The Design Failures That Led To Rock Band

CNN is running an interview with Eran Egozy and Alex Rigopulos, founders of Harmonix, about the long road that eventually led them to the creation of Guitar Hero and Rock Band . It wasn't an quick or easy process, and the two worked on a number of unsuccessful concepts before arriving at the games that redefined a genre. Quoting: "I was watching people interact with our product, and the realization came crashing down on me — we had spent 18 months on a music system that was fundamentally flawed. Karaoke isn't about personal expression. It's about people reproducing the songs they know as accurately as they can. The whole notion of adding improvisation elements just wasn't connecting. So I retreated to my hotel room and was depressed for the next two days. The company was on the rocks. We had zero revenue. We had been trying for four years to make something work. We were out of ideas. Those first four years had been a graveyard of mis-starts and product concepts that never made it anywhere. Worse, there was adequate information about two years into those four years to realize that our big concept was fatally flawed."

Comments

Re:I don't get it...

[Tetsujin]

Does this mean Guitar Hero-Abba edition isn't coming out?

Since Harmonix no longer develops Guitar Hero, I'd say the information in the interview has no bearing on that question.

Algorithmic composition with 2D controls

[juures]

I just developed an algorithmic composition applet, very similar to the first application by Harmonix. The users can control the music dynamically with the mouse. I thought it was unique idea, but these guys did it already 15 years ago!

I think their earlier ideas were much cooler than the Rock Band franchise, too bad they couldn't sell them.

Re:Sold to MTV

[devonbowen]

I wish MTV was about music.

It was really great when it started. Just one video after the next with a VJ coming on at the top of the hour to tell you what was coming up. The concept was new and the only bands that made videos were the lesser-knowns. So you were exposed to a lot of new stuff. Best of all there were no commercials back then. I was too young then to know that stuff like that is always ruined with time.

Re:How to do rock band without "Rock Band"

[PitaBred]

But the accessibility of the "real life" hobbies is MUCH more restricted than the video games. What, a couple hundred for a complete rock band kit? Less than $600 if you buy the system, too? Another $50 for a racing game? Are you telling me you'll be able to get track time, a car, gas, maintenance, everything for anywhere near that? Hell, even shooting is only barely that cheap, if you get a really shitty gun.