January 2012
0 posts
Billboard's Top 5 Singles of 2011
2011 saw some really amazing moments in history and music. Everything from the end of the 10 year hunt for Osama Bin Laden to the wave of political protests that swept both Arab and North American states. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we saw the much anticipated albums from music powerhouses like Radiohead and the Black Keys. And, who could forget the outrageous power of the viral video a...
Message From iRok2 CEO: The Music Revolution Is...
Happy New Year!
I’ve finally had a few hours to read Steve Jobs’ biography. The first two thirds seem like really ancient history, but I’m just entering the story of how Steve conned the music labels into believing that they could control music distribution through the iTunes chain. Brilliant. Now, with YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, etc., we all know that the world’s music is ...
December 2011
3 posts
Santa Wants You To Rok... And, So Do We!
It’s been 10 glorious Days of Rok, and we’re still going strong! To say it’s been festive around Camp iRok2 lately is a little bit of an understatement. From the Sith Who Stole Christmas to Chipmunks singing about Santa Claus and hoola-hoops - we’re jollier than we’ve ever been! Every day that you play the 12 Days of Rok you receive a secret reward - have you played...
October 2011
2 posts
Halloween Gear Fit For The Undead!
If you haven’t picked up one of the limited Halloween tees, you better do it quick! We’ve got the spookiest new Gear perfect for any undead, brain-noming zombie Rok’r - available now until October 31st. Watch out, though… If you’re not wearing one of the new Halloween tees you might be a tasty morsel for one of our other spookified Rokstars with a thirst for...
New Crew: Meet the Roadie
A few weeks ago, we introduced you to the Sound Guy. Despite his ragged appearance and beer belly, you welcomed him with open arms. He’s been busy ‘Check 1-2’ing while you Rok’d out to your favorite tracks!
Well, the Sound Guy has a friend, and he’s even more helpful on the stage: the Roadie. You want to sound like an epic Rok’r? Hire the Sound Guy. You want to make it to your next show without...
September 2011
2 posts
Better, Faster, Stronger! iRok2 is 30% faster.
You guys know Andrew, right?? He’s our resident tech guru, and he’s the guy who makes everything work smoothly so you can Rok out and pwn every iRok2 track. Well, just when you thought Andrew couldn’t outdo himself, he does! iRok2 is now 30% faster while you play.
What’s so great about gaining 30%, anyway?! Let’s put it into perspective:
30% of $1,000,000 =...
Dude! Killer Sound! Meet The Sound Guy
We’ve been listening, and you guys sound extra awesome lately! Aside from your stellar Rokstar skillz and unmistakeable talent, we’ve seen a huge spike in performance within the Community and we wonder if it has a little something to do with this guy…
The Sound Guy! He’s a pretty chill dude. He likes to help out real Rokr’s and make gnarly music. He’s been...
August 2011
2 posts
Live Your Dream... Become a Rokstar!
Over the last few weeks, you will have noticed some pretty cool changes to the game. There has been a lot of speculating and guessing about what these changes mean, and when the new features would be available to players. The wait is almost over…
We’re excited to announce a brand new progression system for all Rokrs! Now, instead of just leveling, you will have the chance to become...
What the what?! iRok2 is on Facebook!
Since our beta release, over 6 months ago, we’ve received an overwhelming number of requests to have the iRok2 music game available on Facebook. And, because everyone and their Grandmother (literally) uses Facebook everyday, it only makes sense that we’d make the leap and launch an app! So…. We are super stoked to announce that you can now jam to your favorite tracks while...
July 2011
1 post
News For Rokstars And A Flash Update
If you have an iRok2 account and don’t log in every time you visit the site, you probably haven’t seen our new and very exciting landing page! We’ve changed the messaging and we’re now talking about starting a Rokstar Career… What do you think that could mean? Do you feel like a Rokstar when you’re playing iRok2? Want to be more of a Rokstar than you already...
June 2011
1 post
NEW ITEMS: Sunglasses and Facial Hair!
If you’ve logged into iRok2 today, you will notice that there are sweet new items that you can now use to deck out your Avatar! Slick new sunglasses for the girls, and rad facial hair and shades for the dudes.
We also launched a big change with your avatar thumbnail picture. We’ve taken a snapshot of your badass avatars and have used them to replace the old Gravatar...
May 2011
1 post
I Challenge You!
There are many cool ways to connect with people who love iRok2 as much as you do. One of those ways is by sending and accepting Challenges. Challenges are super easy to set up, and really fun to play. You can click the “Challenge” button on any of the Track Pages, or, you can click the “Challenge” button in the completed menu at the end of a song.
Once the Challenge is...
April 2011
2 posts
Moving and Shaking at iRok2!
If you’ve logged into iRok2 today, you might have noticed that a couple of things have changed. We’re all very excited about these changes and hope that you are, too! Today is the first day that you are able to play a new feature on iRok2 - Set Lists!
