If asked 5 years ago, few may have guessed the success of the music game genre. Would any have guessed that it would surpass the sports genre? And, so quickly? Fall Line Studio’s Senior Producer, Tim Huntsman, describes Ultimate Band as a “performance based music game” which tries to “incorporate the unique technologies available on the Wii and DS.” What does this mean? No peripherals. Just you, the music and the machine.

Though there are several differences between Ultimate Band and the leading music game on the market, the lack of peripheral is perhaps the most important. This isn’t a package of simulated musical instruments intended to be used with the Wii or DS; the console itself becomes the simulated instrument. Let me rephrase that: the console becomes any one of a number of simulated instruments.

This week, Tim Huntsman, Art Director Mike Thompson, and Development Director Mark McArthur were on-hand to speak to a number of press members regarding the inspiration, design and unique qualities of this upcoming title.

Tim Huntsman: We started out to make a game focusing on the younger boy demographic. The whole idea was to encapsulate the idea of performing. We brought in lots of people from the industry to work determine what would and wouldn’t work with the Wii-mote and nun chuck. Then, because Disney likes to tell stories, we built a story into it by creating a robust player system which includes both male and females. Both genders ties back to the vocals. We didn’t want to have a male avatar with a female voice or vice versa. Finally, if you own the title on both systems, you can connect the two and play as if you have a 5th instrument.

Comparisons to Guitar Hero and Rockband were inevitable. Are the many iterations of each competition?

Tim Huntsman: Ultimate Band is intended for an entirely different audience. It’s peripheral free, plays to the strength of the Wii and is more accessible early on.

We wanted to make a game that a hardcore gamer could play then hand off to his nephew or mom on the couch who would adjust the difficulty to easy and still have a good time. We feel we’ve capitalized on it well.

Tim Huntsman: None of the songs are unique to the game and there are no Disney show songs. We consciously shied away from Disney merchandising and stuck with mainstream songs. We looked for songs from bands that are starting to break… and of course included some of own favorites.

It took months to narrow down the set list. We spent time on YouTube, shared iTunes accounts… from our perspective it wasn’t enough to have this song by that band; we needed songs that had dynamics and texture with breaks and tempo changes. Before the end we were choosing from over 450 songs.

We haven’t included any downloadable content. By the time we knew what was available we were too far into development to adjust for it. Other than recent announcements these past weeks, the Wii just doesn’t have that availability.

None of the Disney bands will show up either. They’re part of the Hollywood records arm of the company. Boys like instrument games – they don’t like shows.

Hrm… my boys like the shows but I’ll have to trust Disney’s marketing department on this one. Let’s get back to this whole “no peripherals” thing for a moment. You’ve got no controllers but it’s a band…

Tim Huntsman: There’s multiple modes of play: single player experience, multiplayer co-op, multiplayer versus, multiplayer connectivity… then there are the performance gestures like the Pete Townsend windmill – it’s like a grandstand meter… a hot-potato series of games.

Then add a variety of instruments – guitar, bass, drums, and front man. We began with drums because they could be simplest (bongos), or the hardest by adding variety; the guitar and the bass receive the most combinations – button presses on the nun chuk and strums with Wii-mote. We included different difficulty levels – easy caters towards casual player. Hard is to hardcore player. Variety of play styles go with difficulties.

Mark McArthur: Yeah, we worked to take advantage of the abilities of the DS controllers – the stylus, the d-pad – you can use the stylus to drag around for venues, etc.

We devoted months of dedicate programmers to the Wii – designing poses. We didn’t want it to be possible to just sit on the couch moving the controller. You must hit the circle; you need to get off the couch. A lot of time was spent putting the controllers in peoples’ hands, dialing the sensitivity up and down, but making it work for a variety of people.

Easy versus hard isn’t just a matter of more difficult play on the screen, the way you use the controls is completely different. This adds another layer to the game.

So far, so good. Everything sounded great – but how did it look? I have an older son who must make every character look like a vampire or as Goth as possible. My younger son likes “pretty” girls – he’s a bullish boy but all of his avatars have to look nice. How does the game look?

Mike Thompson : The art was too old and too realistic to begin with; then too fantasy and too stylized. We eventually settled with something in-between. You begin in a basement/garage and work your way to rockdom. The artistic style matches. What we bring to the game especially the Wii… nerd, punk rock. These environments are involved. Each environments changes as you play. The haunted house gets sucked into a vortex. They’re very cool moments to support.

That’s part of what story mode is about. Instead of drawing a line in a set list – there’s no grand or bold statements made. Part of the fiction of the story line is to support the crazy venues – wild venues. We wanted to tie everything together with some level of continuity and make an overly cool all-encompassing experience.

Tim Huntsman: That’s why we have the Front Man – a completely unique experience. He (or she) pumps up crowd as front man but not by singing – we didn’t want to do singing - no off key singing. One of the internal guidelines was to get people off the couch to play. The physicality of the Wii was to be used in a real way. You have to do gestures. The front man has to be out there pumping up the crowd – waving hands, stage diving, etc. We spent a lot of time on gestures… it’s very aerobic and physical.

The guys from Fall Line could have continued taking questions and talking for hours. Their passion and excitement for Ultimate Band was palpable – even through the phone lines. Before our time was up, I was ready to grab a copy and begin playing with my kids. Alas, we’ll have to wait a few more weeks until my Goth son, “daughter” and their punk mom can lay down the tracks.