*Messed-up.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/177806/Forget_Rock_Band_heres_Cello_Fortress.php
Forget Rock Band , here's Cello Fortress
September 17, 2012 | By Mike Rose
"Forget your Guitar Heroes, your Rock Bands and your Rocksmiths –
playing guitars, drums and keyboards to music in games is so last
decade. The cello is where it's really at.
"Cello Fortress is a work-in-progress by Proun developer and Ronimo
designer Joost van Dongen, and as far as I'm aware, it's the first
video game to incorporate a classical music instrument (feel free to
correct me if I'm wrong!) into the gameplay. The game will first be
shown at the Dutch Game Garden Indigo exhibition later this month.
"Cello Fortress isn't simply a video game, however, but rather an
interactive music concert. An audience will watch as van Dongen, on
his cello, attempts to play improvized cello pieces while
simultaneously fending off attacks from players who are controlling
tanks in a bid to destroy his castle.
" "I play cello and my music is analyzed by the game [via a
microphone]," he explains to Gamasutra. "The game has certain rules
for what controls what, and can recognise the difference between
aggressive music, slow melodies, high or low notes, those kinds of
things."
"For example, if van Dongen plays a certain melody, the game will pick
up on this and a bombardment will begin on-screen. Aggressive chords,
on the other hand, will equip him with flamethrowers. Other attacks
include machineguns, homing missiles, and a walker that strides out of
the castle and attacks players. All these attacks are produced
depending on which piece of music the cello is playing.
" "The link between cello and game is very direct, while at the same
time leaving me enough room to improvise music that actually sounds
good," he adds. "That's a complex challenge, because music needs to
flow in a certain way and cannot instantly switch between all kinds of
styles and sounds."
"What makes Cello Fortress even more interesting is the fact that van
Dongen isn't looking to "beat" the players as such. While the
audience's goal is clear cut, his task is more to make sure he is
always entertaining the crowd.
" "I have to put up a good challenge for the players, while also making
sure the music is fun to listen to," he says. "A single play session
will probably last something like five minutes, so that as many people
as possible can actually play. So it is a short and simple game:
people need to be able to pick up the controller and play
immediately."
"The concept, which van Dongen put together via his love for
programming and playing the cello, is still in its infancy, and the
creator wants to see how it fares in public before he decides what to
do with it next.
"Live music improvisation to control a game is such a weird and
innovative concept, that I really need to experience it myself to be
able to know where I might take this next," he says. (...)
