There's a  gaming PR guy named Michael Meyers who sends a lot of press releases -- at least 10 in February according to my inbox and that' s assuming I didn't delete any. That might leave me inclined to skip reading a few.

But no! I must read each one. It's sort of like feeling the need to talk to ever non-player-character in a role-playing game. You never know which one is going to lead you on a fruitful quest.

So I recently read a Michael Meyers release and discovered a game called "Shady O'Grady's Rising Star." The game's a simulation/RPG sort of thing that doesn't ask you to build a city, just a music career. You're not a hero out to avenge demonic dad. You're a musician trying to hold a band together and write songs that rock a crowd.
 
The concept is great, especially for my MTV audience. But I was, honestly, initially put off by how simple the game looks. I had to investigate and wound up chatting with the game's creator, Todd Gillissie, for an hour last week. Todd packed some ambitious ideas into his game, however under-produced it is.

Here's a summary of some of the gameplay from my GameFile column at MTVNews.com:

Someone who chooses to play as a headbanging trombonist won't find too many metal guitarists and singers eager to join, but some will sign up. The band's chemistry is indicated on a menu screen by the colors of the lines connecting its avatars. The red and yellow lines connecting the members of a heavy-metal trombone ensemble indicate things aren't exactly clicking.

The game presents a bird's-eye-view of cities named after -- but not designed to resemble -- major and minor towns in the U.S. Using the computer keyboard arrow keys, players drive a customizable van to local clubs, hoping that attending shows will give them the connections to be asked to play there. It's all crunched in stats in a way that would be familiar to gamers used to managing wars and fights against sorcerers via their personal computers. Attending a gig nets +7 happiness for the band, +7 inspiration and +3 to the relationship with the bar staging the gig.

"It hasn't been easy to explain to people who aren't gamers," Gillissie said. "People who are gamers understand. I can say it's sort of a band-simulation sort of role-playing game, where you have to form a band and try to be successful."

There's more at the link above.

Oh, and an extra for you loyal st.com readers. Want to know what's up with the game's title? Todd says it's a joke, a reference to all those games out there that include names like "Sid Meier" and "American McGee" in the title.

Now I've heard plenty of people tell me it's a good thing that some accomplished game-makers get their names in the titles of the games they help make. Todd just thinks it's silly. "I'm like 'nobody cares!'" he said. "We know who made the game you don't have to put a name in the title." So Todd came up with the most ridiculous name he could think of -- "Shady O'Grady" -- and slapped that on his game. There's no real Shady O'Grady. At least not one who ever made a video game.

You can order the game at www.gilligames.com