Design headache

I'm trying to design a sort of 'mini-game' for my new music-biz game. I'm finding it very difficult. I had come up with one idea, which I implemented, but have decided I don't like.
I'm been beavering away on some ancillary stuff since then, changing some of the simulation stuff 'behind' the game, stripping out bits of kudos code I won't use, and doing some visual effects (very early ones) for the 'gig' part of the game. Hey, I'm using multi-texturing for the first time. w00t.
Hopefully I can get myself a better mini-game design over Christmas,.