Accordion Hero Postmortem

The same folks who brought us Age of Ornithology have returned to Gamasutra with a postmortem on their smash hit Accordion Hero. From the article: "Although most of us had played the accordion, we had never designed a game controller before! I quickly threw together a prototype made of dryer ducting, two cheese graters, tape, buttons, and a few Werther's Originals. It took a great deal of imaginary accordion playing to determine where the buttons should ultimately go, and the cheese graters scratched Crispin's hands up pretty horribly. But we told him that one must suffer to become a game tester, and one must be a game tester before one can be anything in this industry (of course we did not tell him that the rest of us were never game testers. Ah, it is to laugh)."

Real?

[gabebear]

Darn, it took me forever to realize this wasn't real and I couldn't order it...

Re:Real?

[FleaPlus]

Darn, it took me forever to realize this wasn't real and I couldn't order it...

Same here. I actually did a froogle search [google.com] for it before realizing it wasn't real.

Would you actually play this?

[Zibara]

I dont know about you, but I'd actually consider playing this if it was an real product. It's certainly innovative and who doesn't like a good dosage of polka music? I wonder if you can finish a particuarly amazing concert by smashing an accordion on stage...

Re:Would you actually play this?

[Ponzicar]

I would spend so much time on this game that I'd make an obsessive compulsive WoW player look like a blind Amish grandmother.

Made by Schadenfreude Interactive

[panaceaa]

Is this game a joke?? Oh, it's made by Schadenfreude Interactive [phobe.com]. They must have just made it so they can laugh at their customers.

Schadenfreude Logo

[Pejorian]

That's a fine logo they have there. One guy jumping on another one, the prone guy's head bobbing as the other guy's weight lands on his chest...

And the tag line! "For those about to polka, we salute you!"

Re:They're upfront about it too.

[panaceaa]

I know, that's the point of my post.

Re:I think this would make a great game!

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Why not? Remember Donkey Konga? Definitly not a game you'd call a clone. Not to mention the special controller is a very nice way to prevent copying.

Re:I think this would make a great game!

[Enti]

Or possibly Guitar Hero, which the controller's color scheme/design and box art seem to be based directly on

Oh damn! Ouch.

[geminidomino]

Laughed my ass off at this part.

Dead Men Rising is an exciting zombie U-boat simulator that has caused a great deal of controversy here in Germany in regarding to the violence and sensitive subject matter. In America, this should pass unnoticed as you have a higher tolerance for violence and gore in computer games. Also you do not teach world history in your public schools as the little children are too busy stabbing one another and hitting each other in the head with their Desperate Housewives lunchboxes.

Re:Oh damn! Ouch.

[Luyseyal]

I admit it. I could probably kill for a Desperate Housewives lunchbox.

-l

Polka Polka Revolution

[Captain Spam]

A couple years ago, a friend and I were discussing the various deluge of instrument-based rhythm games. We came to the conclusion that the most awesome thing in the world would be if the next one was either an accordion game or a bagpipe game.

All what I'm saying is that it's a tragedy this isn't real.

Drat!

[Mister Transistor]

From the name, I was rather hoping it would be a(n) FPS!

Next: Mime Blasters!

Laugh til you Polka?

[s-meister]

OK, I've read the article and I've got back on my chair now after rolling around on the floor.

http://www.weirdal.com/ [weirdal.com]Weird Al, is that you?

Who are these guys?

[uradu]

I can't seem to find any "people behind the spoof" info on these guys. They're obviously not really German, since the German version of the website contains babelfished German. In fact, the entire series seems more like a joke on Germans than anything else. Exquisitely funny, though.

Re:Who are these guys?

[Grimrod]

Check out http://www.theycamefromhollywood.com/ [theycamefr...lywood.com]

Like Voltron. . .

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

Man, it would be sweet if someone made a game that uses all of the music instrument controllers in tandem. . . get a guy wailing on the guitar hero, another one banging out the rythm with the donkey kongas, get some of that samba di amigo for style. . . top it all off with a microphone and a keg of beer and a video camera and you've got enough blackmail material for an early retirement!

I'm partial to their Cthulhu Karts game

[hodagacz]

Check out the Direct X Specs on it. http://www.phobe.com/sfi/cthulhukarts.html [phobe.com]