According to Derek Yu over at TIGSource, Alexander Shen’s Open Mic Hero software “is a neat program that lets you play sounds with an XBox 360 Guitar Hero USB guitar (or keyboard, alternatively).” Yu continues, “The program comes with two sound banks, ‘Acoustic Guitar’ (shown in the video) and ‘Drum Kit,’ but you could easily create and load your own sound banks.”
In his demonstration video, Alexander Shen aptly describes the program as “kind of like Jam Sessions, but for your computer, with a Guitar Hero controller.” The demonstration, below:
You know, the beautiful, wireless drum controller for Guitar Hero World Tour will have bluetooth and/or USB connectivity; will it work with Open Mic Hero, as well? Regardless, we can’t wait to see how people hack that.
Speaking of Audiosurf and its adaptability...! Yesterday, Game|Life reported on BodySurf, a script authored by Evan Jones for use with Audiosurf, your computer, GlovePIE software, and both the Wii balance board and remote.
With BodySurf, you control your ship in Audiosurf by shifting your weight from side to side using the Wii balance board. Witness Evan’s demonstration, below.
Here is what makes Audiosurf, for us, so incredible: the software manages to analyze music files and generate ‘playable tablature’ in a way no other rhythm game can even approach. Just as no two iPods are alike, the Audiosurf we play is not the same game that, say, Sharkey plays. (Sharkey—who proselytizes for Audiosurf any chance he can get—plays Audiosurf with a library full of prog-rock, for instance.)
Dylan Fitterer, the one-man team behind Audiosurf, recently spoke at a Valve press event (Audiosurf is now digitally distributed using Valve’s Steam service). Chris Remo of Gamasutra wrote up the best bits of Fitterer’s presentation, and the resulting article is Inside Audiosurf: the Indie Adaptive Steam Music Experience?
Part of Audiosurf’s success was due not just to Fitterer himself having easy access to his customers, but also due to potential customers having open communication between themselves.
The game’s design, he argues, lends itself very much to viral marketing, something Steam facilitates. For example, he saw users linking one another to the Audiosurf Steam page, which contains a convenient purchase link. Some evangelists went as far as purchasing the game for their friends with Steam’s gift function.
On the development side, he implemented a simple feature that encouraged competition between users, as well as providing automatic, but personal, encouragment keep coming back to the game.
“Dethroned” emails are sent to users when they are knocked off a song’s leaderboard, informing them of their defeat.
November 28, 2006 at 7:30 pm
· Filed under Film, Music
Man, we wish we were in NYC sometimes. For fans of Chip Music and glitch electronica, the 2006 Blip Festival is a must-do. It runs for four days, beginning November 30. And Mark DeNardo—whom we remember fondly from our Chicago days as a tremendous electrofolk talent, a zealous chipmusic teacher, and a nice guy—is one of the featured musicians.
In addition to magical lo-fi music, the Blip Festival will also screen the film 8 Bit.
