November 5, 2008

Scratching Like a Pro With DJ Life's Antony Faby
By Louis Bedigian

“All the great things a DJ does during a party, you’ll find them in DJ Life!”

Music games got off to a slow start, but once Guitar Hero hit it big, they've become an essential part of the game industry. Advancing well past the quirky Japanese games where only a PSone or PS2 controller was used, the music genre is now full of guitars, drum kits, and on the DS, touch screen utilization. But in spite of the variety (and a few music-mixing titles), you don't see many games revolving around the life of a DJ. Game Life hopes to change that with their new DS offering, DJ Life.

"Game Life’s managing director and myself are fond of electronic music but we could not find anything about this movement in the video game industry," said Antony Faby, Executive Producer. "Moreover, we saw the great success of Guitar Hero, so we knew the audience was ready for a DJ-ing game. Finally, the Nintendo DS had the potential to reproduce very precisely what a DJ feels when he plays, so we definitely found that a video game for DJs was a relevant idea. This is how DJ Life [was born]."

Looking at the screenshots, it appears that you'll be scratching with the touch screen. Tell us about this mechanic.

Antony Faby: Actually, this is definitely an innovative feature and we’re very proud of the result. The scratching feature is a real numerical scratch, it means that it is not a fake sound effect trying to badly reproduce the sound you can make when you scratch. So, if I scratch the song A, the sound will be different from what I could get if I scratched the song B. The system uses a stamp memory and a continuous streaming to simulate the scratching.

Over 40 tracks will be included in the game, spanning funk, hip hop, R&B and electronic music. What else can you tell us about the musical offering?

AF: We worked with a professional studio that produced loads of songs for famous artists.

The tracklist is still in-progress for the moment but you can be sure that you will find in DJ Life all the legendary tracks that turned upside down the dancefloors for the last 20 years: 90’s dance music, the French Touch, the Gangsta rap, dancehall etc…

Tell us about the built-in Home Studio feature.

AF: This is the part for the apprentice music makers. Thanks to the built-in Home Studio, you can create your own track, save it, mix it with famous artist songs, and exchange via the wireless connectivity to your friends. We made 200 samples covering four genres (Disco-Funk/House/Techno/Hip Hop) that you can mix together (well, mixing hip hop and disco is not something I recommend but it’s up to you.)

The interface works like the greatest professional Home Studios: you choose a drum sample, spread it on the first instrument line. Then you choose a chord, spread it as you wish on the second instrument line etc… and then you easily make a 3mn track that will for sure set the dancefloor on fire. You can save up to four tracks of 3mn, and add them to your DJ case to mix them in the Mix game mode.

How many of the tracks will you able to mix together at one time?

AF: You can mix two tracks together in the Mix mode. If you talk about the Home Studio, there are five “instrument lines” available which gives many possibilities for an interplanetary hit.

Is there a way to save your creations?

AF: Of course you can save four of your creations; 3mn length a creation. And you can exchange your tunes with your friends with wireless connectivity.

What about sharing your music with others - does the game use Wi-Fi or wireless connectivity?

AF: Yes you can use the wireless connectivity to share your best tracks with your friends.

Will there be any kind of multiplayer component?

AF: Well, there’s no real multiplayer mode but I’m sure there will be many contests to find who’s the best DJ.

Suppose I've mixed a bunch of beats together for what I feel is the perfect track. Now I'd like to play it for some friends. Will I be able to pump this music through something else (say, an amplifier) so that others can enjoy it?

AF: DJ Life is a game developed for NDS, so all the tracks and samples are adapted to this format. However, the NDS has an audio out connection (where you plug your headphone), so you’re free to give it a try with an amplifier. Nevertheless, you cannot expect from a NDS to provide the same sound quality than a real expensive sound system.

Other than the creative aspect, will there be any kind of mission or difficulty? Or is DJ Life designed to be solely an open-ended music-mixing device?

AF: On the mix part, you start from 0 with a simplified desk mixing for 2 nice friends to end mixing with a professional desk for 100 000 people in a stadium at Tokyo. So effectively, there is a career mode and you will have to show your skills to make people dance and keep them on the dancefloor.

I also would like to add that you’ll have to mix, but you’ll also have to take care of many other parameters during some cool side mini-games like:

• Providing a great light show
• Making a go-go dancer shake her body
• Giving autographs
• Yelling in the mic to make people put their hands up

To sum up, all the great things a DJ does during a party, you’ll find them in DJ Life!

Thank you for your time.

AF: Hope you’ll enjoy the game!

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---