hmxsean’s Comments

Huh?

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I made this post in response to this thread (it also appears there). http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64804 :


Let me tell a story here if I may-

A long time ago we made music games. We've always made music games except when we made Epcot Center attractions (before we moved to video games) and tried our hand at Antigrav. It is what we do. It is what we're passionate about. At last count we were a company of over 200 that was over 70% musicians. We're weird as far as game companies go.

I arrived at HMX during the KR series as a direct result of being a huge fan of Amplitude and Frequency and ultimately having some friends who knew some people (thanks Maria) after trying very hard to come aboard. I believed in the company and what they were trying to do.

But most people didn't care. At the time the music game genre was very limited. Music games were niche only for the most hardcore and for importers. It wasn't a market here, and it was difficult to stay afloat even with our being just about the only competitor in the genre. Yes, there was DDR, but even that was seemingly pretty niche and not a lot like the stuff we were doing and wanted to continue doing. We didn't want you to react to the music - we wanted you to BE the music.

Then we were the developers on GH1. We worked really, really hard on it and thought it would kind of go the way of the rest of our games - a small group of passionate fans but no real mass appeal.

We were wrong. It turned out to be a big deal. One of the biggest games that year and certainly the most revolutionary as far as what it did to the industry. Suddenly a bunch of musicians were seeing their work inspire a whole generation of kids to pester their parents for a guitar. Some people criticized us but mainly they were wrong. We made something that made kids want to play music. Even better - it wasn't constrained to kids. Parents, grandparents, and other non-kid-bound adults were having the same reactions.

In summary - a bunch of (fairly rough-neck) local musicians put something together that ended up becoming a good pop-culture phenomenon. We couldn't have been more proud. In a sense, that was what it was always about. Making money? Sure... we have apartments and mortgages and families and always that ever-hungry desire for more gear for our projects. Making more musicians? That's it, right? making more people know how awesome it is to play music.

We went on to develop GH2. Same reaction.

A bunch of stuff happened and then we moved on to Rock Band, a game which I hope will be as inspirational in creating a whole new generation of bands as when the Velvet Underground put out albums.

More amazing moments have happened to me since Rock Band began to development than I could possibly divulge in a single post. I've met celebrities. I've met musicians who have inspired whole sections of my life. I've been quoted, and I've forwarded those quotes to friends and family who have been tickled by the whole thing.

But, and I think I speak for a majority of HMX, the best part has been watching our games touch people in subtle ways that make them want to make the next leap to picking up real instruments because they liked the way our game made them feel.

The press, the internet, fanboys, lots of people, will make a big deal of some competition between all the music games coming out. That one of us is trying to destroy the others.

Me? I'm just stoked that the genre is even big enough to support multiple games in the first place. For a while there it was foggy whether it could even support just us.

We're musicians. We love what we do. We love what we make. We would never put out something that we thought was crappy just to "compete". Our focus is our game and always will be. Well, that and tricking more of you into being musicians.

Sorry for being long-winded. I feel very passionate about what we do. If I didn't I would work somewhere else.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

This missive's BATTLE HAT!!!? Kevin Costner Vs Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man

So I was at the MTV Movie Awards two weekends ago out at Universal Studios near LA. This was on June 1st- the day that the Universal Studios back lot burnt down.

Basically I showed up late the night before (Saturday night) thinking everything was hunky dory. I ordered some food once I got to my hotel room, answered some emails, watched some terrible television, went to bed. In the morning I went down to breakfast in the hotel lobby and saw this.

I checked my trusty Blackberry and come to find out there had been some weird fire overnight in the backlot where there were a bunch of sets and some archives and they hadn't been able to put it out. Also it was spreading. The news was that they were still going to let the Awards show go on and that the theme park would remain open to the public.

I finished up my breakfast with Peter Banks (one of our dudes from MTV Games and the photographer of the fire picture above) and we headed over to the park. I took a bunch more photos of the smoke plume as we got closer and closer - it really took up half the sky at one point, it was that big. The show must go on?

Our setup was on the red (err...gold) carpet - the entry way into the show. At the far corner we had a little stage with a full setup out in the sun. In front of us were the actual doors to Gibson amphitheater. On the other side of the amphitheater? The fire. The fire marshal made sure to let everyone know that we could be evacuated at any time. Awesome.

