Other games HMX could do like Blitz

[Lord_Mhoram]

Not specifically Blitz related, but I think it is the most appropriate forum.

When we heard that there was going to be a new game that used RB songs, my brain came up with other possibilities; With blitz announced they are not what I was thinking, but the same idea ran through Blitz as what I imagined.

A platform to bring in new people to play the game, those that might not have done rock bad before, but like the gameplay of the new game. This encourages them to buy more DLC - helping drive the overall bottom line for HMX by increasing song sales - a good thing for all of use.

So taking the idea of an arcade game that uses the song data to drive gameplay, and maybe even not in a rhythm sense (like Blitz) things my brain noodled up:

Rock Band Attack - a Galaga/Galaxian/Radiant Sivergun type of Shmup. The ships that come in do so based on some algorithm that ties to the note frequency, the lanes, and other such stuff. The boss of the level is based on something else (maybe something with lighting queues or something). Perhaps powerups are driven by overdrive.

Rock Band Overdrive - Racing game that the tracks are all based on info from the songs - background, track length, style, hazards etc all gleaned from song, lighting and queues data.

Rock Band Mass attack - an on rails FP shooter where the enemies show up based on song data.

Rock Band Adventures - How about a Diablo style game with the drop frequency and enemy type based on how many songs you have, thier song length and genre - so two different people with vastly different song lists would have a very different game experience - or a toggle on the game that lets you choose a genre, say "Metal" and that is generated for the game based on that, and a second playthrough you pick Alternative and have a different kind of experience (the plot remaining the same, but types, frequency and power of enemies varies.

I'm sure that there are many more ideas - Basically games that leverage the data form the Rock Band songs or library.

Then have a small team devoted to each game (or to the project, they get done with one and move on to the other), and release 1 a year or year and a half.

Each game could bring in a few more people to buy new DLC, and give added value to those who have it - encouraging someone who has Blitz to try another, because they already have the Blitz songs (or other DLC) - which would grow the Rock Band Platform userbase.
Each game appeals to a different type of person, so more new blood, and thus more new people to look for and Buy DLC.
Each game would raise awareness of the RB platform, so less "Rock Band is dead" talk.
And for the classic Rock Band Players - cheap track packs - driving sales of the game for the music, which results in more sales that can be reported to media outlets "Rock Band Overdrive is the number one selling DLC game this week" because all the RB music players bought it for the songs.

I personally hope Blitz is a huge success, and we see something like I described.

The benefits:

Help image for the game, helps HMX get more money, helps music players have more songs, and help expand the platform, and help get more people in to play HMX written games.

[CharlieSheen]

I like the idea of more Rock Band games, but the general public does not. The reason we see much less fans of the genre is that the market was flooded and people got sick of seeing these games. People already hate that all RB DLC is in the recently added Add-ons section of XBLA. I think it would work best if these were all put into one package game, similar to the Hasbro board game thing. You download a Rock Band Client (Rock Band Dashboard would've been a great name for this), which has each game, which can be purchased individually or booted up in the client. You could even have RB3 and Blitz as options on this dashboard and it loads the games up from there. I would fully support more diverse Rock Band games though.

Another note, I asked at the RBB panel at PAX East and they said they definitely would be looking into other games that use the RB catalog with different gameplay. Their answer was basically to let them get Blitz out the door then they'd be looking at future projects.

One of the developers even joked about Street Fighter X Rock Band.


If you don't want to read all of that, I basically said that Harmonix has expressed interest in doing games with the franchise outside of just the instrument peripherals.

[Lord_Mhoram]

If you don't want to read all of that, I basically said that Harmonix has expressed interest in doing games with the franchise outside of just the instrument peripherals.

Yeah - with my business proposal above, I'm not averse to reading.

And I know the public is tired of music games, which is why I thought other genres that leverage the DLC would be cool, help HMX and help the people that still play RB.

[CharlieSheen]

Exactly. I love the idea of more games, but I like the idea of having them all accessible and sold within one. It would help to solidify Rock Band as a platform when a good amount of its games are accessible from one application. Can't wait to see what Harmonix has up its sleeves!

[Doc_SoCal]

I think they need to maintain a sharp focus.