A Set List is kind of like a mini-game or a mission, using cool song tracks to get you from start to finish. Each Set List has a...
iRok2's Top Rokrs
Here at the iRok2 office, we are constantly amazed by the awesomeness and loyalty of our Community of players! Every day, week, and month you guys are Rok’n out in the game, getting sweet scores, and making iRok2 a wicked fun place to be :)
Take a peek at our top Leaders, and give them some props in their sound studios!
Top Rokrs for the month of April:
1. foofighters - 14,615,498 points...
March 2011
4 posts
10,000 Tracks!
iRok2 has hit a huge milestone with over 10,000 tracks in our catalog, and it’s all thanks to you! Our awesome Community has requested over 10,000 tracks and counting.
Big up’s to rokrebel18 who requested our 10,000th track - Teenage Riot by Sonic Youth (one of my favorite bands!)
As a thank you, iRok2 has awarded rokrebel18 with a one month All-Access Pass and 5,000 coins!...
You Asked, We Delivered.
We’re so excited to announce that the iRok2 plugin for Google Chrome is now live and available for use! Our team put up some really easy to follow instructions for all of our Google Chrome users.
Don’t use Chrome? No worries, we’ve got you covered! You can find instructions for IE and Firefox here.
Once you’ve installed the plugin, tell us what you think. Comment below,...
More Rewards =
There are a couple of different ways to earn bonus rewards while playing iRok2. You can earn more coins AND more fans by doing these simple activities:
Playing the Daily Track:
Every day a new Featured Track is posted in your Studio. If you complete this track, you’ll win double coins and fans!
Playing any song daily:
When you log into iRok2 and play a song each day you will...
House Keeping
Can’t believe it’s already been over 1 month (almost 2!) since iRok2 Beta launched! Time is flying and our team is busy working to get the game in tip top condition so that you can Rok out with style and ease.
What do you think of the changes that we released in Beta? Have you personalized your avatar, yet? I just took my avatar shopping and paired up the Splash City Tee with the...
February 2011
1 post
iRok2 is in Beta!
It’s true! On Jan 31st we deployed our first public beta release, officially opening the site up to everyone and tossing out those invite codes once and for all. Have a music gaming friend looking for new tracks to play? Know someone who loves music video? Send them to iRok2! Help us out by spreading the word. You’ll notice a few other changes as well. Avatars have made their official debut....
January 2011
1 post
Power your play with energy
One of the ways iRok2 is unique is that you can play any song you want. And we do mean any song. So far you’ve helped us create over 7500 game tracks for your favorite music videos! However, while you can play what you want, you have to first buy the game track. Otherwise you’re limited to a short preview. This puts a damper on iRok2’s “play anything” goal. This is one of the reasons we’ve decided...
December 2010
1 post
iRok2 is Hiring!
iRok2 grew out of a vision for accessible online music gaming and we’re thrilled with how it’s taken shape. Thanks to your feedback and suggestions (and extended playing) we’ve grown from a cool startup idea to an engaging new way to experience the music you love. And we’re not done. Not by a long shot. That’s why we’re expanding our team with another developer and a new community manager...
October 2010
1 post
Upcoming changes we’re excited about
Avatars and a more dynamic game environment are coming to iRok2! We usually try to avoid talking-up new features before they’re ready but with these updates we didn’t want to wait. Avatars have been in the works for a while but we were anxious to stay away from the cartoony versions you see in a lot of games these days. Instead, we wanted something uniquely iRok2, and it took us a while to get...
September 2010
2 posts
Changes on tap
You told us you wanted more difficulties on Tap mode and we’ve delivered. Both Tap and Strum mode now support all difficulties from Beginner to Harder. This change only makes sense since 3/4 of you prefer tapping to strumming. We’ve also updated the difficulty selection window.
The latest release also includes a small tweak in how Trial Tracks are shown. Now, any Trial Track that you play will...
Discover tracks you’ve been missing
With holidays in full swing and a backlog of behind the scenes work to deal with we didn’t get a lot of site updates out in August. Never fear, the summer release drought is at an end - and we can’t wait to show you some of the changes coming up in the next few months. Yesterday we released an update with several new additions and a number of fixes. One of our favorite additions is the new...
August 2010
1 post
YouTube brings ads and pauses to iRok2!
Ok, so maybe we’re not super excited about this. YouTube recently enabled ads in their player which means some videos will show ad overlays at the bottom. We knew ads were coming and didn’t think it would be a big deal. Visually, it doesn’t take much away from the video or the iRok2 game experience. However, performance wise we are seeing a measurable impact on Adobe’s Flash Player (which...
July 2010
1 post
iRok2 survey results - what works and what doesn't
We recently sent out a survey to ask players which features they enjoyed most on iRok2. You responded, we collected, and now we want to share what we learned.
What’s the best thing about iRok2?
(top categories based on open-ended text responses, will not add to 100%)
Unlimited songs: 74%
Generating tracks: 17%
Fun: 13%
Guitar connection: 8%
The majority of you clearly like iRok2...