We got the stage all hooked up with the Wii version of the game, did our lag calibration, and got into costume. The day before I left I went to Goodwill and bought myself a suit jacket and dress shirt for $13 (total). I then brought it home and cut off the sleeves using a combination of knives, scissors, and a lighter. I also had a tie... because I am classy.

It took a while for the celebrities (referred to often as "the talent") to show up. The carpet was scheduled to be about two hours long and not many people showed up until the final half hour and then it got slammed.

We were asked a couple times to turn it down, for the most part we didn't. We were stuck over next to what I call "Blog Corner" where a bunch of people from cult-of-celebrity-sites were trying to pull talent for interviews. One lady said that it sucked that we played so loud and that it was stupid and we were ruining her day. I didn't really feel too badly as she was pretty much a jerk about it but I felt even less badly when it was pointed out to me that she was using a $9 voice recorder you could pick up at walgreens for her interviews. Six words for her - invest in a good omnidirectional mic. Stat.

We had a few people jump up - Carson Daly, the Clique Girls, a couple bands I was unfamiliar with, the Pussycat Dolls. At one point I was playing the bass and suddenly someone jumped on stage, grabbed onto me, grinded up against me for a few pictures and then took off. It was Tila Tequila.

But none could prepare for the second greatest Rock Band-related moment of my life (Herbie Hancock will always be number 1).


AMERICAN GLADIATORS WOLF AND JUSTICE... with a much smaller me and JohnD

Both of us are huge American Gladiators fan so it was borderline insane to actually get to play with them. Also they are big dudes. Wolf threatened to throw our prototype Wii drumset if he failed out and I had no plans on stopping him. Justice grabbed the guitar and the strap wouldn't even get around him. The dude is gigantic. JohnD grabbed the other guitar and I grabbed mic. I think the song was "Here It Goes"... we failed out pretty quick. Luckily they didn't throw anything, they just shook our hands and continued inside.

So good.

I had tickets to the show itself but decided to go back to the hotel and watch it on tv in the restaurant/bar. When it was over I got tickets to the after-party which was pretty insane. I met a bunch of really cool people (JABBERWOKEEZ rule), had some tasty, weird drinks, and generally just had a swell time.


-Sean


BATTLE HAT!!!

Kevin Costner vs Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man

For real? KC versus something awesome? Do I really have to do this? Ok, fine, I will. Mr. Costner uses his snooze inducing "Empty-Theater-On-Opening-Night" glare. Puft falls asleep. Costner revels as he has no other discernible skills. Puft topples over in his sleepiness. Costner is oblivious to the end of his career/life as he is crushed by 3000 tons of delicious 'mallow.

Stay-Puft FTW

Thursday, June 12, 2008

This missive's BATTLE HAT!!!? Henry VIII vs Santa of Claus

Its already been a pretty long week. My computer completely crapped the bed so I had to go get a new laptop. I spent almost all of yesterday with the band Crooked X (more on this at a later date). I spent today navigating a particularly obtuse travel booking system that we have to use so I can go to New York on Wednesday and to LA for the MTV Movie Awards next weekend (I got my red carpet credentials today... seriously... how irresponsible is that?) Peppered in there is a series of daily conversations with Johnlok and HMXHenry about the weekly newsletter we are prepping, getting ready for our new community intern (Max) on Tuesday, Alex Navarro joins the team a week later, an in-depth discussion about the relative merits of chocolate and vanilla pudding cups (turns out no one likes the butterscotch/caramel ones), all the while I am trying to learn the song that my real band practices on Saturday (WOOOO REAL BAND!)

Today, to celebrate the big launch of Rock Band in Europe, we got a cool surprise. Around 3pm we get a message over the intercom to come to the Freq Pit (our big, communal eating area). We all go up there and what is waiting for us? A bunch of bottles of champagne, finger sandwiches, and scones. A few of our European-derived employees got up and made a toast and then we got a chance to watch the awesome Euro Rock Band commercial. Pretty rad. I know there has been a lot of discussion about the European release but a lot of hard work and preparation went into the launch and it felt awesome to celebrate it however briefly. I look forward to playing with some of you overseas. Dibs on vocals for Beetlebum.

Also this week our good friends over at Penny Arcade and our other good friends at Hothead Games released their first-ever game- Penny Arcade: The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1, a title as long as it is awesome. We're stoked for them getting their first game out and we can't wait to see more. I know how hard they've been working.

