Q&A / KAI HUANG, videogame developer: Game is sweet music to creator

For men of a certain age, the experience of actually dancing with a girl at a junior high mixer was preceded by form of quasi-dancing known as air guitar.

Now these men have children, and their children have a game called Guitar Hero, and Guitar Hero is exactly like air guitar, except that it involves holding a plastic thing that looks like Milton Bradley’s answer to the Stratocaster. Instead of strumming along to a bad cover band playing “Slow Ride” in a gym, they find themselves in front of a TV watching cartoon characters bounce around to the actual Foghat recording and trying to plunk along.

Kai Huang, 35, who developed the hugely popular game (along with his brother Charles, 38), stopped in Atlanta recently to show off the new “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” —- a limited-edition version that features avatars of the band members performing in historically accurate venues. As Huang shredded his guitar to the Run DMC/Aerosmith collaboration of “Walk this Way,” he answered a few questions.

Q: How many games have you sold since launching Guitar Hero in 2005?

A: Over 20 million units.

Q: How did you guys come up with this?

A: It developed slowly. We looked at the success of these kinds of games in Japan, like Dance Dance Revolution. We wanted something to play in a social group that would attract both boys and girls.

Q: Why did you pick all this ballad rock from the 1970s and ’80s?

A: Because that’s the heyday of rock. That’s where you get the great, iconic guitar riffs.

Q: The animation really looks and moves like Steven Tyler. How did you do it?

A: The band spent a week in the studio, and we “mocapped” [motion captured] them. We had those little bulbs all over him —- on his mic stand, on his scarf, on his lips. He was such a perfectionist.

Q: Are you going to stay on the classic rock station?

A: No, we are looking at hip-hop, country, even classical. You wouldn’t think classical music would work [in this format], but you might be surprised.

“Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” costs $89.99-$99.99 for the game and guitar controller, depending on the gaming system.