9/9 Anniversary Celebration *** w/ HMXHenry Q&A ***

[LuigiHann]

Tell us a story about abbey-road-era beards

[Blasteroids]

I do not remember seeing one and would love to see it...

Did you do an Abbey Road pelican crossing photo?

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What was the initial reaction by Yoko Ono to the John Lennon models used? Was there particular areas of the models that she wanted to adjust to make them more lifelike, for example his hair or glasses?

[Dogmatic2020]

Did Yoko Ono actually visit HMX HQ yelling for "moar wind!" in regards to the rooftop sequences?

[grumblevolcano]

I hope there's lots of people on TB:RB at the moment, coming on right now.

[Arsenal-Lad]

So as I mentioned yesterday, I'm happy to answer questions about the development process, about my experiences on the road demoing the game, time spent behind the curtain, etc.

I was thinking about maybe doing a superlative thing, like Favorite Moment of TBRB, Most Embarrassing Moment, Funniest Story, things like that. Is that something folks would be interested in? If so, feel free to send questions my way. I'll share stories and photos when I can, and if other devs have the bandwidth I'll see if I can hit folks up for some additional input.

Happy 9/9!

It would be very fun to hear some stories.
I also have two questions for you:
How did the song-choosing progress go? Like, did you guys think this song has to be in the game because it would be a blast to play, it's such a popular song and so on.

And, what input did Paul and Ringo have in the game?

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Can you put out a concept art book (which I will buy asap!) or more High Rez images of some of the concept art (the hill that is used in Here Comes the Sun in particular) ?

No.

Just to level set expectations, we had tried to pull together more behind the scenes stuff for the anniversary, photos or art or stories, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, but we weren't able to pull things together in time. We need to get approvals from all the stakeholders before sharing that stuff, and I'm sure you've heard us say in describing our previous dealings, things can sometimes be glacially paced. Throw in the launch of VidRhythm today and upcoming Dance Central 2 launch and it just wasn't in the cards.

[VictorLizcano77]

A deal of the Week in the Beatles DLC would have been a great way to celebrate the 2 anniversary and a way to test if there's still interest in further DLC.

[hmxhenry]

Can you put out a concept art book (which I will buy asap!) or more High Rez images of some of the concept art (the hill that is used in Here Comes the Sun in particular) ?

I agree, a concept art book would be BEAUTIFUL. I think the Art team absolutely killed it on TBRB and they had some utterly brilliant material to work with. Unfortunately, we're not in the business of books and I don't know what the legality is surrounding the production art (i.e. how much was "rejected" vs how much the stakeholders would want visible vs who needs to sign off on something like that) but I'll still poke around and see if we can get approvals to share a few images on the forums.

Tell us a story about abbey-road-era beards

NEVER. AGAIN.

Did you do an Abbey Road pelican crossing photo?

We did not, and it still bums me out! It's actually a very busy road and cars were whipping around the corner when we visited. They've moved the crosswalk from the original location further down the road to prevent traffic back ups and accidents.

What was the initial reaction by Yoko Ono to the John Lennon models used? Was there particular areas of the models that she wanted to adjust to make them more lifelike, for example his hair or glasses?

Did Yoko Ono actually visit HMX HQ yelling for "moar wind!" in regards to the rooftop sequences?

Yoko was hugely supportive. Not a diva in any way. Definitely not like she kicked in the door and yelled "moar wind!" but she did give artists crucial feedback about those little details. One of my favorite stories from development was that she spent so much time commenting on the rooftop animations. She pointed out that hair should be moving more and that John's coat (actually her coat) should have more movement because it was very windy that day. The response from the Art team, who had been pouring over film and photos for months, was very much one of "Oh. Of course you'd know details like that... because... you... were there". Definitely a sense of awe, going from living in those historical recreation to meeting someone that actually lived the history.

[hmxhenry]

It would be very fun to hear some stories.

Okay, here's a story. It's actually my most embarrassing story from TB:RB development and high on the list of most embarrassing moments of my entire life.

Our team was sent to Abbey Road Studios to put on a demo for an assembled group of studio techs, reps from EMI and Apple Records and assorted press. We played TB:RB on two huge projection screens in Studio 2, the same room where The Beatles recorded some of the most important songs of all time.

We were fortunate enough to receive a tour of the facilities and it was like working in a living museum. Producers, audio engineers and studio techs went around the room and showed us all the treasures.

"This is padding that The Beatles hung up themselves to improve acoustics. This panel deteriorated but was replaced with a swatch from the original."

"This is the unfinished echo chamber where they recorded some of their harmonies!"

"That's the piano they used to record Lady Madonna and Hey Bulldog... that piano right there... yes, the one you are leaning on."

My heart sank. Studio 2 is still a fully functioning recording studio and everything is very much in use, so it's not like a museum where these essential cultural artifacts are under glass or labeled and cataloged or marked "DO NOT LEAN AGAINST, DUMMY". I apologized up and town and they shrugged it off and insisted that everything was fine, that the piano is moved and played all the time but I still felt like the biggest chump.

You can check out photos of the infamous piano, me diddling dials in the sound booth and other shots of Abbey Road and Studio 2 in this set in our Harmonix Flickr page.

I also have two questions for you:
How did the song-choosing progress go? Like, did you guys think this song has to be in the game because it would be a blast to play, it's such a popular song and so on.

Well with The Beatles it obviously wasn't hard finding enough hits to round out a soundtrack. The challenge instead became finding out which hits would work best within the context of Rock Band and represent the history and growth of the band best. Some songs like Hey Jude may be epic, but with piano dominant, there wouldn't be much for a full band to do while the vocalist sang.

It was also a priority to make sure that the set list reflected the participation and creativity of every member of the band. You can't overload on John songs without cutting down the number of Paul songs, etc. It was a difficult balance to strike.

The time line was an interesting factor as well because the set list had to reflect their growth over time as well. While we could have obviously just said "Oh, Sgt. Pepper will kick ass, just put all of that on disc" showing the progression from beginning to end really helps capture the spirit of the band.

And, what input did Paul and Ringo have in the game?

Aside from staggering amounts of inspiration? Trust was a HUGE thing that they gave us, and that's not something that they give blindly. Their sit down with the HMX team, providing feedback, oohing and aahing and sharing memories about events that the game reminded them of... that remains one of my favorite things. We don't normally get a ton of artist interaction, most of them pass off masters, but seeing how invested Ringo and Sir Paul (and Yoko and the Harrisons for that matter) remain in their material was really impressive and it meant a lot that they were as involved as they were.

A deal of the Week in the Beatles DLC would have been a great way to celebrate the 2 anniversary and a way to test if there's still interest in further DLC.

We've done sales on the DLC previously, and while that's not entirely in our control (it's mostly Microsoft's call), I don't think we need a sale to see if there's any interest in further DLC. The Beatles are the most downloaded artist in the history of Rock Band after all.

[Pointblank41]

What was the song selection process like? With a catalogue of over 200+ classic songs, that had to have been a hard choice to decide what 73 songs wound up being on disc and DLC.

Were there songs that were kind of off limits or too delicate to work with? Did Paul, Ringo, Yoko, the Harrisons give input and say "Oh this song HAS to be included!"


Also, with Rock Band 3 being only a year away, were there any thoughts of ever making a Beatles Rock Band 2 with pro instruments/keyboard (since there were still dozens of hit songs that didn't make it in the first time)

We've had songs from Paul and John in RB3, are there any plans to get some of Ringo's or George's solo work in Rock Band 3? There are some truly great tracks that would be great for the pro instruments.


One final question, is a Beatles export to RB3 an absolute no no or could it ever become a reality?