Genre:One Man Rock Band Rhythm Game
Platform:PlayStation Portable
Role:Lead Designer

• Built a Flash prototype that simulated a new world-tour experience with strategic elements
• Collaborated weekly with Harmonix to hone handheld gameplay & maintain brand goals
• Reviewed and reworked authoring guidelines to ensure a consistently fun play experience

Summary

Harmonix reached out and was looking for a developer who could craft a Rock Band experience as a single player game on PSP. We immediately began discussing what could be done, and very quickly we honed in on an attempt to adapt the work done on Frequency and Amplitude (PS2 games by Harmonix) into something that would feel like Rock Band. The first thing we addressed was the moment to moment play experience. We focused on striking a balance between the authentic feeling of playing each instrument, and the frantic plate spinning core mechanic that gave the game a deeper link to the soul of Rock Band. In addition we looked into a more involved metagame that would mirror the plate spinning mechanics of the core game on the world tour. Starting from a paper prototype and finishing in Adobe’s Flash I built a world tour prototype designed to allow players to travel the world and increase their overall fandom. While the prototype was a success, ultimately Harmonix felt that it was more gamification of the metagame than they were comfortable with.