GameCity 3: Bigger than sliced bread, The Beatles and… Jesus?
There may have been no groupies in sight, but Harmonix arrival at Gatecrasher was greeted with whooping and applause as they took the stage. If there was any doubt that Harmonix are worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as The Beatles and Jesus, panel host Margaret Robertson soon cleared that up with a few well cited online comparison charts. Entrances and flattery aside, Alex Navarro and Ike Adams of Harmonix were here to give a discussion on the studio’s melodic history and present a very special gift for the National Videogame Archive.
To start off the panel Robertson played demo footage of some of Harmonix earliest music software titles. What if music were in the air a concept that made use of early gesture-based motion tracking technology, The Axe which was an attempted at music creation software allowing users to control the speed and pitch of notes and finally CanJam, which returned to motion tracking to trigger musical notes. Harmonix founders, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, deserve credit for these quirky garage projects – their next venture was a little more tangible.
A surreal Frequency TV advert served to continue the panel (and possibly estrange the audience) into SCEA years. In collaboration with SCEA, Harmonix released two music/rhyme generators known as Frequency and Amplitude. Gameplay involved switching and initialling music tracks on an octagonal tunnel, with music and graphical effects that responded depending on how well you were performing. Taking a departure from music games Harmonix then released EyeToy: AntiGrav, a futuristic hoverboard simulator enabled by EyeToy’s motion tracking sensitivity. Alex then took up most of the narrative as he explained what it was like seeing Guitar Hero for the first time in Ketina Hall, at E3 2005.
Guitar Hero is the real start of Harmonix mainstream success. Released in 2005 in the US, Guitar Hero allowed players to make music by pressing five coloured buttons on a plastic guitar controller in sequence with the on-screen prompts. After getting a worldwide release in 2006 and producing two sequels, Guitar Hero’s affect on the social gaming market has been phenomenal. Numerous awards and millions of fans hooked on maxing out their top scores, Harmonix success was only just beginning. Last year they began a new partnership with MTV Games and created the all conquering Rock Band.
Despite some negativity concerning its late arrival and price in Europe, which are mostly down to EA, Rock Band has turned most of the gaming world and even non-gamers into plastic-peripheral party animals. Having a Rock Band party is starting to become commonplace when having friends over. Alex and Ike eagerly talked about the studio environment and how Harmonix are still committed to bringing fresh music games, like Phase an iPod game that turns your music library into an interactive experience, to fans everywhere. At the end of the panel Ike graciously presented Tom Woolley, Curator of New Media for the National Media Museum, with one of the prototype Rock Band drum kits for the new National Videogame Archive.
With Rock Band 2 just released and Harmonix’s mysterious Beatles project announced for 2009 during the show, this is one rock band that’s showing no signs of breaking up anytime soon.
To tune into more musical delights from Harmonix check out harmonixmusic.com or rockband.com and find out more about Alex and Ike in our interview.
Aaron Lee
[Originally published on Friday, 5 December 2008]
Tags: gamecity, guitar hero, harmonix, rock band
