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Music Media Entertainment Games

Behind the Scenes with Harmonix and Rockband 37

Posted by Zonk from the rock-on dept.
The folks at XFire passed on a link to their recent interview with the people at Harmonix. Now working on hit of E3, Rock Band, the company's senior designer at Harmonix, Community Developer, and Associate Producer answered questions from the XFire audience about the upcoming title. "shrouded: Can you tell us about the challenges of designing the drumset? ... Answer: The hardest part was satisfying all of the stuff we wanted - we're a company of musicians, including a sizeable chunk of drummers. I think we spent at least half a year making sure that the pedal felt almost exactly like a real drum pedal, and not just some switch. We also had a bunch of non-negotiable things that we had to get in, like using real drumsticks. I could go on forever, but the basic summary is that from day 1 we wanted this to be as close to an electronic kit as possible, with as few compromises as possible."
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Behind the Scenes with Harmonix and Rockband More

Behind the Scenes with Harmonix and Rockband

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  • So..... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gutted Fish ( 1064690 ) on Friday July 20, 2007 @12:19PM (#19928307)
    when do I get the groupies?
    • You only get those if you buy the game that's being released alongside, "Groupie Hero," which works using system link or online play to simulate a real crowd of groupies trying to get on stage and molest your band in front of everyone.

  • Controllers xbox / ps3 (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It was my understanding that MS made the xbox guitar for GHII. If this is correct (I could be totally off) then how is the design / quality going to differ from the ps3 version of the drums guitar etc... and the xbox drums guitar etc... Any ideas ?
    • Red Octane made the guitar. It was wired because they didn't want to pay the $20 per unit fee for MS's wireless technology.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Osty ( 16825 )

        Red Octane made the guitar. It was wired because they didn't want to pay the $20 per unit fee for MS's wireless technology.

        It was wired because they couldn't pay Microsoft anything to use the wireless technology. Microsoft began licensing that only very recently (approximately around the same time that Guitar Hero III announced it would have a wireless guitar). I'm sure Red Octane would've loved to have made a wireless guitar for GH2, but it was simply impossible at the time.

  • A deluxe digital drum set is $60.00 on Amazon.com. I cringe when I think of how much Rock Band will cost as a whole.
    • $260 + tax for the full set (game, mic, 2 guitars, drum kit), according to Gamestop's preorder system. That's $200 for the single guitar bundle [gamestop.com], then $60 for an extra guitar [gamestop.com].
      • That 200 bucks hasn't been confirmed by Harmonix. On the faq on the rock band website it specifically says the pricing is still in the air. rockband.com

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rallion ( 711805 )
        Yeah, but, Gamestop's numbers are actually less reliable than actual random numbers.

        Random numbers are right SOMETIMES.

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by danpsmith ( 922127 )
      I cringe when I think about the amount of money people will waste to just pretend to be a musician or pretend to play an instrument. You can play air guitar for free folks, and if you want to actually learn guitar take some time out of your (obviously busy guitar/band pretending) life and buy a real instrument. You can pick up a used six string for 100 and change and actually play real music, instead of being able to pretend the best with some plastic guitar.

      • Re:Price (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AcidLacedPenguiN ( 835552 ) on Friday July 20, 2007 @04:00PM (#19931721)
        You can pick up a used six string for 100 and change then spend 5 years getting good enough to play some of those songs, instead of being able to have fun for a few hours playing a puzzle game with some friends.

        FIXED!

        speaking as a guitarist of 6 years and a bassist of 4, I enjoy guitar hero because it is a fun thing to do with my NON-MUSICALLY INCLINED friends without having to spend 6 months teaching them to play real instruments. Not one of them wants to actually learn guitar, they just want to have some fun playing some videogames. GTFO my internet, elitist-troll.

        • You can pick up a used six string for 100 and change then spend 5 years getting good enough to play some of those songs, instead of being able to have fun for a few hours playing a puzzle game with some friends. FIXED! speaking as a guitarist of 6 years and a bassist of 4, I enjoy guitar hero because it is a fun thing to do with my NON-MUSICALLY INCLINED friends without having to spend 6 months teaching them to play real instruments. Not one of them wants to actually learn guitar, they just want to have s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kelbear ( 870538 )
        The two games are different enough that the skills earned in one do not transfer to another. And yes, I just referred to the guitar as a game(a /great/ game btw), it's just a different medium for the entertainment.

