Instant Jam: Social Music Gaming

We’ve all seen or played those guitar-oriented video games that allow for jamming along to rock songs but they’re usually only found on traditional gaming consoles or installed as applications on computers.

Instant Jam is a browser-based game that runs on the Java platform and allows you to play along to the music library on your computer, as well as challenging your Facebook friends. Find out more inside the article.

Overview

Instant Jam is a browser-based music game that allows you to jam along to your favorite songs in good old Guitar Hero-style. It features an extensive selection of music to play along to and loads of customization for the game itself (not to mention the fact that it works with any USB-compatible guitars).

It also integrates into the popular social networking website, Facebook, to allow friends to compete easily. Because the music featured in the game is pulled directly from your computer’s music library, it means that the quality of audio is brilliant and doesn’t take time to stream the sometimes large files from an external server.

Interface

Instant Jam’s interface is generally laid out well – though at times certain parts of it can seem a bit cluttered and confusing. In terms of the menus, they seem quite outdated and don’t really go with the game. These faults aside, it is nonetheless professional and quite similar to that of other retail music video games.

Despite being developed in Java, the game generally loads pretty quickly, with relevant loading screens displaying when appropriate. Overall, putting aside these couple of design flaws, the game works great and with some tweaking of the design, could really provide a rich and engaging experience for players.

Getting Started

To get started using the game, simply navigate to the website and, after a brief loading period, you’ll immediately be able to begin playing. The game first begins by retrieving the songs on your computer to determine which ones are playable and once it has completed this, it’s now possible to begin actually playing the game.

You can expect to experience some lag whilst it retrieves your music library and I found that with really large playlists, the game sometimes was very slow to respond. It’s also possible to connect with Facebook at this point to enable the multi-player functionality between your friends.

Controls

One of the appealing things about this game is its increased playability due to the support for using dedicated USB guitar controllers. Because of this, it’s not only possible to play the game with your computer’s keyboard, you can also do so with any USB-compatible guitar controller you purchase, thus not limiting those who perhaps use laptops where this method of game play would be made awkward.

The game also allows for the programming of the five game controls so that if you are using a keyboard, you can choose which buttons you’d like to use to play.

Structure

The game has a clear traditional structure that allows several difficulties to be chosen for each song that is derived from the experience or chosen difficulty level for the player. Though there aren’t full difficulties for most games, all of them offer at least two which can offer a really good and somewhat challenging experience.

Game Play

I found the actual game play, once the waiting for the game to process the songs was bypassed, to be quite enjoyable. It offers a really fun and enjoyable experience and it makes a change to be able to jam to only the songs you like, as opposed to the generally ill-sounding and frankly terrible ones that are sometimes included on other music games like this one.

Considering this is a web app, the graphics and animation are surprisingly good, despite them being rendered in real-time. The game is really engaging and, with their extensive library of modern (and some less-modern) songs, the fact that the high-quality files are being played directly from the computer, the sound quality is perfect. However, I did notice that at times some of the notes seemed a little out which might well be a problem with the version of the files that I had, possibly differing from the timing the level was programmed for.

Multi-Player

The game also has support for several players and the challenging between friends. Once Facebook accounts are connected with Instant Jam, it’s immediately possible to start interacting with friends through the game by sending them challenges. Along the bottom of the screen is a leaderboard of the player’s friends and how they rank compared to each other. This is a really great way to encourage competition between friends and challenging to get the highest scores.

Shop

Instant Jam offers an in-game store to purchase upgrades to enhance the experience and further customize the game, leading for a better experience within the game as well as making game play more interesting. Items such as differently designed guitars and fret designs are available for purchase with coins that have been earned during the game. “Instant Bucks” can also be spent on exclusive items, though it’s required to purchase them for quite cheaply with real money for them to be acquired. Instant Bucks can also be spent on “Plays”, allowing for the performing of more songs in the game.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Instant Jam was quite entertaining, though it’s not one I would personally play religiously. I experienced some initial problems trying to get my larger playlist to work with the app so I had to resort to adding each song individually, which I don’t believe should be a necessity for me to play the game. This might’ve just be a problem with my version of Java.

Despite the somewhat lacking design of the menus, the game itself looks great and it is all rendered quite well within the browser. Though I’ve always been a fan of InstantAction games, this is one that although I found to be quite enjoyable, I would not feel obliged to play often. The social layer to the game, with the connection to Facebook, is executed quite well and adds some extra competition. If it were not for this and the fact that it is browser-based, the reach of the game would likely be much more limited.

I will take my hat off to the InstantAction guys because despite some of these faults, they’ve made a really good game that engages people socially and provides a great experience without leaving the browser.