-Sean


BATTLE HAT!!!

Henry VIII vs Santa of Claus

There is literally no way Santa can win this one. He may be able to pull a machine gun out of his magic bag, and fire off his flying reindeer suplex, but Henry the VIII is at the top of the naughty list. First he would marry Santa via his amazing Royal Edict punch. Then when Sanata wouldn't bear him a male child he would divorce Santa and probably put him to death. Santa can't fight that sort of betrayal of the heart, he's part pixie or something.

ADVANTAGE - HENRY VIII

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Today’s BATTLE HAT!!!= Yoda vs Alex Rigopulos


Last week I got the chance to head out to St. Paul, MN for the Grammy Foundation Career Day.

On my flight I watched “The Darjeeling Limited”, I wasn’t impressed. I like Wes Anderson movies but this one just seemed really disjointed and filled with non sequiturs. I also thought the characters were a combination of annoying AND boring so that didn’t help it much. Whatever, it got me through part of the flight before I just kicked back and read the book “Boomsday” by Christopher Buckley, which is awesome.

I had never actually been to Saint Paul but I actually really liked it. The drive in from the airport was awesome, the highway has a bunch of old style lamp posts on the median and then on the other side of you is the Mississippi River filled with a bunch of corny riverboat restaurants that looked like fun.

Once I got to my hotel I headed down to the bar to watch the Celtics beat the Cavs... I just wish they could that on the road. The less said about this the better before I start getting all angry and crazy. There was some dude doing country-western karaoke. Is it still karaoke if it is just one dude on stage singing song after song and no one else is allowed up? I have two minds about this, first mind: its just one dude – second mind: he wasn’t playing an instrument, just singing along to some poorly recorded karaoke backing tracks that the woman at the bar (who LOVED listening to him by the way) would program up on the computer. I paid my bill and ran up to my room to watch the last 2 minutes of the game up there… you would have done the same.

I was up early the next day to bring our load of equipment over to a nearby college that was hosting. The rest of this paragraph is going to be about what Grammy Career Day is. Basically, the Grammy’s have a non-profit arm called the Grammy Foundation. Every year each chapter sets up a Career Day in one of their membership cities. A whole bunch of high school kids are bused in, and various people in the music industry (or abutting fields like my own) talk to them about exciting jobs that aren’t necessarily just being in a band. The Grammy Foundation also does lots of other neat stuff like take care of sick or out-of-work musicians who can’t make ends meet. All in all it is very cool.

HMXJohnD and I did a panel at the Grammy’s in LA where we talked with Steve Schnur of EA back in February. This time, though, I was running solo. Once all the kids were in and registered they were ushered into an auditorium to watch a multi-media presentation on the meaning of music. Once they got out the day was split into two sessions with a lunch in between.

My first session was a little reserved and very quiet... and I think one girl fell asleep. After my spiel detailing the whole process from licensing music to making the game to DLC of how our game is made and how many musicians we have and all that I offered to see if any of the kids wanted to play Rock Band… during school hours. No hands.

C’est la vie.

My second session was way smoother. The kids were engaged and talkative and we got into a big discussion about game design and why we should have a classical piano game (not my idea as I know virtually nothing about classical piano but it was fun to enter into this theoretical discussion). All very interesting stuff. Once the session was over I caught a cab back to the airport with a few of the other awesome career day presenters. They ruled, I hope I get to hang out with them again. I am definitely looking forward to doing another career day in the future.

-Sean

(HarmonixSean on Twitter... sign up for updates)

BATTLE HAT NOTES

Johnlok and I reached into the BATTLE HAT. Johnlok pulled Yoda. I pulled Alex Rigopulos (Harmonix co-founder and current .., I don’t know what his title is… half the time I don’t even know what my title is – rest assured he is still very high up and probably has his own helicopter that we will call the Rigopulopter. Sorry for the run-on parenthetical). Yoda is pretty cool. Let’s be honest, though, there is no way he could possibly fight a man who has the power… to fire me for saying he couldn’t beat the ever-loving crap out of a muppet. Alex wins.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

This weekend, recovering from a pretty amazingly intense root canal (I learned my lesson - ask for the gas. Always. No matter what the dentist says. Get knocked out) my girlfriend set me up with this amazing list of totally bizarre material on Wikipedia (true stuff, as far as wikipedia goes, but bizarre nonetheless). After reading plenty of things about some micronations, and some disappearing colonies, and raining animals (including space jelly), I came upon an article on Florence Foster Jenkins. I wouldn't call her the first "outsider" musician, but she is certainly one of the first whose performances were recorded and still exist today.

