Saturday 9 February, 2008

Gameplay: Hour two was much tougher than hour 1. Both on the level of difficulty of play and of my physical ability to play. My fingers were getting all cramped up which slowed my gameplay greatly. I unlocked a lot more songs and got further in my "career". I also got a bunch of bonus songs (and though they don't unlock levels they add to your overall score, and besides, I like a lot of them).

Design: This is a game of progression that has very few qualities of emergence (though they do exist). You have to follow a set of songs in order to get to the next set of songs, however, you only have to beat 3 our of 4 songs in order to progress to the next set. In this way it is a bit of emergence, because if you feel like the song is too hard, you can choose a new path. However, overall it is progression, because you have to beat 3 of the 4 songs in order to reach the status of "rock star" (in the end).

As I said in my previous log, I explored the reward system more in this hour of play. I find the structure more interesting now because, though you can get songs with the "money" you make, who cares about the clothes and the extra guitars. I am not looking at my character, I am looking at the guitar, because thats how you play the game. Perhaps it is for those who want to have every bit of the game complete including all the characters and owning all the clothes, songs, etc. However, I am not that person, so the reward is less inviting for me. The only reward for me personally is unlocking more songs and the bonus songs and this is the whole goal of the game, so it only makes sense to do so. So I wish there were more rewards and secrets that had more bearing on the game rather than the characters, like more story based levels that you had to complete tasks to beat them. Could be fun.

The graphics still suck, which makes me sad. If I designed this I would have at least put more effort into the crowd or to the stage atmosphere. In this way it feels more like a "rock" environment. I have found that when playing this with friends the environment takes on a much more concert like environment with people cheering and the guitarists dancing and acting crazy. The problem is that playing by myself I lost a lot of what brings you into the magic circle, that is the environment.

almost perfect entry, you claim that it is a game of progression when though it has progression most of the game is actualy emergence, can you imagine a walkthrough to aid this game? also this seems like a classic case of simple rules leading to complex gameplay which is emergence.
Alon chanukov(grader)