        So really, why play guitar when you can play DDR? Why play videogames when you can play baseball? Why play baseball when you can go bungeejumping? These are very different activities with different methods for entertaining the user. The guitar offers creativity and freedom, the guitar hero game of
        • I'm going to be ripping this line off, but seriously. If you are gonna spend 500 dollars on virtual instruments how about the next time you have 500 dollars to waste, you just give it to a poor person instead.

      • I enjoy playing Guitar Hero instead of air guitar for the same reasons I enjoy playing Halo instead of cowboy-and-indians.

  • is what I'd like to see. If they can pull off the vocal detection, an adapter that let's you use a real electronic drum set should be easy, and would be great for those of us who have one...
    • there are a few companies that make triggers you put on your skins that you can hook into a drum module. It wouldn't be hard for them to do and in fact you can probably take the triggers out of the junk kit they will bundle and convert the contact surface to your skins. The triggers aren't all that complex. clavia comes to mind that makes some (ddrum triggers)

  • Fidelity of game experience (Score:3, Insightful)

    by corvair2k1 ( 658439 ) on Friday July 20, 2007 @01:21PM (#19929233)
    Why does the drum set have to feel like a real drum set? When looking at, say, the guitar hero controller, did they attempt to make the guitar controller feel as much like a real guitar as possible? The "strum" functionality is just like a switch, as opposed to the sensation of actually taking a pick across a string.

    My point is, you don't have to have an ultra-realistic experience for this game to be fun. It might even help a little if it's a bit less realistic.
    • I'd say the guitar from Guitar Hero is as close as a guitar could be while keeping what made Amplitude and Frequency (older Harmonix games) so much fun to play. And your guess is right, its lack of realism does make it better. I honestly don't think they could have done a better job of marrying the control with the interface they had polished in their old games. And It proved flexible enough to allow a bass guitar mode with no new hardware and the drums with only a peripheral add on. It is pretty amazing ho

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kelbear ( 870538 )
      The strumming is easily forgone, but I think they needed at least some of the feel to keep the lure of drumming there. Tiny little kids immediately go, "Oooo! Whacking stuff and making big noise!" and love it. The feedback in your hand is part of what produces that basic response to drumming.
  • [HMX] Naoko: Question: >|Kitty|

    Down here in texas i see just about as many girls playing guitar hero as i see guys playing. Still, i'd like to see more and i believe rockband will attract more females. If you buy it they will come.

    • [HMX] Naoko: Question: Kitty: Hello Harmonix, As a female gamer do you think rock band will open more up to all audiences or mainly stick to the males as I have seen most females do not play guitar hero how do you think rock band will change that?

      Answer: I hope that more and more girls will play. I think the vocals aspect of the game will help. What I secretly wish for is an army of girls to show up and own drums. Or simultaneous singing/playing an instrument. That would rule.

      Down here in texas i see j

  • One question still unanswered (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bl4sphemy ( 1078459 ) on Friday July 20, 2007 @02:29PM (#19930243)
    I'm a big fan of all the GH games from Harmonix, and am looking forward to Rock Band. The one thing that I have been wanting to know about the game (but still haven't heard a peep about) is how Harmonix plans to approach the issue of explicit song lyrics.

    In GH 1 and 2, the words were edited to obtain the "T" rating that will naturally help boost the sales of a game of that nature. One glaring example is the removal of ~20 "fuck"s from "Killing in the Name." With the karaoke-style gameplay that Rock Band is adding to the formula, how are they going to handle a similar situation, but where many die-hard fans are going to want to scream the work "fuck" as loud as possible during that moment? Will they edit the word out and count off your points for saying it since it would be akin to a missed note? Will they give you the option to leave the songs intact, curse words and all?
    • >Will they give you the option to leave the songs intact, curse words and all?

      You need the German version of the game. (Comes without swastikas, though)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rallion ( 711805 )

      With the karaoke-style gameplay that Rock Band is adding to the formula, how are they going to handle a similar situation, but where many die-hard fans are going to want to scream the work "fuck" as loud as possible during that moment? Will they edit the word out and count off your points for saying it since it would be akin to a missed note?

      Well, I don't know the answer, but I have heard that there are to be 'fill' sections where you can just do your own thing. Maybe they could just make all the 'naughty

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kelbear ( 870538 )
        "No mom!", I won't do what ya told me!

        "Ewwww no!", I won't do what ya told me!"

        "Gosh darnit!", I won't do what ya told ME!"

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