What the video game company didn’t realize is that they just inadvertently unlocked a fond and nostalgic memory. I remember my dad playing the banjo when I was around 10 years old… I wondered if he still had that banjo.
One call later, my dad was dusting off the banjo that he hadn’t played for years. After about a month of practicing, he was ready to start recording. I bought him an external digital recorder and we were in business.
Up until this point, my dad and I had always been talking about collaborating but we just never seemed to get it done. Now we had a strict deadline and had to finish 8 songs in 8 weeks. Quite the task.
At this point, he didn’t even have an email. Since we lived in different states, this had to change in order for him to send me his recordings in a timely fashion. I set him up his first email and walked him through attaching a file and sending it. Below is the first track we did for the game. My dad came up with this melody and sent it over as an attachment (his first attachment email ever!)
His first reaction after hearing what I did with it, “Well I’ll be damn. How the hell did you get me to sound like that?”
Theres a Long Road by Redshirt Theory
Another challenge is that we had to write redneck music to specific themed levels. For example, there was an Egyptian themed level, a Celtic/Medieval themed level, Calypso themed level, a polar themed level and so on. As I’m sure the reader can believe, mixing Egyptian and calypso themes with “redneck” themes isn’t exactly easy.
Shipwrecked by Redshirt Theory
Sitar Hero video game version by Redshirt Theory
The game went on to become “Calvin Tucker’s Redneck: Farm Animal Racing Tournament”. Yes, the acronym was on purpose. The developer is from the Netherlands, so when I got the first game footage and the file was simply called “FART”, I wondered if there was a language barrier occurring. Nope…this fart was intentional :)
I’ve played the game and I can say that it is very fun. It is a racing kart game in the mold of Mario Kart. Each character can receive certain power ups that they can use on opponents during the race. You race with the Wii remote sideways in a steering position. The controls are nice and responsive. Oh ya, and the music is great ;)
I think because it is associated with the "Calvin Tucker" franchise it might unfairly get dumped on before people even play it. The graphics are excellent, the gameplay is fun and I found myself laughing quite a bit with friends during the split screen races. Here is some gameplay
