I’ve mentioned games using Guitar styled interfaces before – Fret Nice being one example and the entirely awesome Guitar Hero series of course being another.

Guitar Rising looks like it may well take this a step further with PC based software that enables you to plug your actual electric guitar into the soundcard of your computer and play along with songs that appear on screen. This would function similarly to Guitar Hero in tracking the notes you hit (somehow) in relation to the note symbols that appear in the game window.

Now sure, serious musicians already have the option of hooking up midi interfaces to their computers if they want to record but this seems like a great opportunity to access realtime feedback about your playing that I’ve never seen before. By adding gameplay mechanisms to the mix as well, it takes a learning tool into the fun zone.

It’s due for release later this year.

The 10th Annual Independent Games Festival has announced the finalists in its game awards sections and some of the most interesting developments seem to revolve around the ways players interact with the games.

There’s a platform style game called Fret Nice designed for Guitar Hero style controllers

Click here to see the YouTube video of the game

Then there’s Crayon Physics Deluxe, which seems to pick up from where Line Rider leaves off and expand on it.

Click here to see the YouTube video of the game.

Finally, there’s Audiosurf which makes a game out of any music tracks you have on your computer – the description on the game website is a little sketchy but it seems intriguing.

It’s well worth taking a look through the complete listing of games and their respective sites on the IGF site – there are a few games available with playable demos as well.

What I like about these three games in particular is that they show that the definition of a game and how it is played is still far from being locked down, something worth considering when it comes to games and education.