In the spring of 2021, in my sun-soaked Seattle, WA apartment, I stumbled upon Jet Set Radio HD on Steam. It had been 20 years since the game’s creation during the dot-com boom, and so I found myself reflecting back on that era — on what we thought the future of the internet could look like compared to where our online worlds were now headed. JSR, in combination with the online-enabled super computer that was the Sega Dreamcast, represented an idea of where technology and games might go next. I was captivated. Maybe I still am.
I played through the game. I liked it — its energy, its vibe, and realized that the game now had a far deeper meaning that the younger me could ever piece together. The original hip-hop, funk and electronic synths —characters in their own right— played supporting role to my avatar, Cube, who cut through a Toyko-to basketball court tagging walls, a police state closing in on her.
Thoughts of data privacy, encryption technology, and artificial intelligence policing came to mind as I watched that deadly force unleashed on my protesting, spray-painting avatar ass. Developed in 1999, I also felt an influence of the pirate music sharing application Napster in my play through; in the JSR logo; in its ethos. I thought about intellectual property laws and how they are designed to re-appropriate property and wealth mostly for corporate entities. Entities like [Rokkaku Group].
I think Jet Set Radio can mean many things to anyone. I think that is one driver of its captivating nature.
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| Screenshot from Jet Set Radio Multiplayer |
Others had taken an interest in Jet Set Radio, too. This led me to Jet Set Radio Future Multiplayer. JSRFMP is a fan-made game that takes Jet Set Radio Future, an original Xbox title and sequel to Jet Set Radio, and turns it into an online multiplayer, free-to-play extreme sport. The game’s character art is respectfully —how should I put this— pirated appropriately in the Jet Set Radio way from the Xbox title.
Before Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, there was 2018's Jet Set Radio Future Multiplayer. And while the game's server is no longer online, the game is still playable today single-player. JSRFMP has a custom soundtrack, and it features music artist 2Mello’s unmistakable sounds. There is fan-made graffiti art, and the game has more to offer than one might expect from a solo venture. There are a number of original characters to play, and expressive anti-fascist dance moves to unleash.
I ended up exchanging a few Discord messages with the solo developer, who goes by the name of screenracer. This is that interview, conducted over Discord messages in the Summer of ‘21.
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| Screenshot from Jet Set Radio Multiplayer |
DCJY: When did you first dive into Jet Set Radio and why? Did you play the original back in the Dreamcast era?
screenracer: I played Future way back when the original Xbox came out. I was really young, and all I really remember was really liking 99th Street and I would always get my dad to complete the game up until 99th Street so I could just roam around since I wasn’t very good at games back then. I remember the game wouldn’t save for me as well, so I’d leave the Xbox on basically all the time haha. I forgot about Jet Set Radio for a while after that, since I was very young around seven or eight.
What got me back into Jet Set Radio was when Jet Set Radio HD came out. I was like, man I remember this game! But when I played it, it was different. I then found out that Future was the sequel. I wasn’t even aware of the Dreamcast version up until that point. So then I got an original Xbox and played Future, and started getting back into the Jet Set Radio series.
When did you begin developing Jet Set Radio Future Multiplayer, and how was the experience in doing so as a one-person team?
Well I started work on JSRFMP during the summer of 2018 I believe; it’s hard to recall when exactly. But I wasn’t new to game development at all. I’ve been doing it for a while before JSRFMP. But I only made private games for me and my friends to have fun with during school breaks (I was 18 years old and still in high school at the time). JSRFMP was going to be the same deal, just a private game for me and my friends, I wasn’t planning on sharing it. But one of those friends pressured me into releasing it, so I eventually released it and quickly forgot about it. I didn’t expect anything to come from it but it started to get traction, so I came back to it. Working as a one man band wasn’t really anything new to me, since I never worked in a team before anyway. I’m a coder mainly, so as long as I can get the art assets (in this case JSRF’s assets) then I’m good to go. Which is also another reason why most of my games are private, because most of them use copyrighted art assets which makes me unable to release them. I hope some day I can meet someone who can help me get the assets to create an original game.
What inspired you to create a multiplayer version of Jet Set Radio Future?
Me and my high school friends would have yearly JSRF multiplayer tournaments, but they got real busy so they couldn’t come over to my house as much. So I made JSRFMP to solve that problem.
It looks as though there is some community involvement, is that fair to say? If so, how was the community involved in the development, and how do they support the game now?
I like to involve the community in as much as I can. The community helps me with character stat balancing, they help speed up development by assisting me with creating levels, and some of them even create there own original levels. It’s pretty awesome, and this being a multiplayer game kinda relies on the community in order to stay alive. People who are super active and contribute a lot also get a contributor role in my Discord, and they usually make new characters and stuff like that for me to add in future updates.
Can you walk me through part of your creative process in developing the game?
Usually after releasing an update I’ll take a lengthy break so I don’t burn myself out, since it’s quite a bit of work. By the time I return, the community would have given me plenty of feedback and reported plenty of bugs for me to fix. Usually the first thing I do when working on an update is fix the bugs that were reported since that tends to be the quickest [and] easiest stuff. Then I’ll work on the meatier stuff like new game modes or levels (levels tend to take the longest to make); [and], by the time that’s done, the contributors will have made some cool skins [and] characters for me to add, and I usually add those in the last couple weeks of development time before releasing the update.
Are there any new characters in your game, and do they have origin stories?
A couple, yeah. There’s the NT3000 prototype which I was surprised to hear that a lot of people liked. I didn’t think anyone would like me inserting OC’s into the game, haha. But he’s a prototype model of NT3000, which is the robo-Yoyo clone dude in the original game. There’s a couple more OC’s coming in the next update as well, so stay tuned for that. Also, I can’t really take full credit for the OC’s, my contributors are usually the ones who come up with them, I just add them into the actual game.
What is the cultural significance of Jet Set Radio to you?
Jet Set Radio in general is full of style. Pretty much everything about it is unique, from the art style to the gameplay, and that’s what I think has kept the game relevant today. These days companies are too scared to take risks and try new ideas, and Jet Set Radio always reminds me of that time in gaming history where game companies would always be trying something new instead of putting out the same stuff we’ve been seeing for years.
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Jet Set Radio Future Multiplayer is an indie-developed title by solo developer screenracer and with contributions from the greater community. You can find the game archived for download here. The Alpha build was built in Unity, and it is recommended to close all programs while playing because the game can otherwise crash.
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