Tap Tap Dance

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: December 4th, 2008

TIGSource’s own Mark “Golds” Johns has been crunching hard for a while now— during Gamma, even!— on Tap Tap Dance, the sequel to Tap Tap Revenge, the number one most downloaded free game for the iPhone (or so I’m told). And now his hard work has paid off.

I applaud Mark for the extra effort he gave in turning what would have been another Guitar Hero Cash-In with a ridiculous title into what is now a Legitimately Cool Game with a ridiculous title.* Ten thousand TIGS Points to you, sir!

Apart from the improved graphics and gameplay, Tap Tap Dance features exclusive tracks and custom Boss Stages for select songs. Kind of, like, interactive music videos. For example, Daft Punk’s Technologic takes you through a History of Technology as you play and Justice’s Phantom Pt II gives you a 2001-inspired laser light show. (Oh, and did I mention Cactus himself contributed a characteristically trippy stage?) Check it out.

* Seriously, though, there must have been better contenders than “Tap Tap Dance.” C’mon, now!

EDIT: Oops, I neglected to mention Kevin “Greater Beast” Coulton’s involvement in the project as well, because I am a big jerk. Go Kevin, go!

Posted in Audio, iPhone | Tags: cactus, KevinCoulton, MarkJohns, Tapulous

bateleur

Looks slick! :-)

So are all the tracks in that legally licensed? How the funk did he manage that?! (And if not, how is he getting away with it?!)
Kian

Looks very sexy! And great choice of music! (<3 Digitalism and french touch)
FISH

go golds go
corpus

Having played this game extensively in the past 20-odd hours, I can confirm that it is excellent.
robert

Need iPod Touch :sob:
Quetz

I’m hoping to get an iPod touch, and I was just wondering if iPhone games are generally compatible with the iPod touch, too? Because this looks relevent to my interests.
http://doomlaser.com Mark Johns

@Quetz

Yup. iPod Touch runs everything the iPhone does, pretty much. It’s like an iPhone without the phone part… (and the camera, unfortunately… at least for now)

And I might add, TIGS’ very own Kevin ‘Greater Beast’ Coulton, also contributed heavily to Dance. He created the art for the Daft Punk and Justice boss tracks. As well, he helped me shoot, cut, and edit the trailer, as well as take most of the press stills.

We used 3 pieces of black wal-mart posterboard for our rig, and shot in two locations. Kevin’s dining room table, and my dining room table For the stills, we used two desk lamps + paper towels to soften the light when necessary.

Thanks for the feedback and support, everybody. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Derek, Alec, Brandon, Fish, Adam, Tommy, Ivan, and all of you other totally rad guys at Tigsource.

I’M TALKING TO YOU, KYLE PULVER AND CORPUS.

peace. <3
http://doomlaser.com Mark Johns

“Where I am Today” that’s such a stupid phrase. Where I’m at is sitting at my desk typing :).

double peace. :o
BeamSplashX

A Mark Johns game? WITH Digitalism songs?!

Of course it’s for something I don’t own. Oh well, I’d hate to see patterns in my head while listening to “Pogo” or “I Want I Want” anyways.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Re: Kevin — Crap, I knew that, too! Fix’d, with apologies.
Secret Admirer

“We’re sorry, this video is no longer available.”

:(
http://doomlaser.com Mark Johns

Ha, the video link has changed. BMcC, You should use the vimeo one:http://www.vimeo.com/2434083

Cactus, Kevin, and I all got in an irc channel with Tim W a few days ago, and he conducted a really nice interview: http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2008/12/interview_mark_johns_tap_tap_d.html

Kevin and Cactus were pretty quiet, so it kinda evolved into a yakfest by myself. I tried to thank all the people who helped on the project, but there are always people who slipped by. So again, I want to thank all the rockstar guys (and gal, and dog) at Tapulous for helping to make this happen, and EMI for having the vision to move in new directions with their artists.

Sometimes I had to pinch myself when I’d realize that Kevin and I were in crunch mode making art for Justice, or Daft Punk, or any of the other artists in the game. Oh, oh! And I want to thank Bryan Bell, who did all the frontend UI and default theme art, for doing a pretty kickass job himself. This was a fun project, and I hope it shows in the finished product.

OK, mindblast over :).