Musical careers don't occur over night in "Rising Star." It takes a lot of practice, songs, low paying gigs, and odd jobs to get anywhere. But first, you have to create a character. Customize the name, instrument, skills, style of music, and clothing. Once that's complete, it's off to picking out a band name and finding band members. New band members can be found and hired at the music store. Carefully look over their skills and how they will interact with the rest of the band before asking them to join.
Once you got the members there is plenty to do - practice, write songs, hang out at clubs, and try to get gigs. In between all that, money needs to be raised to pay for the nights out, new clothes, and equipment. Down the road maybe the band will sign a recording contract.
Deciding how to divide the band's time between practicing (the more your practice, the better you perform songs), songwriting, doing odd jobs, and resting will be your biggest obstacle. It add needs to be done, finding the right combo is the hard part. I found the key to be giving everyone some new clothes, going out to a club about once a week, doing odd jobs often, and spending the rest of the time practicing and writing songs.
The strategy you take on how you spend your time is one piece of the puzzle. As players gain experience, they earn points towards new skill points. How many points needed and how many have been gained can be seen when viewing a band member's info. Think before you start handing out points. Performance points are critical, but you also need to think about making someone experienced in repair and production. Being able to repair your own equipment will save you a lot of money. Equipment seems to wear out fast, especially the consumable items like drum sticks and guitar strings.
But let's back up a bit and look at what it takes to amass a collection of quality songs. It helps to have a coupe of team members who have skills in songwriting and/or members with high inspiration scores. The actual process to write songs is a memory game. You have to make turn over and match blocks with pictures of instruments on them. Sounds like a good idea? Sure seems like it would be. I like the idea more than the quality of the song being decided solely by the skill level of the band. The novelty wears off quickly. If I wanted to play a memory game, I would. At the very least, switching up the type of game played would be a step in the right direction.
The driving is an area of "Rising Star" that needs a makeover. To get around town to make purchases (instruments, jobs, band shirts, etc.), you drive a van using the arrow keys. The roadways are clear - no cars or people. At the very least, obstacles would certainly make it more interesting.
The foundation for "Rising Star" is solid. Text management gamers will appreciate the game's numbers game of practicing and earning skills to get to the next level. "Rising Star" has the potential to become a must-play game. Spruce up the character creation, overall graphics, a way to make money that isn't tedious, and add a couple more songwriting puzzles would help the fun factor. Perhaps a sequel (if there is one) will take it to the next level.