GDC 2010: Power Gig - Rise of the SixString

• by Andy Burt
• March 09, 2010 18:49 PM PST

The music-game genre is an almost contradictory game category; though these games test the dexterity of players and their ability to color match on the fly, they don't teach gamers anything about playing a real musical instrument. The advent of the drum peripheral allows gamers to experience a fairly close simulation of what it's like to play a drum set, but would-be guitarists are left out in the cold. Seven45 Studios hope to change that with the release of Power Gig -- Rise of the Six String, which offers music game aficionados an actual working electric guitar (3/4ths the size of an actual guitar) to put to use in and out of the game.

Rise of the Six String plays similarly to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, only with one noticeable twist in the game mechanics department -- the guitar peripheral picks up individual string fingerings, and can register two fingerings at once (i.e., a simple power chord). On the easiest difficulty setting the game doesn't call on gamers to switch strings -- it will register a correct note as long as the colored fret matches up with the strum -- but on harder difficulties a colored note in a song will display a number relating to a particular string. To put it simply, Rise of the Six String multiplies the number of available finger placements in other music games by six. The team is only ready at the moment to show off the guitar peripheral for the game, but they promise that drum and microphone peripherals will be coming to the game as well.

The interface in Rise of the Six String looks similar to Rock Band, sending notes streaming downward with colored cues relating to the first five frets on the guitar. Turning on the Chord mode during gameplay adds a number to certain notes, which relates to the string number (numbered 1 through 6 from bottom to top) and requires the player to additionally hold down the string directly below it and two frets over -- for non-guitarists, this fingering is a simplistic power chord. It's not clear from my initial demo of the game whether or not Seven45 plan to incorporate a mode where players will have to hit all strings individually and on different frets, say, for a heavy metal riff or a finger-picking segment of a song, but being a guitarist myself I would welcome that with open arms.

As I mentioned earlier, the guitar peripheral is a real guitar. The strings must stay muted to prevent reverberation during gameplay by a plastic bar near the strumming area on the guitar (I suppose it messes with the electronics that pick up the string fingerings), but the bar can be clicked into the guitar, allowing the strings to fully resonate. The guitar has a working pickup and cable input, and works with any guitar amplifier. Hearing the guitar in action I didn't pick up any discernible differences between it and any other electric guitar, and though a price hasn't been announced I'm guessing Rise of the Six String w/ the guitar peripheral will be fairly cheaper than buying a low- to mid-level guitar for an aspiring guitarist.

It's great to see a company taking the initiative and attempting to bridge the clear gap between music games and learning to play real musical instruments. With any luck Rise of the Six String will entice would-be guitarists to give the game a try and play a music game that has the opportunity to truly teach gamers how to play. Power Gig -- Rise of the Six String is currently slated for a Fall 2010 release.

• Print
• Email this!
• • Digg
  • Yahoo Buzz!
  • FaceBook
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us