JamLegend Takes On Guitar Hero On The Web (1,000 Invites)

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/jamlegend-takes-on-guitar-hero-on-the-web-1000-invites/

by ryanwaggoner • 18 years ago

36 19 18 years ago

Interesting.

There's a game called riffmaster that I discovered via addictinggames.com (http://www.addictinggames.com/riff.html) that was pretty fun to play. It has similar keyboard options. There is also a sequel (http://www.addictinggames.com/riffmasterii.html), but I haven't played it.

When I first saw it, I thought it would be boring, but there are some elements that make it pretty fun.

ALee3• 18 years ago

Hey, guys, Andrew Lee from JamLegend. Feel free to tell us what you think.

We've been hanging out on News.YC for about a year now and know some of the YC companies personally, so please give us as much feedback as possible.

REQUEST FOR HELP: if anyone has experience with Glassfish (with Java, not Ruby), please email me at Andrew@jamlegend.com, we're experiencing some tricky load issues and are imploring for help.

rms• 18 years ago

any more invite codes?

ALee3• 18 years ago

Yeah, we have a special invite for the News.YC community. Go to:

http://jamlegend.com/register/HackerNews and you should be able to sign up.

smakz• 18 years ago

Let me guess - garbage collection? ;)

arjunlall• 18 years ago

Sadly not, we looked into GC stuff but it doesn't seem to be the culprit

pchristensen• 18 years ago

FWIW, I'm blown away by the "Fantasy Congress" game (by the same group) - http://www.fantasycongress.com/ . I hadn't heard of it and haven't played it, but the name and the concept are OUTSTANDING! I can't imagine any male, political junkie who would pass on that. In fact, I'm forwarding it to my coworkers right now. I wish you guys luck, I think you're off to a great start!

wastedbrains• 18 years ago

Congrats to Andrew and the JamLegend crew. We met them awhile ago and have been following their progress ever since. Amazing progress in a short timeframe.

I guess soon I will have to give the official report on how well this works hooking up a Wii guitar to my mactop and playing Jam Legend.

pxlpshr• 18 years ago

job well done and nice execution!!! key press timing seems a little buggy but suppose that's to be expected given it's a beta.

jmatt2• 18 years ago

I agree very well done. A lot of fun, right from the get go.

key press timing seems a little buggy but suppose that's to be expected given it's a beta.

I had this same problem. I can actually anticipate the slowdown and the inevitable note miss that is coming.

I think it is just a matter of dealing with latency a little bit better when things go awry.

Or maybe it's a problem of resources since I have 20 apps open on my computer. Either way it's minor compared to the fun from playing.

omouse• 18 years ago

Only problem for me is the return key. It isn't quick enough to register it sometimes, I tried playing a song on medium and I do suck, but I did notice it not registering the key :S

edit: Also, more indie bands. Try and get Vampire Weekend or someone else to toss their songs on the site. Man, that would rock

ALee3• 18 years ago

Great feedback. We have a couple bands in the pipe, but we're gonna be opening up the platform so it'll be very easy for any indie band to put their stuff up.

malte• 18 years ago

Is it me or are some songs very difficult in easy mode? ;) I also think that there are some bugs in the key response. Or: I just suck at playing it. However, great idea and good luck!

maxklein• 18 years ago

When I was in china, such games were very popular in all the net bars. The had some type of internet cafe system in use by most internet cafes, and this jam legend style music-making as well as some dancing girls thingy - based on the same concept - was quite popular. So it's certainly a good market to be in.

In china, they have these scratch cards that you can buy at 7/11s and other convenience stores. You then use the credit on the scratch cards to buy dresses and so on for your figure. Several of the girls I knew were obsessed with making sure that their avatar not only looked good, but that she always had new clothes. So games in that style, though free initially, still make loads of money just selling add-ons and things to individualise yourself.

babul• 18 years ago

This definitely has viral potential. Very cool and well implemented so far.

Lots of monetisation strategies (buy songs you like jamming to via the site or affiliate, advertising, selling gig/concert tickets and merchandise for featured bands, premium subscriptions, etc.) and growth strategies (unsigned/new bands put tracks people can jam to and discover, myspace-style user profiles, youtube-style self jamming videos/webcams, facebook-style friend-sets and widget sharing, xbox-style achievement goals, etc.) too.

Good luck!

Wesmax27• 18 years ago

I love the game and love the idea. The only issue I have had thus far is pulling off combos. Not sure if I am just too slow or if something about the keyboard is prohibiting me from moving from note to note fast enough. Has anyone else had this problem?

What would be really interesting is if you could build this into a facebook app.

JamLegend Takes On Guitar Hero On The Web (1,000 Invites)

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