Junior Asparagus
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0.  Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:51 pm Post subject: Guitar Hero II Interview |
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There was an article about Guitar Hero on boston.com the other day and two of the games' creators participated in an online chat about Guitar Hero II (Harmonix is based near Boston). Here's the transcript. (CG is me)
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Eran is the vice president of engineering and Greg is vice president of product development at Harmonix.
AE Chat Room â Transcript
Updated 2:02 PM
Eran_Egozy Hi Everyone! This is Eran from Harmonix (makers of Guitar Hero). I'll be happy to answers any questions.
scott I was visiting my friend Leon in Florida a couple months ago and he had the Guitar Hero game. It was a lot of fun. Is Guitar Hero II going to use the same guitar?
Eran_Egozy Hi Scott. Yup. Guitar Hero 2 will use the same guitar. So, you can use your old guitar. But, the new GH2 guitar will be red!
spoon Are there plans to port Guitar Hero to PC?
Eran_Egozy It has been talked about... but no decision has been made yet.
PS2ROX Hello, I've been a big fan of Harmonix since the Frequency days. How was the reaction to Guitar Hero II at E3?
Eran_Egozy Hi PS2Rox... The reaction was great. Red Octane built this huge stage in one of the halls. there were lines all day every day of people wanting to get their hands on the new features and new songs (glad you like Frequency, btw...)
PS2ROX I've heard a rumor that you're trying to get Metallica into Guitar Hero II. Any truth to this?
Eran_Egozy We would certainly love to get Metallica into the game. Some bands are very difficult to license, while others are more receptive.
Greg_LoPiccolo Hey everyone. Greg here. Unfortunately, we can't say anything about what songs are going to the game until the publisher (Red Octane) announces them. But we've been blown away by the songs we are getting. Lots of the songs you know you wanna play will be in there.
PS2ROX It's great to have the Boston area represented in game development. Do you think your success will bring more people into the area?
Eran_Egozy We hope so. It has certainly been easier for us to hire staff since GH was released.
bw I recently spent an entire weekend playing GH, and am considering purchasing a PS2 for the sole purpose of playing GH. But I'm not ready to throw out my Xbox and Xbox 360 yet - will GH2 be released on either of those platforms? Great work!!!
Eran_Egozy Well, we can't really say what's coming up, other than that GH2 will be on ps2. But, as the developer we are certainly *very* interested in moving to next-gen platforms, if you know what I mean.
U_JPL Have you been approached by any of the major labels to have a game featuring their artists only (eg just Sony, or just WEA etc)
Greg_LoPiccolo Not exactly, but the idea of having focused releases that target specific artists has certainly been discussed.
bw What was the hardest task you faced while developing GH?
Eran_Egozy There were lots of challenges along the way. We only had 9 months! But, one of the harder things was getting the notes on the track to really convey the feeling of playing guitar.
PS2ROX Has the music industry been more receptive to including songs in Guitar Hero II now that they've seen how it's almost "free advertising"?
Eran_Egozy Short answer is yes. We've been able to get more higher profile songs into GH2 now that everyone has seen Guitar Hero.
PS2ROX Will there be online play for Guitar Hero II?
Eran_Egozy Guitar Hero 2 for ps2 will not have online play... (getting online play working is very tricky, as people may appreciate from playing Frequency and Amplitude).
bw So, besides the second track in multiplayer, which is going to be great - are there any major changes in the sequel? What do you think is the coolest addition?
Eran_Egozy A big new feature for GH2 is practice mode. You'll be able to take a specific song and dial in on a specific section AND play it slowed down. So for everyone who was cursing at Bark At The Moon in GH1, we have relief coming up. =)
bw Now let's say you all talked to the Taiko Drum Master folks.... pretty soon you could have a whole console driven band! Do you have thoughts past the guitar peripheral?
Eran_Egozy You are spot on with that line of thinking. We received tons of requests from fans about putting together a "whole band" experience. We'd certainly not want to disappoint anyone.
PS2ROX Has Guitar Hero caught on in Japan? Have any Japanese game developers (like the one that made REZ and Lumines) congratulated you?
Eran_Egozy We stay in touch with Matsura-san (creator or Parappa The Rappa, and many other fine games). At GDC (Game developer's conference) he had very nice things to say to us. But GH has not yet been released in Japan.
PS2ROX Will there be more customizable options in Guitar Hero II (player edit, more guitars, skins, etc...)?
Greg_LoPiccolo GH2 will not have a player editor, but there will be new characters, character skins, more guitars, and a few basses!
bw How difficult has the licensing side of the game been? With GH1, did you run into difficulty explaining how the game worked to those holding song rights?
