Here are the very first bits of stuff I’m gonna showcase on my indie game dev blog for the indie game I’m making, Randy’s Crazy Mission!, and in case this is the first of this website you’re seeing, you better check out the previous post for some context.
Randy
Anyway, first off, here’s Randy.
Like I said in the introduction post, he is a young living mushroom who’s the main mascot and commercial star of the sucker brand that created him, and is the player character of the brand’s advergame on the Atari 2600.
Randy Needs Respect
As I explained before, Randy is partially based off of me. Sadly, his own family doesn’t really respect him. This is based on how, unfortunately, I was always not respected by my own family, and treated different from my siblings (in a bad way, of course). My family members have always been disrespectful, rude, insulting, contemptuous, and dismissive to me and ONLY me! Was so bad during a period of time in the past that I couldn’t open my mouth for any reason at all without someone sighing. My siblings have always threatened to physically hurt me, and have acted upon it.
There’s a conflict that’s happening while the in-universe game he lives in is on a shelf in a disappointed customer’s house. The allegorical disrespect of Randy that he has to regularly deal with from his family (based on the disrespect I’ve always got from my family) sparks him to solve this conflict. He might solve a conflict when someone is playing his game, but that doesn’t really count. Randy’s not the one actually doing all that, now is it? And on top of that, the conflict of this game within the game isn’t a genuine one.
Randy wants to solve a conflict that wasn’t artificially created. He wants to solve a conflict without being controlled by any human being in the real world. The kid wants to do this to show his family what he’s made of. He wants to have the same level of treatment as his brothers. Randy shouldn’t have needed to gain the appreciation from his family and get even with his brothers in this way, but he unfortunately has to. Randy wants to do something without constantly being watched by someone. Someone controlling him who has no desire of letting him go out and do something completely by himself that they don’t need to be privy to. It’s not as fulfilling otherwise, and is limiting.
Even More Disrespect
Even The Buscal Candy Company, who created Randy and made their brand’s advergame, doesn’t really respect him. See, the characters within the in-universe game can get TV signals from other game worlds and the real world. As a little tangent, public-access (which you may not know about) is very popular in Randy’s game world. This kinda random thing to include in this game is relevant to the story. Anyway, getting back on track, the characters in the game within the game can see the cartoon sucker commercials from the brand that created them. Randy noticed that recently, he’s been appearing in less of these ads.
Randy fears that he might soon be completely phased out of the commercials and replaced by someone else. Just adds to his feelings of being invisible, like how I’ve felt invisible in my family. Well, that one fear he has isn’t as bad as the bigger fear of his this story focuses on, that being…Well, I’ll talk about that in another post. Don’t want this post to be too tangent-y. Anyway, getting back on track, Randy is The Buscal Company’s mascot for crying out loud. He was the brand’s first and premier character. He’s the reason the brand’s other characters exist. His character shouldn’t be disrespected in this way by the company, just like how he shouldn’t be disrespected by his family, and in turn just like how I shouldn’t- Well, you get the point. The very important point.
Randy and the Video Game Crash
Here’s another important thing about him. The 1983 video game crash kinda ruined his life and gave a chance for certain disgusting degenerate people in the game he lives in to crank up their- Wait, wait, wait! No, I’ll talk about that another day!
Non-Verbal Challenge
There is one interesting little challenge that came regarding him. He doesn’t talk, and because of that, I need to convey his thoughts on his struggles through both non-verbal expressions, and through other characters who understand him. There’s another character in particular who’s with him for the entire game and empathizes with him. This character basically talks for Randy. They relay his thoughts on how his family sometimes treats him like dirt.
Randy’s Roots (Wait, Mushrooms Don’t Have Roots!)
Fun fact: I originally created Randy for another indie game concept I had in my mind. This was from shortly before I got the idea for Randy’s Crazy Mission!, so it was from 2019. When I got the idea for Randy’s Crazy Mission!, I chose to scrap the old concept in favor of it, because I liked it better. Randy wasn’t going to be the protagonist in that other indie game, and his design was going to be slightly different. Very slightly though. Also, he wasn’t going to be a partial analogue of me either. Eh, I might talk more about that scrapped project sometime.
”Screenshots” and Logo
Here are some mockups of what this game will look like in action.
Wanna guess what I named the background image of this fields level?
The “gameplay” might look like standard 2D game fare. However, even though this is an indie game, the cutscenes are going to be quite dynamic. There’ll be zoom-ins, close-up shots, cutaways, and all that. It’ll make it more like you’re watching an actual cartoon from the 70s.
Anyway, now here’s the logo.
Forum Threads
Along with this very indie game dev blog, I also made threads about Randy’s Crazy Mission! on the AtariAge forums, itch.io devlog forums, and the indie game development site TIGSource. Here’s the links:
AtariAge thread: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/355257-im-making-an-atari-themed-game-based-on-the-1983-video-game-crash
itch.io thread: https://itch.io/t/2836145/randys-crazy-missiona-70s-inspired-game-based-on-the-1983-video-game-crash
TIGSource devlog: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=74394.0.
They all serve as companions to this indie game dev blog. Anyway, that’s all for now.