TourStar Releases Engaging Music Industry Mobile Game For iOS

TourStar is a new music industry game released today as a free iOS app. There are in-app purchases available but the free play struck me as engaging enough to draw people in. The basic idea is that you start as a musician whose mom is the manager but you do get a tour van. You work your way up from there. TourStar was "conceptualized" by Brandon Pankey of Music Players Group and "brought to life" by Eddie Meehan of GroundCtrl.

Noob Review of TourStar Game

I have to admit TourStar caught me by surprise. I don't play games. I think the idea of a game about the music industry could only really work commercially if they throw out anything related to what people actually do. So I don't write much about games.

I mainly play games on those rare occasions when I am going to write about them and my interest is usually killed by poor onboarding experiences often followed by gameplay that just doesn't seem that interesting. But given that people will digitally farm piles of rocks and whatnot "interesting" doesn't seem to be the key to success. Engaging is the key. And I'm generally not engaged.

TourStar Trailer

So when I was checking out TourStar's iOS app an hour ago I was surprised by two things which I can't fully evaluate cause I don't play games:

1) It was one of the most seamless yet informative onboarding processes I've encountered with any of the mobile apps I've checked out for Hypebot over the last couple of years.

2) The way they translated the reality of what touring requires and how one builds a career into game elements such as career levels, energy level by percentage and budgets reduced to cash on hand works quite well and fits the scenarios in ways that get you calculating stuff in your head without feeling like you're doing homework.

I didn't get very far but I dug the graphics and felt engaged and almost like someone who would return to play the game again.

So, yeah, that caught me by surprise.

Your mileage may differ.

More About TourStar

Brandon Pankey of Music Players Group and Eddie Meehan of GroundCtrl are the brains behind TourStar.

Pankey was recently interviewed about the app.

In addition to in-app purchases there are real world prizes in the form of concert VIP Packages for such stars as Avril Lavigne, Enrique Iglesias, Nick Carter, Kristian Bush, Pepper and G-Eazy.