While these games sound fun and all I don't know if they will generate the revenue to justify resources. Sure the Rock Band fans will pick up a few here and there as a novelty but as far as reaching beyond that audience.... Seems like a long shot.

But as HMX has said, lets see how Blitz goes.

I would rather see HMX create a new property that made them a ton of cash even if I have no interest because I think overall company health is the key to us seeing continued DLC support.

[Lowlander2]

Ahh! A hypothetical scenario! AIM FOR THE KNEECAPS!

[CharlieSheen]

If they're all in one, someone could download this Rock Band app and boot up Blitz. Say they like Blitz and they download a trial for one of these other RB minigames. They like this one and they buy it for maybe 400 MSP. They're now building on their Rock Band library's replayability and supporting the Rock Band franchise in one more way. It would be akin to how a F2P title offers itself up and then you can add to the experience by purchasing fun addons that are not necessarily required for gameplay.

[Doc_SoCal]

Expansions for Blitz makes it seem like a more viable option if Blitz sells well.

I am sure it has been said but the key here is going to be if Blitz can reach all those former Rock Banders who have hung up the plastic instruments and have a collection of dusty DLC residing on the hard drive.

I am hoping every singe one of those people buy blitz and remember how fun interacting with the music via video games is. Who knows, maybe they will even be inspired to break out the plastic axe again and the whole thing has a slingshot effect that ends up being that higher tide that raises all boats.

[Numskull]

One of the developers even joked about Street Fighter X Rock Band.

I would be more interested in Rock Band X Tekken.

[broncosfan06]

Not specifically Blitz related, but I think it is the most appropriate forum.

When we heard that there was going to be a new game that used RB songs, my brain came up with other possibilities; With blitz announced they are not what I was thinking, but the same idea ran through Blitz as what I imagined.

A platform to bring in new people to play the game, those that might not have done rock bad before, but like the gameplay of the new game. This encourages them to buy more DLC - helping drive the overall bottom line for HMX by increasing song sales - a good thing for all of use.

So taking the idea of an arcade game that uses the song data to drive gameplay, and maybe even not in a rhythm sense (like Blitz) things my brain noodled up:

Rock Band Attack - a Galaga/Galaxian/Radiant Sivergun type of Shmup. The ships that come in do so based on some algorithm that ties to the note frequency, the lanes, and other such stuff. The boss of the level is based on something else (maybe something with lighting queues or something). Perhaps powerups are driven by overdrive.

Rock Band Overdrive - Racing game that the tracks are all based on info from the songs - background, track length, style, hazards etc all gleaned from song, lighting and queues data.

Rock Band Mass attack - an on rails FP shooter where the enemies show up based on song data.

Rock Band Adventures - How about a Diablo style game with the drop frequency and enemy type based on how many songs you have, thier song length and genre - so two different people with vastly different song lists would have a very different game experience - or a toggle on the game that lets you choose a genre, say "Metal" and that is generated for the game based on that, and a second playthrough you pick Alternative and have a different kind of experience (the plot remaining the same, but types, frequency and power of enemies varies.

I'm sure that there are many more ideas - Basically games that leverage the data form the Rock Band songs or library.

Then have a small team devoted to each game (or to the project, they get done with one and move on to the other), and release 1 a year or year and a half.

Each game could bring in a few more people to buy new DLC, and give added value to those who have it - encouraging someone who has Blitz to try another, because they already have the Blitz songs (or other DLC) - which would grow the Rock Band Platform userbase.
Each game appeals to a different type of person, so more new blood, and thus more new people to look for and Buy DLC.
Each game would raise awareness of the RB platform, so less "Rock Band is dead" talk.
And for the classic Rock Band Players - cheap track packs - driving sales of the game for the music, which results in more sales that can be reported to media outlets "Rock Band Overdrive is the number one selling DLC game this week" because all the RB music players bought it for the songs.

I personally hope Blitz is a huge success, and we see something like I described.

The benefits:

Help image for the game, helps HMX get more money, helps music players have more songs, and help expand the platform, and help get more people in to play HMX written games.

Or....and I know this is a stretch....they could do a game called Rock Band 4.

As far as Blitz goes, I think it will be a success and a failure at the same time. I expect the buy rate to be fairly high from people wanting the songs. I expect the actual play rate to be pretty low.