Seite 2: Interview mit Pastagames zu Maestro! Jump in Music

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We talked with Fabien Delpiano from Pastagames about their upcoming music game Maestro! Jump in Music for the Nintendo DS. What players can expect you can find out in our current interview.

PlanetDS.de Can you tell us a little more about yourself and the Pastagames?

Fabien Delpiano My name is Fabien Delpiano, I am 38 years old and with my best friends Joann Sfar and Claude Seyrat, we have created Pastagames 10 years ago. Today's Pastagames' team is one Game Designer, Nadim Haddad, one Artistic Director, Hervé Barbaresi, a Chief Technical Officer, Fabrice Kocik, and a 3D Artist, Olivier Terrassier-Jansem. Julien Harinkouck and Laurence Guermond helped us also a lot on the Maestro! project.

We have been developing games for a lot of different platforms over the years, ranging from PC browser games to feature phones, PDA downloadable games, and finally console games.
In order to be profitable (for we have no investors) we spend two thirds of our time developing games for brands and publishers as a studio for hire; and the last third of our time on our own games.

PlanetDS.de Your latest upcoming Nintendo DS game is called Maestro! Jump in Music. What is it all about and what does the protagonist Presto have to do?

Fabien Delpiano Presto is a lovebird, a crooner singing his way through life. Staccato - his fellow partner - plays guitar with him in a band. When Bellissima comes in town, it is love on first sight... for both of them.
They use of their talents to seduce her: Presto sings, Staccato plays the guitar.

It is common knowledge that chicks prefer the lead singer and Bella is no exception! Staccato is dead jealous, and to prevent his friend from charming her
anymore, he steals all the notes from all the melodies with a powerful spell.
He then hides them all over the world; in animals, bubbles, wires...
to make sure he'll be the only one playing any music at all. Presto starts his journey to free the sounds, so he can sing his love once again to his beloved Bellissima!

PlanetDS.de How much knowledge about rhythm and music do players of Maestro! Jump in Music need to fully enjoy the game? Is it more an arcade like title or does one have to have a fine touch of musical understanding?

Fabien Delpiano Maestro! is first of all an arcade game, fast, fun, very accessible in the easy levels, and really demanding in the hard ones. All arcade games are very demanding in terms of synchronizing your actions, jump too soon and you fall, shoot too late and the enemy is gone.

In Maestro! everything you do in the game makes a sound, a "dling", a "poum", a "tchak". If your arcade-game timing is good, all the dlings, poums and tchaks blend together and re-create the stolen melody of the world you are travelling.

PlanetDS.de What can you tell our readers about the depth of the game. Will there be more fun activities to do aside the main part or other achievements to let them beat the game again?

There are 18 different melodies, 11 are silly-symphony versions of classical themes that everybody knows or has heard somewhere, the other 7 are international standards, like ABC, Fame, Our House, I Put a Spell on you, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, etc.

Each melody comes in 3 versions:
- the first is quite short (one minute or so) with a subset of the melody, and gives the player the opportunity do discover the gameplayand master the main gestures of the game,
- the second has the full length (usually three minutes) with a bigger
subset of the melody, and is more demanding,
- the third is the full version, full length, fully featured and is
very hard to master.

That gives us 54 platform levels.

During his journey, Presto will have to fight Staccato in a face to face musical battle.

Staccato and his minions play something, and you have to help Presto play it in turn. There are 7 different melodies for the fights, each of them in 3
versions, short, medium and hard. These add up to 21 boss levels. This is just for the Story Mode.

Then you have the "Tracklist" mode, where you can replay all the levels you have unlocked in the story mode and try to get an A* -the highest score- for each. This is very challenging and fun to become a virtuoso on each musical track.

And finally the "Free Play" mode; in which you can replay all the levels you have unlocked in the story mode. In here, you can change the tempo, the orchestration and instruments; and play the score freely. Your performance is recorded and you can play it back to your friends whenever you want. This mode has got an incredible replay value, as you really get the feeling of freely playing music and making each of the melodies your own.

