It’s official! The smash arcade hit, In the Groove is coming to the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system in 2005. In The Groove was designed from the ground up by hardcore dance gamers and represents an incredible leap forward in the genre.

While maintaining the same addictive game play of popular dance titles, In the Groove features exclusive, never before seen features like modifiers that make the game arrows spin, change speeds, boomerang, and move in 3D along with over 60 other amazing effects that create additional challenges and endless customization for dance game fans.

In the Groove features:

• Over 70 brand new songs from proven talent and new independent artists, covering a wide variety of genres.
• Over 550 new step patterns from step artists in the dance community.
• Unlockable songs and courses.
• 3 Styles of play: One Player, Two Player, or Double Pad.
• Up to 5 difficulty levels per song to accommodate all players from beginners to experts.
• Fast menu navigation and 2 minute songs- spend more time playing.
• Innovations in step choreography- mines, hands, and quads will have you making new kinds of moves.

GCM:

Thank you for your time! Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about the team behind “In The Groove”.

John Tam:

My name is John Tam, Game Producer for RedOctane. I joined RedOctane as a Software Producer about a year ago to help build our game publishing division. I’ve been around the industry having worked stints at publishers like Activision, EA, Capcom, SCEA, and Namco. Prior to my joining, RedOctane had previously signed the Roxor team to publish the PlayStation 2 version of Roxor’s arcade hit In The Groove. Roxor is mainly comprised of hardcore dance game fans. This is why In The Groove has done so well in the arcade.

GCM:

Konami has dominated the dance game genre for years now. Mad Catz took a shot at a dance game last year and succeeded because they were the only dance game available on the GameCube. What does RedOctane have planned to set In The Groove apart from the other PS2 dance games?

John Tam:

For me what makes a dance game is the music and the step choreography or design. It doesn’t matter which title it is. They either get it or don’t get it. Roxor definitely gets it and understands good step design. The music is selected under the consideration of western tastes instead of Asian Pop songs. Even though different people have their favorites I find that with In The Groove I personally like a larger percent of the songs than any other dance game out there. The Modifiers also totally add to the experience to evolve the gameplay past what’s been done before.

GCM:

As a club DJ for nearly 10 years (‘85-‘95) I like to consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to music, but I have to admit I don’t recognize a single song or artist on the play list. How did you go about selecting the music for “In The Groove”?

John Tam:

Roxor’s music producer is also a composer himself, having done a large number of tracks for In The Groove. Kyle Ward has also done a great job at selecting and licensing the right kinds of songs that are good for dance games. Just because a song is popular or a big top 40 hit, doesn’t make it a good track for this genre of games. We’ve been really happy with the choices they’ve made in the area of song selection.

GCM:

All too often dance games are merely about memorizing patterns and honing reflexes. With the “step patterns” in “In The Groove” will it be possible for gamers to learn actual dance moves they could use outside the game?

John Tam:

In The Groove has done a good job at incorporating some more interesting “freestyle” type moves into their step designs to make it more interesting. Because of the fact that real dancing incorporates all of your body, I would honestly have to say that someone would really have to practice in front of a mirror to improve how good the rest of their body looks to do real dance moves. It’s still a game first and foremost. Freestyle moves don’t come from just playing the game over and over again. Players that are into true freestyle watch and learn to incorporate moves that come outside of the game. It’s also often done to lower difficulty settings in order for players to have more freedom to move away from required steps. No dance game based on stepping will teach you “real dance moves” until they can track your whole body and can rate your “style” of dancing.

GCM:

“In The Groove” boasts over 40 song modifiers. Exactly what is a “song modifier” and how much of an impact does it have on customizing the gameplay?

John Tam:

Mods, modifiers or arrow modifiers typically change the readability of the arrow from the standard linear path towards the “target bar.” In The Groove modifiers change things like scroll speed, animation path, perspective, rotation, and or adding effects. Effects can be seen as fade in, fade out and even blinking in and out. Some “mods” change the step pattern by insert steps or even mines that explode to cause loss to the life bar. Mods are stackable so that the scalability of difficulty is exponential. Mods are also used to smooth out the difficulty jumps between the 4-5 levels of step charts for each song.

GCM:

Dance games are generally all about the music. What plans do you have for creating a visual experience to complement the audio?

John Tam:

Creating really interesting visuals is a tricky art. Fans of the genre don’t like flashy videos or really bright backgrounds. It distracts them from reading the arrows and even seeing the arrows. With In The Groove, you’ll notice that the backgrounds don’t clash with reading the arrows. In The Groove scales its difficulty to challenge even the very best dance game players out there. Loosing sight of an arrow at that level of difficulty is unacceptable.

GCM:

More and more people are using dance games for their daily workouts. Are you planning any advanced workout features above a standard calorie counter?

John Tam:

Probably one of our biggest features for the In The Groove Fitness mode is the ability to play endlessly via a shuffle by difficulty number instead of a category. This gives the player a closer grouping of songs to their own skill level. Players can also play Fitness mode with all of the “mods.” This adds quite a bit of variety to your workouts. Players can also workout with the Marathon courses. We believe that working out shouldn’t be boring. We’ve found out that in our test sites people typically work out because they are addicted instead of feeling forced to achieve a workout goal. The variety of gameplay for In The Groove supports this belief completely.

GCM:	Will “In The Groove” be available through retail outlets or online only, and can it be purchased without a dance pad for those who already own one?
John Tam:	In The Groove will be available through all of your favorite video game merchandise stores as well as the RedOctane online store www.redoctane.com.

GCM:

Thank you again for your time! Do you have any last impressions or thoughts for our readers?

John Tam:

Taking the time to answer these questions was not a problem at all. RedOctane is made up of fans of the genre as well as people eager to help support the community centered on dance games. This is how Roxor found us and we are behind this title 100%. For our first published game, we couldn’t have picked a more appropriate game. It’s our hope that fans really give this title a try and it receives the success appropriate to the game quality. Too often in our industry great titles fail to receive any traction and never develop into a series. In The Groove is a great game and we all believe that the people that try it will really enjoy the game.

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