Do You Like Music and Games? How About a Combo?

AdME, sub-division of SONiVOX, a leading supplier of sound products and technology, recently released a new music-driven mobile game on US' largest network, AT&T.

The game is called GuitarStar, uses an innovative beat-matching technology and enhances the player's level of engagement by being the first game for mobile devices that synchronizes visual movements with the underlying musical soundtrack. What you have to do is feel the music and capture guitar picks that fly across your mobile's screen. As you capture more picks, you will rise from "garage rocker" to "stadium superstar". Game packs are available for download, allowing personalization.

Peter Eggleston, Chief Executive Officer of AdME, explains: "Rather than taking their cues solely from what they see, mobile players can now use the beat's groove to guide their play the way console players do with Guitar Hero, or arcade players with Dance Dance Revolution."

For an adequate level of gameplay, a good level of visual and audio synchronization is needed. Hence SONiVOX implemented an interactive music library to act as a middleware layer on top of cell phone's audio drivers, making it easier to manage sound content and multiple audio streams. Also, gameplay information and audio content can be generated and translated into beat-matching files, compensating for the audio differences that exist between individual mobile devices.

GuitarStar was initially developed as a mobile entertainment application, but it has also been customized to be a promoting platform for consumer brands and recording artists. The release via AT&T features various rock, pop and hip-hop emerging musical artists.

Eric Shaw, EMI Publishing's Director of Music Resources, says: "Music-based games have become a fantastic means for players to engage with music in an exciting way. By bringing that technology to the mobile platform, more people will get to experience the irresistible fun of playing along to great songs."

Featuring the beat-matching technology from GuitarStar, other AdME games will be released in the next months, highlighting AdME's belief that music is "the new game in town". So be it!