Dancetown at ICAA Show!

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Hi, my name is Nathan Albertelli, and I am here to announce to you the official launch of a new four panel dancing game called Dancetown!

From the CEO and founder of Dancetown, Jeff Pepper:

I’m delighted to announce that this Friday, November 30, is the official launch of Dancetown! Over a year in the making, Dancetown has come together as the result of work by over 40 people from across the world. Development has taken place in Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Wisconsin, England, Pakistan and China, as well as field tests running in 7 locations around the US. The result is absolutely terrific, and I believe this will have a major positive effect on the health and wellness of seniors for years to come.

How it works:

The Dancetown Fitness System is specifically designed for older users and for use in retirement communities and other similar settings. Senior-friendly features include: bright, high contrast graphics; a wide range of difficulty levels to accommodate everyone from frail residents of assisted living to robust healthy adults; musical selections that are enjoyable for adults of all ages; multi-dancer mode for intergenerational play; and controls that can be managed by an administrator or dancing instructor.

The system includes a web-based component, called MyDancetown, which tracks users’ dancing performance and their medical assessments, analyzes and graphs progress over time, and provides easy access to an online community of Dancetown users.

Dancetown is now available for commercial use by senior living communities, senior centers, assisted living facilities, physical therapy and occupational therapy providers, healthcare organizations, hospitals, and physical fitness centers.

The primary focus of Dancetown is to provide the benefits of what you derive from Dance Dance Revolution and carry it over to a 65+ age community. The basic fundamentals of the game are the same as any other four-panel game, with some very interesting (and important) exceptions:

The learning curve is more forgiving - Dancetown is set up into six difficulty modes, and I will show their respective DDR equivalents:

Beginner - Two panel use only [Right, Left] - No equivalent
Easy - Three panel use only [Right, Left, Up] - No equivalent
Moderate - Four panel use - Beginner Equivalent
Hard - Four panel use - Basic Equivalent
Expert - Four panel use - Difficult Equivalent
Pro - Four panel use - Expert Equivalent

As a simfile developer of Dancetown, I can tell you that there is no numerical difficulty representation. However, to give you an idea of what to expect in terms of difficulty, each category roughly corresponds to these numerical difficulties [see: DDR, ITG numerical difficulty equivalent]:

Beginner: 1
Easy: 1
Moderate: 1
Hard: 1-3
Expert: 2-5
Pro: 4-7

Simfile style corresponds to what you would find in 5th mix and previous mixes, so the step charts do not feature freeze arrows, mines, etc. BUT there is one major difference, jumps are a different color! From what I have seen (unless this was changed), jumps appear in dark green.

Simfiles have quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes (but they appear "flat").

Beginner's targets are larger than in any other mode. They are roughly twice as large.

Scoring (step grading) is equivalent to what you would find on Stepmania (including Marvelous), and is set to [observed] default ms timing.

If you would like more information about Dancetown, please go to http://www.dancetown.us/

I'll post the song list tomorrow, and other observations that come to mind.

To give you a teaser to the song list: "Beat It".

[Edible Bondage Tape]

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Well, I was marking it as equivalent to difficulty rating - that is unless solo 3 panel had a different difficulty rating?

[Flound3r]

Konami will sue?
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Wow my sig got messed up.

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Dancetown already cleared rights with Konami - I already asked about it.

Besides, I think there is a common perception as to why Konami sued Roxor: Konami sued Roxor because ITG software was being used in DDR cabinets, which is where the "likeness rights" problem came in. In some cases, the DDR marquis was still up, but it ran on a bootleg version of ITG, etc.

Dancetown designed their own pads, etc.

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Here is the song list:

Every song on this list has 6 difficulties.

Swing Low
Cheek to Cheek
I Could Have Danced All Night
Country Junction
Hey Good Lookin'
Surry With the Fringe on Top
Hit the Road Jack
Mack the Knife
Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree
Walkin' After Midnight
Swanee River
Sing Sing Sing
The Woodchopper's Ball
Deep in the Heart of Texas
In The Mood
Hokey Pokey
Bier Fest Polka
Your Cheatin' Heart
Somewhere My Love
Jailhouse Rock
Alley Cat
Shall We Dance
Superstition
Livin' La Vida Loca
Boom Boom Dollar ~blue mix~
Beat It
Dancing Queen
Billie Jean
Wake Up Little Suzie
Respect
Proud Mary
Staying Alive

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This video was taken at Longwood at Oakmont - the woman is 85 years old and legally blind. Despite that, she seems to be doing exceedingly well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzzUI5i_2SU

Here is a video at the ICAA convention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrp1VY9ida8&feature=related

They're playing Boom Boom Dollar ~Blue Mix~

Also note how they modified the "bar". I think a 3 sided bar is pretty cool - Imagine the freestyle routines!