Music Ally

The use of music in games isn’t just about licensing, these days. A new breed of games are exploring the idea of using the music tracks already on the devices on which they’re played (whether PC, console or mobile phone) to ‘auto-generate’ in-game levels or content.

As an example, today I’ve been playing a PC game called Audiosurf, which came out late last month. It’s a PC game that costs £9.99, and is a ‘puzzle racer’. It looks a bit like Wipeout, in that it’s a futuristic-looking 3D racing game, but you have to collect coloured blocks as you zip along the various tracks.

But the interesting thing is the way it uses the music stored on your hard drive to generate unique tracks to race on – with slower tunes creating a gentle uphill ride, and faster songs creating more of a rollercoaster effect. Watch our video hands-on above, and then click below for more info on this, and similar games on other platforms.

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Ex Eurythmics man Dave Stewart isn’t a big fan of MySpace, it seems. “Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace, and he bought every kid’s music and video – that’s 1.6 million bands’ songs – and they did’t get a share of anything. There’s something not quite right there,” he said, talking to Music Ally at Nokia’s Games Summit in Rome yesterday.

However, Stewart and Nokia also announced plans for an innovative new mobile game, Dance Fabulous, which will attempt to break a new artist called Cindy Gomez. The game will feature her songs, dance moves and avatar, and potentially will direct gamers off to the Nokia Music Store to buy the tracks too.

Full details will be in our interview in today’s Report, due to be sent out this afternoon.