Interview: Todd Gillissie discusses forthcoming rock band RPG Rising Star 2
13 years after the release of Rising Star, fans will get to live out their rock star dreams with Rising Star 2. Set for an August 12th release on Steam, the game was one of the standouts at the recent Steam Game Festival. In the game, your goal is to bring your local band to the big stages. This means having to write some amazing songs, perform at some local gigs, and tour across the country. Rising Star 2 developer Todd Gillissie (Gilligames) took some time to discuss the forthcoming game.
The first Rising Star game was released in 2007. What took so long to create the sequel?
I’ve stayed busy working on several projects over the years. In October 2009, I initially released Stranded Without A Phone for iOS, and continued to update it over the years, including an Android release. In May 2010, I quit my “day job” as a business software developer to focus on game development full-time.
In January 2011, I released The Pantheon Cycle: Shrouded Aspect for iOS, which was a tactical turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy world. Despite positive reviews, it turns out that deep strategy didn’t belong on mobile platforms, and it didn’t sell well. I didn’t continue to update it, and it’s no longer available today. In March 2011, I joined a game development startup named Spooky Cool Labs, where I lead the development of a Wizard of Oz city-builder game. We had another team working on a free-to-play casino slots game titled Hit It Rich!.
Spooky Cool Labs ended up getting acquired by Zynga in 2013, so I started working at Zynga by default, and switched over to the Hit It Rich! team, where I pretty much stayed until I quit Zynga in February 2018. I needed a break from working on slot machines. I continued updates on Stranded Without A Phone, including the first Android version, and decided to dust off Rising Star. At this point, I was very experienced using Unity, so I felt confident in porting the code to a modern game engine.
In May 2018, I joined another game development startup named Block & Chain Games, which was technically the game team of Halo Platform, a crypto-currency startup. Unfortunately, as many startups do, it ran out of money. In March 2019, I decided that I would focus full-time on Rising Star 2 until it’s finished.
The first game featured a slew of genres to play. What made you trim things down to simply rock/metal?
Based on the feedback I got from many fans of the first game, I felt like rock/metal were the genres that most players enjoyed the most. I wanted to simplify things that didn’t need to be complicated, so I could focus on other features that add more fun. Eliminating genres was one of the things that happened as a result of that. Technically, the whole game is genre-generic, so you could consider your band any genre you want (other than no longer having access to instruments such as horns & turntables). It’s mainly just the soundtrack and the cover art that’s rock/metal at this point.
What was the process like working on the in-game music?
I’m a musician, and I have two sons that are also musicians (Josh and Cameron). I also have a lot of musician friends. So, I’m surrounded by music all the time. I’ve used some original music from a band I used to be in named Mime Bomb, and also had Cameron come up with some original material. I was also introduced to a talented instrumental guitarist named Damen Edgar, and have asked him to provide a few originals.
Typically, the musicians write and record whatever they want, and I listen to it and decide what fits the game. Sometimes I give feedback to make some changes if it’s close but not quite right for the game, and they’ll go back and tweak it. I think it’s similar to a producer’s role when recording, except that it’s not as real-time since we’re all in different cities. The original game had contributions from artists of every genre that was in the game, so it was more of an “exposure” thing for them. This time around, I didn’t want to ask for use of musicians’ songs without intention of paying for them, so the soundtrack is smaller, but it’s really, really good.
While the first game ran on Blitz3D, the sequel gets a major upgrade with Unity. How was it working with that game engine?
I started using Unity in 2011 during my Spooky Cool days, and have been using it ever since. I’ve seen it grow quite a lot in the last 9 years, and it’s very nice to work in an engine that is not only very capable of cool things but has great ongoing support and a great community. The fact that I can use the same engine whether I’m making mobile games or PC games is fantastic. Using a modern engine like Unity really helps developers get things done much quicker than we used to. Even with Blitz3D, I had to develop a lot of subsystems myself, which meant less features could be developed in the same amount of time.
Aside from the visual upgrade, what are some new features being added to the game?
Most of the new features are visual-oriented. Aside from obviously better character graphics, using Unity has opened up a lot more possibilities visually, such as first-person exploration of homes, venues, and other locations. And since your homes are 3D, you can now buy art to decorate your homes, and hang your awards and guitars as decorations too. Your home’s jam room is stocked with equipment based on the musicians in your band. You can design banners to hang behind your band during gigs.
The timed songwriting “memory” minigame from the first Rising Star has been replaced with a kind of puzzle. I wanted to get rid of any features that rely on speed or arcade abilities, and instead represent songwriting as more of a decision-making process, combined with random factors that are affected by your songwriting skill stats.
The main focus for the initial launch of Rising Star 2 was to have all of the original game’s features plus a few more, all looking better than ever. Then after launch, I plan on continuing development to add new features such as other countries besides the USA, maybe a T-shirt designer, maybe a stage designer, maybe a way to actually hear the songs you write, maybe a random lyrics generator. I don’t know what I’ll do in what order, but rest assured that feature development isn’t complete when August 12 hits.
As a musician, you've seen how the coronavirus has affected the music industry. With no possible live shows in sight for a while, how do you feel about younger musicians using the game as a way to live out their dreams until things get settled again?
Honestly, I think Rising Star 2 is a way for many people to live out this dream, whether they’re a musician or not. Many people would love to be a musician, but either never had the means to become one or simply don’t have the natural aptitude. But the spirit is alive in anyone that just loves music. I think that the coronavirus pandemic is worse on fans than professional artists because there are more fans than professional artists. I’ve been happy to watch artists continue to play on live streams, and I know they’re taking this downtime to write new material.
Don’t get me wrong, I support the artists and feel bad that they can’t go out and make their normal living, but I feel even worse as a fan that I can’t go see them play live. My advice to most people is to buy their favorite indie bands’ merchandise from their web site, or buy their music from Amazon or Apple or whatever, to help support them when those sales are the only revenue they have right now.