SimTunes is based on "Music Insects", an interactive audio-visual exhibit which was designed and created by Toshio Iwai in 1992. Iwai's original, Music Insects is a very popular permanent exhibit at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

SimTunes is an interactive 'painting/music/simulation' game. The user paints colored squares on a virtual grid, where each color maps to a tone in a musical scale. Then the user unleashes four little 'bugz' to roam around on the painted grid. Each bugz has an instrument or vocal style associated with it, and when it walks over one of the squares of light it 'plays' its sound at that tone. The user can control the scale, the instruments, and the speed and direction of the bugz, creating an interactive musical experience.