Greg_LoPiccolo In some cases, yes. We had to do demos of early prototypes for prospective licensees. Now, obviously, it is much easier. We can just send them a copy of the game. It has been much easier this time around than for GH1.
bw How long does it take to get a song into the game? How much time is recording/programming, etc...
Eran_Egozy We have our song-preparation process down pretty well by now. The majority of the time is actually getting the song (re-)recorded by this awesome studio in the Bay Area (WaveGroup). Once we get the tracks from them, it takes about 3-4 days per song of authoring time to create the game-playable version in all difficulty levels. At the end of the process, we fine-tune the songs and make sure they are in a good order (easy to medium to hard).
bw Do you have a wish list already set up for GH3?
Eran_Egozy We have a master list of over 2000 songs that we maintain for GH3 -> GH33. =)
bw Are there any plans for a promo tour for GH2 so those excited can try it out?
Greg_LoPiccolo There will be Guitar Hero 2 kiosks at some of the summer tours coming up (maybe Warped? we are not certain... Red Octane handles that end of things)
PS2ROX It must feel great to be involved in something that makes other people have so much fun. Were you guys getting down that Frequency, Amplitude and Antigrav weren't huge commercial successes?
Eran_Egozy Well, we were not really getting down, as much as getting used to it. =) Freq, Amp, and AntiGrav were all great games that got really good reviews. So, we were content with that. Of course, now that GH has achieved great market success, it makes us quite happy. =)
Greg_LoPiccolo It's worth noting that independent game development is a hard road, with more misses than hits for most companies. Just staying alive for this long has really been gratifing by itself.
CG does the fact that Activision bought RedOctane have any effect on Guitar Hero in any way?
Eran_Egozy Hmmm.. We've been asking ourselves the same thing. But, talking to the folks at Red Octance, I think it can only mean good things for Guitar Hero. Activision has many more resources to devote to the product line.
bw Have there been any songs that were too difficult to put in the game, or does your process work for every song that you throw at it?
Greg_LoPiccolo Do you mean that the songs were too hard to perform, or that it was difficult for us to author the song?
bw Too difficult to author the song
Greg_LoPiccolo We carefully review each song before we try to license it and make sure that it has a guitar part that would be fun to play. There are many songs that we considered that we really liked as songs, but concluded would not make for a fun GH expereince.
CG Guitar Freaks has been a long running series in Japan but was never really brought stateside. Why did you decide to make your own guitar game and how did you envision you had to modify the game construct for a western audience? Was the biggest part just incorporating more American music?
Eran_Egozy In general, Harmonix has been trying to create music games for the American (and European) audience. There were many successful Japanese music games, and that is what inspired us to begin with. But, we always felt like the Japanese games, as is, could never become huge hits in the west. For one thing, they are very difficult. Also, the music in them is not particularly interesting to the west.
CG Harmonix also makes Karaoke Revolution, which seems to be doing decently as well. Do you guys have any part in the creation of those games? If so, any tidbits of info about the upcoming American Idol version?
Eran_Egozy Yup.. I was on the Karaoke Revolution team as well. KR has been a great series for us. We can't say much about KR American Idol right now, but you will be seeing it this holiday season.
tommy When do you expect to release guitar hero II?
Eran_Egozy gh2 will be out in time for the holidays, sometime in November, we think.
bw I thought 'Texas Flood' was a standout song in GH1 because so much of it is a solo - will there be blues in GH2?
Greg_LoPiccolo unclear yet. Many of us liked Texas Flood, so we would like to include blues in GH2.
CG In GH II, we know that people can play different guitar parts, but can say, both people play lead guitar if they want to?
Eran_Egozy yup. There is a head-to-head mode in GH2 that will allow both people to play lead.
PS2ROX Are you guys receptive to visitors at the facility in Cambridge? Maybe so we can stop by, thank you in person and fill out an application :-)
Eran_Egozy You should first check out our web site (www.harmonixmusic.com). We often have job postings there. We also occasionally do focus tests. Send mail to the info email address letting us know you are interested.
CG It seems like you guys have been doing a lot more press time (e.g., this article, demos at trade shows/concerts/bars, etc.). I've never really seen that in association with a video game before. What inspired you to do that?
Eran_Egozy It's actually not that uncommon. The press tends to want to cover games that are big hits. We've done some press with previous titles, but certainly, a lot more recently.
Eran_and_Greg Hey guys... sorry, but we have to bail (its 2pm). Thanks a lot for all the questions. It was fun chatting with you all.
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