‘Frequency’ Aims to Unleash the Musician Within the Gamer

Watching gamers deftly maneuver the myriad buttons on a video game controller, Alex Rigopulos several years ago realized that the movements were not dissimilar to ones made by musicians.

Why not harness this and turn the console into a musical instrument, he wondered.

Last month, his company--Harmonix Music Systems Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.--released “Frequency,” a music game that lets players mix and reassemble tracks of more than two dozen popular songs by artists such as Crystal Method, Paul Oakenfeld, Jungle Brothers and No Doubt.

Rigopulos, 31, got his inspiration from such games as “Dance Dance Revolution” and “PaRappa the Rapper,” both of which were created by Japanese developers.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studied music composition, Rigopulos wanted to create a game with edgy, trippy songs that would appeal to U.S. fans.

Question: What’s your goal in creating “Frequency”?

Answer: A few years ago, we observed that the world is filled with passionate air guitarists, many of whom also happen to be video gamers whose skills are really not so different from what musicians employ when playing music. We’re musicians. And for us, playing music feels incredibly good. It’s one of life’s greatest pleasures.

But learning the old-fashioned way to play music is so difficult that most people don’t get to feel this. The process of fighting your way through learning how to play a musical instrument is so arduous that very few people have found the joys of making music.

On the surface, “Frequency” looks like a video game. Gamers can use the skills they already have to play it. Once they’re there, they realize they’re actually making music. It transforms the PlayStation into a musical instrument.

Q: What do you think of the Japanese music games?

A: We played all the Japanese music games exhaustively, and the core game mechanic is a rhythm action that’s extremely addictive. That was inspirational. On the other hand, the Japanese games were under-realized. They had this great core mechanic, but there was so much more that could be done.

The music and graphics were cheesy. Secondly, there was no multi-player element in many of these games. For us, multi-player was critical, because musical communication was important. Finally, and most importantly, there are no creative elements to the Japanese games. You’re just replaying songs.

Q: Isn’t that what players do in “Frequency” when they work with tracks that have already been written by famous artists?

A: There’s actually a broad range of creative expression available in our game. It is true that the game has existing songs, although they’re chopped up. If you do the remix mode of a No Doubt song, it’s still the No Doubt song. But you’re still creating your own bass lines, synth tracks, your own phrasing, and you’re combining them in new ways. The song can be sparse, ethereal or intense and out of control.

It’s not just turning tracks on and off. It takes skill, and those skills are precisely the ones you hone through the process of playing the game.

Q: How was it to work with the artists in licensing their songs?

A: Some of the artists saw the game and decided to write new music just for the game. Oakenfeld wrote a track for the game. No Doubt actually decided to do a dance remix of their song.

A lot of the artists got directly involved, because this game is about music and about making music. It gives their fans a way to get inside the music and interact with their music in a way they haven’t been able to before. That was a big deal for them.

Q: What would you change if you had to do a sequel?

A: First of all, we’ll continue to push the visual envelope. Then we really want to expand the multi-player option, the communication musically between players. Now, the game is about remixing and performing. In the next game, we’d like to fuse the creative music making with game play, make it both creative and competitive.

Now in the game mode, it’s not about creativity. For the most part, it’s about mastery, nail a musical performance. Then there’s the remix mode, in which you make the musical experience you want. One of the things we want to do is fuse those two elements instead of having them as separate modes, so you can make creative decisions while competing with your friends. Like a call-and-response game, for example.

Q: Did you encounter any surprises when you tested the game on real players?

A: Most people are incredibly intimidated when you tell them they’re going to be making music with this game. When we brought people in for testing, we’d ask if they’re musicians, and they would say no. By the end of the game, they were playing these blazingly fast 16-note patterns. Then they’d realize, “Gee, I’m really making music.”

When we handed someone a game controller and said they would be making music, as opposed to playing a game, they were skeptical, self-conscious. But if we said here is a game, they were happy to dive in. So we learned that we needed to present this experience as a video game if we were to realize our secret, clandestine mission to make musicians out of people.

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Alex Pham covers the video game industry. She can be reached at alex.pham@latimes.com.