American Idol Star Experience puts fans in the spotlight

The Season 9 finale of American Idol is airing this week, but fans will be able to continue their Idol obsession in American Idol Star Experience, a social game where players will be able to unleash their creativity by producing jaw-dropping online performances for family, friends and the whole Facebook community to rate and compare against other players. The game launches May 26.

Idol enthusiasts will be able to use their existing Facebook login to create a game account and access the free Performance Creator download for PC. The Performance Creator enables players to design their own unique stage performance, including building a custom avatar from head to toe, choosing a song to sing from dozens of hits, choreographing dance moves, and directing a multitude of staging elements like camera angles and special effects.

The player can then post the performance to Facebook with one click, to be rated to see how they compare to other performers in singing, styling and staging categories.

Facebook members will also be able to participate as members of the “audience” by viewing performances and rating them, choosing favorites, leaving comments for performers and discussing the best (and worst) of the performances – all within the Facebook environment.

American Idol Star Experience features:

• A free downloadable Performance Creator, available via players’ existing Facebook account.
• Personal avatars that players build head to toe, including body type, face, eyes, hair and more.
• Dozens of hit songs available in a wide variety of genres to suit all musical tastes including rock, punk, pop, hip hop, disco, R&B and country.
• Customization of all elements of a performance via a simple “drag and drop” interface, including:
• Recorded singing- Players can select pre-recorded voice tracks, or use their own voice to sing karaoke-style.
• Personal styling- Hundreds of hair styles, wardrobe items and accessories to choose from.
• Unique staging- Stages modeled after the famous American Idol stage, with special effects, lighting, camera angles, dance moves and props that players can craft to create a one-of-a-kind performance.
• Social interaction within the Facebook community as members of Facebook can visit http://apps.facebook.com/playamericanidol to view and rate performances based on singing, styling and staging criteria. Players have also the ability to invite select Facebook friends to a private viewing of their performance.

American Idol Star Experience is available for PC as a free download at PlayAmericanIdol.com. The game was produced by Interactive entertainment company Ludia and FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME).

Erin Bell