its internal coding language (GML). So, you'll need to know how to program within GameMaker. Also, someone already reached out to be the potential Spanish translator for this game, so keep that in mind. Though I originally thought of just getting one or two translators who can work with many different languages, I later changed my mind. If you can translate English to any other language, even just one, please consider applying. Like I originally said, it will be a while before I officially hire people, but you should still apply now.

Edited February 27 by Jake Riley

[+x=usr(1536)]

I wish to apply for the position of 'guy who knows how to drive a manual transmission'.

[Jake Riley]

Translation update: Japanese, Greek, Polish, and Italian translators have been picked.

[Jake Riley]

On 3/18/2024 at 4:50 PM, Jake Riley said:

Translation update: Japanese, Greek, Polish, and Italian translators have been picked.

*And French too.