PlanetDS.de In how far is it important to walk the musical elements from a certain direction. Will one be able to move back an forth or will the game have a funny musical spin if you do so?

Fabien Delpiano In Maestro! It is the world and environment you will interact with to make Presto jump around. You do not directly control the hero but all that is around him.
In the platform levels, the scrolling is automatic, and the player cannot influence its speed or direction. This is the only way to guarantee that the music does not sound too weird. ;)

PlanetDS.de Can you tell us more about the tracks included in Maestro! Jump in Music? What can we expect and how many titles are included?

Fabien Delpiano Playing Maestro! will let you enjoy many major composers of the last centuries, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Satie, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Dvorak, Albeniz.

In Maestro! musical scores are the levels, and we have got the best level designers ever. :) We hope that you will be amazed as we were by the experience of jumping through the scores of the most famous composers of all times.

Here is the main mode’s track-list:

BEETHOVEN, 5th symphony
DVORAK, New world Symphony
MADNESS, Our house

BACH, Little Fugue
MOZART, Eine kleine nachtmusik
F. PERREN et al. ABC

EDUARDO DI CAPUA, O Sole Mio
VIVALDI, 4 Seasons - Spring
THE ANIMALS, House of the Rising Sun

SATIE, Gymnopédie n°1
TCHAIKOVSKI, Sugarplum Fairy
SCREAMING JAY HAWKINS, I Put a Spell on You

BRAHMS, Hungarian Dance
GRIEG, Peer Gynt
BERNSTEIN, The Magnificent Seven

ENNIO MORRICONE, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
M. GORE, FAME
ALBENIZ, Asturias

PlanetDS.de Patapon, Elite Beat Agents or Rhythm Paradise – music and rhythm games are very popular. Did you have inspiration or role model for Maestro! Jump in Music?

Fabien Delpiano We are fans of all of these, as well as Guitar Hero, Osu! Tatakae! Ōendan, Otocky, Electroplankton, Taiko no Tatsujin, Rez, Parappa The Rappa, Everyday Shooter, etc.

Mixing gameplay and music has been done incredibly well so many times we could not ignore all these wonderful ideas. We tried to do it our way, paying our tribute to our Masters, trying to add our brick to the wall. ;) You will find in Maestro! many things you already know, but with a different flavor, and some you have never seen before.

We sincerely hope you will enjoy our home-made cocktail.

PlanetDS.de You mentioned that the DS microphone will be a unique and favored control element. Can you tell us how this works and how singing of a player influences the game play?

Fabien Delpiano When you have finished the Easy Mode, the voice of Presto is free again and you can start singing while you are playing. In the medium and hard levels, from time to time, Presto's fellow birds come flying in the top screen, carrying a jar. If you sing while they are crossing the screen, all the good notes will come out of Presto's mouth and fly into the jar. If the jar is full enough at the end of the level, the jury will help you get the B+ score that allows you to unlock the next level.

We had a very interesting partnership with Voxler, who provided us with its incredible technology that detects the notes you sing with accuracy.

PlanetDS.de What do players do who don't have the golden voice? Can I play and have fun without being a diva, while riding in a train or being around friends?

Fabien Delpiano Of course! The voice recognition module works for everyone, obviously good singers will grasp it faster, but non-divas (like me) will enjoy the fun of singing and getting better at it.

You can also decide at any moment to activate or not the singing mode. All the levels have been designed to be finished with the highest score without singing at all. Singing is just bonus points and fun. :)

PlanetDS.de Will there be a multi player mode? Wouldn't a choir mode be interesting for music fans?

Fabien Delpiano We have tons of ideas to make a multiplayer mode! We will definitely do that in a sequel. ;)

PlanetDS.de Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?

Fabien Delpiano Mastro! is Pastagames' first independent project. It is exactly the way we wanted it to be, it is packed with our heart and soul. We hope you will enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed crafting it! It will put a smile on your face… for sure!

The interview was held by Kevin Jensen for PlanetDS.de