Rising Star 2 is set to hit PCs in August 2020, bringing us a brand new type of Guitar Hero for music fans. Before we tune-up for the headline act, we caught some time with Todd Gillissie, founder of Developer Gilligames and talked Rising Star 2.
Like so many artists right now, we found Todd sequestered indoors and busy working on Gilligames next release. This upcoming musical sim is a far leap from the traditional idea of music video games. Gone are the tapping times of rhythm titles and this isn’t quite your average rock hero. Instead, Rising Star 2 puts gamers in the shoes of a wide-eyed musical upstart, eager to make it in the music industry, and if you’ve ever languished around the outer echelons of a local music scene then you might find something familiar here. With one goal in mind, Rising Star 2 challenges players to build a band, equip your team, craft a setlist, and get good enough to score that first elusive gig. Check out the warm-up act with the new Steam Trailer that just landed.
Being a management sim that doesn’t ask you to tend to a park full of dinosaurs or attack an army of Orcs, we started off by finding out exactly where this idea came from.
“I started playing live music right after I got my first bass guitar around 1988. I was 17 years old. I remember going to the music store with my mom and picking it out for my birthday. It was a cheap knockoff of a Fender P-Bass, but I loved it. It was red with a white pickguard, and I proceeded to customize it with a bunch of metal and punk rock stickers. I played in a few different bands with friends just for fun. Some originals, some covers. In 2004 a couple of friends and I had a noise art band named “8-Bit Porno” (inspired by ASCII porn on the Commodore 64 computer). We went on a week-long tour from Detroit to Columbus (Ohio), Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York City, New Paltz (New York), and Worcester (Connecticut). It was five shows in five days in a minivan with two other guys. It gave me a real sense of what it must be like for bands to be on tour. It seemed like we were always either driving or getting ready and doing a show. I started sketching up some ideas for Rising Star while on the long drives between cities because I thought it would make a fun video game.”
From the moment you piece together your own post-hardcore punk character and stride out into the big wide world of your home town, its kind of clear that Rising Star 2 isn’t going to be like many other games. Open character creation and the multitude of attributes available to level up gives the game a distinctly RPG feel. As things continue to unfold, this management sim starts to reveal itself. It’s hard to accurately describe the juxtaposition of genres in a one-liner, so we asked Todd to try instead.
“Back in the 80’s on the Commodore 64 computer, my friend and I used to play a rock band simulation game called “It’s Only Rock and Roll”. Apparently, it’s very obscure, because I can’t find anything about it by Googling. It was basically a text-only game, where you had to make decisions about your band, write songs, practice, play gigs, hire a manager, etc. We had a blast with that game, so I wanted to do something similar, but not text-only. Rising Star 2 is sort of a mash-up of the old text-only game and a modern RPG. Instead of a party, you have a band. Instead of strength, intelligence, dexterity, etc., you have playing, songwriting, stage presence, etc. You gain experience and level up, and have to buy gear that gives you the best bonuses. It’s just instruments and clothing instead of weapons and armor. I really love the Grand Theft Auto series because of the open-world freedom to do things in the order you want. People don’t generally think of GTA as an RPG, but it really is. I’ve always wished I could play GTA as a rock star instead of a criminal.”
This opens up a to of possibilities before even picking up an instrument. Although there isn’t an option to knock over a store for funds, musicians don’t generally get that desperate, you will need to make ends meet and while players will be able to take a trip around their new adopted city, pick up a guitar or two, and practice, they will need to keep the lights on. Odd jobs are available from mowing grass to driving deliveries, all of which can be accepted as you explore the outside world. While there is some merit to taking a joyride around the local streets, most of your time in Rising Star 2 will be spent getting to and from a few important places, at least at first.
