Harmonix Confirms New Company Project

Gamsutra reports that Harmonix is now working on a new music project, confirming their absence from any future Guitar Hero games. From the article: "[Harmonix producer Daniel Sussman] added specifically: 'We are instead working on a different music game project, one that is a bigger and more ambitious endeavor than we felt we could pursue within the bounds of the Guitar Hero franchise.' Further specific details on exact subject and publisher for the game are not being released at this time." One can only hope that Neversoft's hand at the wheel will not result in any shakeups in this truly excellent series.

Re:Wishful Thinking

[xsarpedonx]

I believe so. It would have to be more than just a new 'instrument' in a different genre to warrant the "bigger and more ambitious". I would say that's just hype, but if they are abandoning an extremely popular format with a guaranteed audience for a sequel I'm expecting something bigger. Possibly a combination of multiple instruments into a single game, an entire band experience perhaps. Though instrument cost seems to make that less likely.

Re:Wishful Thinking

[Anonymous Coward]

Possibly a combination of multiple instruments into a single game, an entire band experience perhaps. Though instrument cost seems to make that less likely.

Not really, if you think about it. Say you sold drum hero, guitar hero, bass hero, keyboard hero, and lead vocal hero (or whatever you want to call them) sets that were all the exact same game but each came with their own "toy" instrument. Alone, each player would effectively be practicing their own parts, but when the band gets together, the game adapts to allow everyone to play together. The game could even adapt further, adding extra guitar lines or backup vocalists if you have an extra guitarist but no drummer.

Why not go the extra step...

[bill_kress]

Why can't these games actually help us play instruments? They do a great job of slowly ramping up your skill and evaluating your playing ability--why not hook them up to a midi keyboard or real guitar then start off slow with some simple tracks, and move to more complicated/difficult tracks?

You could even get different people with different instruments playing different tracks together. Eventually you remove the game and everyone is actually playing music together.

I've just started seriously playing Amplitude (Beat normal, half way through the next level) and I noticed that at some point you stop playing the "Notes" and start following patterns without thinking about it, in fact whenever you think about it, you start missing notes.

I assume that must be what playing real music is like, but I can't seem to get there on my keyboard. A game like this would be the perfect bridge that gets me used to playing the chords and notes slowly.

I know there is teaching "Piano"/midi software out there, I bought some a long time ago, but being written as a teaching program and not a game it doesn't have the same addictive pace, levels of challenge and decent, real music.

If anyone knows of a GOOD midi/keyboard alternative--a game like one of these Harmonix games that also trains on the keyboard, please reply--I'll buy it today.