Outsider is a musical genre of sorts used by a lot of people who are very much into studying music. It generally refers to music made by people with no real training whatsoever. They just feel to compelled to perform and record music despite not knowing too much about their particular instrument, and often also not having much talent either. Many people enjoy it ironically, as it very often sounds like an aural nightmare and is very easy to make fun of. Others enjoy it for what it is- primitive music that brings joy to the performer while simultaneously being completely untainted by the status quo sensibilities of its time. In other words - it is enjoyed because it couldn't sound less like whatever is top of the charts... any charts... ever. Some outsider artists you may have heard of - Wesley Willis, Daniel Johnston, the Shaggs, and Jandek.

I had listened to a few of these groups (I actually really like Daniel Johnston, some of his stuff is difficult to get into but a lot of it is startlingly accessible with some intense lyrical awesomosity). I still wasn't prepared for the great Florence Foster Jenkins. She had, apparently, always wanted to be a singer despite the protestations of her husband and parents. When her father died, though, she was able to pursue her dream of being a famous singer in New York with the inheritance. She took a few lessons and then started giving recitals around 1912.

Ms. Jenkins started to become fairly popular in some circles in New York and frequently turned down offers to perform. She liked to give small recitals to society friends as well as a yearly recital at a famous hotel/restaurant in town. Her final performance was in 1944 at Carnegie Hall. She died a month later.

Oh and another thing - she couldn't sing to save her life. Not a note. She attempted difficult operetta selections from Mozart and warbled through with no set pitch, rhythm, tempo, or approximation of proper pronunciation. Her accompanist, Cosmé McMoon (I'm not kidding... best name ever), often had to change what he was doing several times mid-song to attempt the Sisyphean task of making her sound on-key. She also created/engineered costumes to wear for her recitals. Wings, tinsel, viking/angel/pirate queen motifs - this is what she was going for.

OK, so this probably sounds like I am making fun. To an extent that is probably true. After all, it is kind of funny to imagine what these recitals must have been like. But I also think I have full-on respect for her particular brand of delusion. She played out for over thirty years, to often confused and amused audiences, and still died thinking she was the great soprano of her generation. By all accounts she died happy and content, confident in her talent.

My favorite quote from her was directed at her haters. "People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing." I think I have brand new respect for some of the people who are more than willing to grab the mic at some of our outings with Rock Band.

Finally a sample - click here.

-Sean
(HarmonixSean on Twitter... sign up for updates).

Monday, April 28, 2008

First, before I say anything else - if you have sent me a friend request and I haven't accepted yet I apologize. I got a whole bunch, the backlog got kind of intense, and the process of accepting a bunch of people is laborious to say the least (we put a bug in the database for group approve, yay!) I am attempting to catch up by doing about ten a day until I'm good again. If I haven't accepted yet, don't worry, it isn't because I hate you it is just due to my fits of ennui.

Moving along, I am going to try to keep up the neck breaking pace of 2 blogs per week on my rocker profile. I'd do more, but I have kind of a hectic schedule and often find myself in places without a computer of any kind. I could probably type it up on my Blackberry but that sounds absolutely horrible.

So what will I be talking about here? A lot of different stuff. I have the lucky job of going out on the road and playing the game with some really cool people and having pretty surreal adventures across that states, so there will be that. I'll also, like today, probably talk a lot about food (more on that later). You shouldn't really expect to see a whole bunch of crazy updates on the game or big reveals in my blog. I'll use the announcements section of the forums for that. This here? This is just for a little narrative on what it is like to work at Harmonix and occasionally even be allowed to have a life outside.

To summarize I'll probably write about food and also road life when I am out on the road. There might be some other stuff from time to time to, but you shouldn't count on it.

