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Behind the Scenes with Harmonix and Rockband

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."

37 comments

  1. Developmer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please tag this with "Developmer"... pretty please...

    1. Re:Developmer? by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 1

      That wasn't a typo; that's what Steve Ballmer wants people to call developers now. He's really big on the role of the developer, I hear.

  2. So..... by Gutted+Fish · · Score: 3, Funny

    when do I get the groupies?

    1. Re:So..... by Maniac-X · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      (A)bort, (R)etry, (I)gnore?_
  3. Controllers xbox / ps3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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 ?

    1. Re:Controllers xbox / ps3 by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 1

      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.

    2. Re:Controllers xbox / ps3 by Osty · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

  4. Efficiency at its best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    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.


    Why not just install a switch under a real drum pedal? Would that have taken 6 months?
    1. Re:Efficiency at its best by Keeper · · Score: 1

      For the same reason they didn't use a real electronic drum kit. A real drum pedal would cost too much.

    2. Re:Efficiency at its best by GeckoX · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, it would have. That's almost assuredly exactly what they did. The catch is that a switch doesn't 'feel' like hitting a base drum head at all. Try putting a drum pedal up against a wall and hitting it...doesn't feel right at all. The pedal needs to have some give, like a drum head provides a real pedal.

      Being a drummer myself, the kit for the game looks passable, but most drummers I'm sure will find it somewhat lacking. Lol, Tom Sawyer on one pedal and 4 pads hehe. You lose a lot when you map all the extra bits down to 5 triggers. The fun for drummers certainly won't come from playing your favorite songs on this kit, that will always be better served on a real kit. However, in the game setting, it should suffice for it's needs.

      Tricky controller to develop for a game, has to be extremely cheap while emulating somewhat closely a real kit. Not an easy task!

      --
      No Comment.
    3. Re:Efficiency at its best by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Being a drummer myself, the kit for the game looks passable, but most drummers I'm sure will find it somewhat lacking. Lol, Tom Sawyer on one pedal and 4 pads hehe. You lose a lot when you map all the extra bits down to 5 triggers. The fun for drummers certainly won't come from playing your favorite songs on this kit, that will always be better served on a real kit. I'm pretty sure real plumbers found Mario Bros to be somewhat lacking too ;-)
      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    4. Re:Efficiency at its best by flitty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Lol, Tom Sawyer on one pedal and 4 pads hehe."


      I bet it's just like playing a 24 fret, 6 string guitar on 5 buttons.
      --
      Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
  5. Something Awful said it best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When they said - "Rock Band: announced by the people who brought you Guitar Hero. Now look like a faggot not by yourself, but with three other people.".

  6. Price by Crock23A · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Price by danpsmith · · Score: 0, Troll

      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.

      --
      Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    2. Re:Price by AcidLacedPenguiN · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
    3. Re:Price by Kelbear · · Score: 1

      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 offers a casual rhythm-based game with measurable feedback.

      I've been playing guitar for several years. I enjoy Guitar Hero too.

      I can appreciate the skill of a guitar genius, but there is no inherent significance to being able to play a guitar well. It's still just a game.

    4. Re:Price by PhoenixOne · · Score: 1

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

      --
      Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
    5. Re:Price by danpsmith · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    6. Re:Price by danpsmith · · Score: 1

      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.

      Five years, really? Cuz I've been playing about a year and you can at least play rhythm guitar of just about any song in that time period of learning. My point is why the hell are you going to spend 5-600 dollars on plastic instruments. What a crappy waste of money. Seriously, I don't even care if people are thinking I'm being a troll. The west has turned into the area of the biggest waste ever. How about instead of spending 500 dollars to masturbate at your own skill playing a plastic guitar, you just burn 500 dollars, cuz the results are about the same, and you gain about the same amount of skill. Same with the iphone guys. The west has become a bunch of losers that require an oracle DB in order to figure out what they need to buy at the grocery store. The ultimate lazy technogeeks with no real talent, memory, or skills. All because they have more money than they know what to do with.

      --
      Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    7. Re:Price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      god forbid people from the west use their money in a way that they find enjoyable. . . If you're going to bash modern capitalist society I don't think the best way is through posting in a technophile's forum from the comfort of your own (also wasteful) PC.

  7. electronic drum adapter... by Groghunter · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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...

    1. Re:electronic drum adapter... by mechapants · · Score: 1

      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)

    2. Re:electronic drum adapter... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      About the vocal detection, ever play this game before? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaoke_Revolution

  8. Fidelity of game experience by corvair2k1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Fidelity of game experience by MorpheousMarty · · Score: 1

      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 how little they changed from Amplitude and Frequency to get the success they have now. Sony was a fool for not buying them outright when they had the chance.

    2. Re:Fidelity of game experience by Kelbear · · Score: 1

      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.

  9. $260 + tax by Intellectual+Elitist · · Score: 1

    $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, then $60 for an extra guitar.

    1. Re:$260 + tax by chipotlehero · · Score: 1

      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

    2. Re:$260 + tax by Rallion · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but, Gamestop's numbers are actually less reliable than actual random numbers.

      Random numbers are right SOMETIMES.

  10. Girl Gamers by the+dark+hero · · Score: 1
    [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.

    --
    You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.

    Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies

    1. Re:Girl Gamers by the+dark+hero · · Score: 1
      [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 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.

      I forgot to preview.

      --
      You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.

      Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies

  11. DrumMania Anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone ever hear of DrumMania? It's commonly linked to GuitarFreaks. Of course the Konami solution the home drum controller was very inadequate, but still. The arcade setup was top notch.

  12. One question still unanswered by bl4sphemy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:One question still unanswered by Rallion · · Score: 1

      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' parts quick fill spots, so you get points no matter what you say.
    2. Re:One question still unanswered by Kelbear · · Score: 1

      "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!"

  13. a quip on censorship by witte · · Score: 1

    >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)