Finding a music store allows players to grab an instrument as well as form a band. From this crucial location, bands hook up and the crucial bonds that make up any great team are formed. Todd plays heavily on this band bond with different NPC personality traits creating a dynamic that almost inevitably goes sideways at first. With just an hour gone in my first day as a rock star, it was as clear as a blown snare skin that Rising Star 2 weaves in an expansive number of interconnected systems. These initial emotional attachments are all seemingly interconnected and influenced by everything from money, to nights out, and band success all depending on individual character traits. After trying to stop our drummer from being just a little too emo for our tastes, we asked Todd how deep these interconnected systems are exactly?
“It goes pretty deep. Almost everything in the game affects something else in the game, intentionally. Rising Star 2 is intended to be a thinking game instead of an arcade experience (put away those Rock Band controllers). I wanted to make the experience as realistic as possible, while still being fun. For example, the original game automatically spent money for each band member for each day that passes, as “living expenses”. And when you ran out of money, your characters started to starve and lose health. That wasn’t very fun. In Rising Star 2. I’ve added so many things that you can spend money on (art, clothing, banners, van paint jobs), that I realized that the players could never afford the cool little extras unless the game was more generous with the money. So, I removed the daily living expenses, and raised the reward pay for completing side jobs.”
Of course, the final goal of any band management sim is to get on stage and rock out. Because nobody wants to be the band manager at the end of the day. Todd confirmed that;
“’When I grow up, I want to be a tour manager’ was said by nobody, ever. Kidding aside, when you hear all the crazy stories about rock bands, how many tour managers do you remember from those stories? Sure, managers are important (they’re critical in Rising Star 2), but they’re just behind-the-scenes support for the talent.”
Manage to keep your many personalities happy between practice days and you’ll find a band brimming with ideas when you need them most. This has a direct benefit when the game strums up its interesting take on songwriting. A puzzle system produces a range of song snippets that are more likely to slot together with an inspired and well tuned performing machine, while still giving your own backline an opportunity to excel when it comes to performing live.
Of course, getting out on tour costs money and time. There are tons of cities, states, and venues to visit and while some of them can seem to blur into one, there’s more than the late-night after party to blame for that. Todd noted that
“All of the venues, bands, managers, musicians, and album titles in Rising Star 2 are randomly generated using a list of various phrases & words and first & last names. Sometimes you do see a randomly generated band name that happens to be a real name (like “Prince”), but most of the names are so off-the-wall that they’re unique. I actually used the random band name generator from Rising Star to determine the name of a real band that I was in (Mime Bomb). There are a few nods to some real-life band things though, like “Nevermind” instead of “Cancel” on certain screens.”
This sort of passion makes for an experience that might not be as flashy as a heroic rock band but Gilligames know their stuff. From the moment you walk in the front door of the music store and browse the instruments available, to knocking up t-shirts to sell on tour or even recording an album you can tell there is a passion and a lived experience at play here. During our time with the team, Todd explained that
“I realize that a lot of people don’t even realize that local music scenes exist, so the game’s tutorial helps with that early on. Once players realize that watching shows increases experience, inspiration, and happiness, they’ll keep doing it to keep writing new songs. Eventually, band relationships get strong enough that the other bands start calling you to play on their gigs, so you can’t really miss out.”
Looking back on our brief time with rising Star 2 in its unfinished state and talking to Todd, it’s obvious that there are more than a few similarities to indie development and the music scene. Maybe that’s why, when we asked him what he played, I felt slightly ashamed of the drumsticks I rarely pick up nowadays.
“my main instrument has been bass guitar ever since I got my first one when I was 17. I’ve also done a good share of singing. However, I have also played the drums, guitar, mandolin, baritone ukulele, tenor banjo. I own an electric piano, but I wouldn’t say that I know how to play it”
Rising Star 2 is to gaming what the grunge scene is to Pop. It might not be flashy and full three-minute thrills, but sit down and take some time and you’ll possibly find something unique with a lot more longevity to it. Rising Star 2 is due out in August 2020 on PC. Check out the official Steam Store for more details now.
