Rock music is cool these days. Capitalizing on a trend over the past 8 years that saw rock music absorb the electronic phenomenon of the 90’s and re-invent itself, this game would would tap into everyone’s secret desire : EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A ROCK STAR!
The 2003 movie “School of Rock”, the video game “Guitar Hero” and more recently, “Rock Band” are all pop culture phenomena showing the resurgence of people’s love of rock music.
This game is easy and quick to play as its follows the same mental model as popular board games like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. Though its format is that of a trivia game, this game would actually teach people about the history of popular music over the past 100 years. The evolution of blues and jazz to rock, and all the offshoots thereof: reggae, hiphop, disco, punk, new-wave and up until the present day would be covered.
To play, players begin at the “Start” square and roll dice to move along the board. After you land on your square you must correctly answer a rock trivia question pulled from the deck of cards in order to roll again and continue your way around the board. I f you get your question wrong, play passes to the next player. The goal of the game is to make it to the final square at the head of the guitar which says, “You win Rock Star!”
There are some surprises and pitfalls scattered throughout the board as well. Certain squares have a “lose a turn” or “go back __ spaces” function but with a humourous spin aimed at the 20 to 30 something set. Some examples would be, “Develop speed habit, Check into Rehab –Go back 2 spaces”, “Trash Hotel Room – Miss a Turn” or “Whoops! D.U.I.! – Go back 1 space”. Conversely there would be positive surprise squares as well: “Charm the Press – Move forward 2”, or “Play killer show – Move forward 1”.
A special feature of this game takes advantage of mp3 technology. Certain cards will simply say “Name that tune”. At this point, the player has to hit the “play” button on the “microphone” at the top left of the board and a 30 second sample of a song will play. If the player guesses both the song and artist, they get to move ahead 2 spaces; if they guess just one, they move ahead only one space. To find out the answer, just hit the “answer” button next to the “play” button and the name of the song and artist will come up on the little LCD screen. The machine for this part of the game is fully removable and rechargeable so you never have to worry about supplying batteries. In addition to this, new song snippets could be downloaded onto this barebones mp3 player from the game’s website.
The aesthetic-usability effect has been used in the board design to make the game appealing, and seem fun to play to the target demographic. Its unusual shape and bold and lively design make use of the Von Restorff effect, as it stands out visually from other board games on the market.
Finally, storytelling is at work in this game, as you make it from independent, struggling artist, through trials and setbacks, and finally make it as a ROCK STAR!!!
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