June 2010
3 posts
Choose our next Daily Track
The Daily Track is meant to focus the community around a new track every day. It’s a great way to explore music you might not otherwise experience. Up until this point we’ve been identifying the tracks best suited for this purpose ourselves but we would like to open it up to the community. Do you have a favorite that would be great as a Daily Track? Let us know! You can send it to us by...
iRok2 - now with more easy!
Not everyone is a rokstar with a plastic guitar. That’s what you told us in our site survey. Even iRok2’s easier difficulties can sometimes be a little intimidating to play. We hear you. We’ve taken another look at how we display the game track and notes and made a few improvements. Our goal, as always, is to make the game both fun and accessible. Check it out in the two screen shots below (both...
Win by requesting iRok2's 3000th track!
As I write this our catalog count has just hit 2905 tracks. Thanks to everyone who’s requested tracks and helped to grow our catalog to this point. Since we’re almost at the magic 3000 number we decided to add a small incentive. The Rokr who requests the 3000th song will get a free one week All-Access Pass, 3000 coins and a mention here on our blog.
So how do you request tracks at...
May 2010
3 posts
iRok2 ramp up to public beta
iRok2 gets closer to a public release every day and much of our work is now focused on cleanup and polish issues. In addition to streamlining the experience for first time players we’ve been reworking the layout and functionality of our Catalog page. You’ve told us that it’s not easy to find tracks or figure out how to generate new ones. We’ve been listening. While the...
Beta deals and new tracks
The latest release is up and there are lots of changes. First of all we’ve tried to improve the experience for new users by providing more guidance. For example, there’s a new help screen shown when first-time players start the game.
We’ve also added a Learn More page to better explain what iRok2 is all about. As our transition from Pre-Beta to Beta rapidly approaches...
Play a game, sponsor a band
We’ve just updated the site with the Monday release which includes a lot of little fixes and a couple new features. One addition we’re pretty excited about is the new Sponsored Artist option in the Studio page. To select your own artist, simply click “change”, type the first few letters of the artist you want to sponsor, then select an artist from the list. My Studio page...
April 2010
1 post
What do you rok to?
iRok2 offers more than a fun rhythm gaming experience. We also encourage you to define yourself through the music that means the most to you. For example, your iRok2 Profile page is a great place to discover, collect and share the songs that you rok to. You can think of the Profile page as a collection of your favorite mix tapes. Mix tapes, popular in the 80s and 90s, were personalized collections...
March 2010
2 posts
iRok2 live multiplayer now available
iRok2 is all about connecting people with the music they love. It’s also about connecting players with each other. Waxing philosophical: one of the best ways to grow within is to look outside - at our friends, families and even complete strangers for new perspectives. If you’re as passionate about music as we are then consider exploring the tunes that matter most to the people you...
iRok2 game tracks: now with 3x more awesome!
As we add new features, fix bugs and refine game play we’ve been trying to get the changes out to testers as soon as possible. So far, we’ve been pretty good about keeping to a weekly update, usually every Monday. This update usually wraps all site and game changes added in the previous week. This week we also updated the entire iRok2 catalog to show off our latest game track...
January 2010
1 post
4 ways to give iRok2 your feedback
We love feedback. One of the benefits of being a small team is that we can receive your input directly. The last thing we want is for valuable ideas and comments to be filtered through layers of corporate nonsense to arrive as limp, sanitized imitations of their former greatness. So if you’ve got a great idea, a feature you think should be changed, a complaint or any other feedback then...
December 2009
3 posts
New game screen layout
As you can see in the screen-shots posted earlier, our game display is created by overlaying the Flash game content directly onto the video player. It appears, however, that covering any portion of the video playback is against YouTube’s Terms of Service. As a result, we’ve reworked the display. The challenge was to keep the game content large enough that it was playable without...
1 tag
How to connect a Rock Band® or Guitar Hero® guitar...
One of the cool things about the majority of Guitar Hero® and Rock Band® guitars is that they use the same USB connection as your home computer. Over the years people have found a number of creative ways to use their guitars on the PC, usually with applications that map joystick inputs to keyboard inputs. Needless to say, this was a non-trivial exercise for the techie-novice.
For iRok2, we were...
Gameplay screenshots
We’ve made some great development strides in the last few weeks and thought we should share where we’re at. The screen shots below show the new note graphics overlaying a Linkin Park and Coldplay video. We’ve struggled in the past with how to best balance the immersion of the video playback with the visibility of the note track. I think we’re pretty close now. If you’ve got an opinion on this or...
November 2009
2 posts
Is it for me?
In developing iRok2 our goal was to create a new type of gaming experience that combines the best of guitar games, music video and the online community. The game features 3D graphics, fully synchronized background video and streamlined guitar hookup. We can generate tracks for any song with 1-click and already have thousands in our catalog.
Is iRok2 for you? That depends. Are you a plastic guitar...
Why build iRok2?
Guitar Hero® and Rock Band® are great games and we’re huge fans. Unfortunately, the song options are limited to a few lucky bands. You might find some favorites in the mix but otherwise you’re stuck with what they give you.
Meanwhile, in the online world, music selection has exploded. iTunes has over 8 million songs and fans watch YouTube’s virtually endless list of music videos...