Here's a story- back when I was a QA tester on Karaoke Revolution we had a pretty intense crunch in the testing department. At Harmonix it means you work into the night but dinner is brought in by local restaurants willing to deliver for up to 30 or 40 people. That roughly translated into about two and half months solid of takeout food. Before this I had never been too terribly into cooking, I could make a few things but mostly didn't put too much effort into it. After this crunch, though, I couldn't bear to even look at takeout food. The concept was pretty gross to me, so I started to make my own dinners at home and bring in leftovers for lunch. I started pretty small, as I didn't have too much experience, but really started to get into it. Now one of my favorite hobbies in the whole world is cooking all sorts of crazy stuff. I very rarely use a cookbook for anything, I just think of various ingredients I imagine would taste good together and experiment. Most of the time this turns out pretty decent (Web of Fries), other times this turns out pretty bad (my still unrealized recipe for Beef Beefington) and needs some adjustments.

What this has also done is heighten my appreciation of eating at restaurants that our really good at what they do. On special occasions my girlfriend and I will go to someplace expensive and amazing (after we've saved up), other times we'll just had to some local cool place that is really affordable and is known for a couple incredible meals.

Most of the time I just buy up some good stuff at the store near our offices and then cook it up at home. Lately the thing I've been trying to perfect is potatoes. So far I am really good at making chips, fries, and mashed. What I really have wanted to master, though, is making a baked potato so good that it is like eating candy. I think I may have even pulled it off. What I was going for is a baked potato with a salty, hard outer shell with a crispy skin and firm flesh right under the skin. The inside of the potato should be cooked well enough that it breaks apart easily with a fork so you melt some butter in it and eat it like mashed potatoes. The end result is a potato that you is fluffy and delicious inside, and when you are done with that you can pick up the outer shell and eat it like a tasty, crunchy potato pie. Yes, I think about this stuff a lot. But I'm about to give you the recipe so you can startle friends with your mad tuber skillz.

Ingredients

2 large baking potatoes (russets work fine but feel free to experiment.)

Coarse salt

Extra virgin olive oil (or if you are breaking your diet two dollops of bacon grease)


The first thing you'll want to do is preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. My oven has two racks, so what I do is in the center of the lower rack I put my toaster oven tray covered in foil, this will catch any stray potato drippings later. This will probably take some time unless your oven is way better than mine, which is probably likely. Next run the potatoes under cold water making sure to get all the dirt off and rubbing off any eyes that may be growing out of it.

Dry the potatoes off with a paper towel, and go grab a fork, this next part is fun. Being very careful not to stab yourself and shoot blood all over your kitchen, stab each potato 20 or so times making sure you get all the sides including the ends. This part will let out some of the outside moisture out while it cooks making the skin nice and crispy.

What I like to do next is lay out a bit of aluminum foil and then put the potatoes on top of it. I then drizzle some olive oil on them and rub it around with my hands so that the whole potato is covered (but not dripping, if it drips it will be a mess to clean up later in your oven). As I stated earlier you can substitute bacon grease for olive oil. This also makes for a tasty outer shell but, obviously, isn't too terribly healthy.

Speaking of unhealthy we come to our next step. Pour some coarse salt on the potatoes and then rub it around the skins. This will also draw moisture and be wicked good later. I try not to go too overboard with it, but I often fail. If you've done this right so far you should have two glistening potatoes with glints of coarse salt visible on the outer surface.

Hopefully your oven is now preheated. Take the two potatoes and place them on the upper rack above the toaster oven tray on the rack below. Set your timer for about an hour, and using a device like a knife or, toothpick, check the potato and see if it is done. I generally let it cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Now that the potatoes are done pull them out, carefully, and put them each on their own plate. Cut open with a trusty sharp knife (a butter knife won't do it), break up the innards with a fork and put a pat or two of unsalted butter inside. Now enjoy!

Another thing I sometimes do if I am pan-cooking a steak to go with the potatoes is take the steak out of the pan, pour a little red wine and butter into the pan, mix it up with the steak juices, give the red wine a little time to cook the alcohol off, and then pour a little of the resulting gravy into each opened potato.


Hope this is useful. If so let me know how it goes.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

So I'm out here at GDC with a ton of other people from Harmonix, and then tens of thousands of developers/artists/manufacturers/venture capitalists/college students/other. Other than it being the rainy season in San Francisco it is going pretty well. Last night was particularly awesome. We went to Valve's party at the Temple nightclub. You may have heard of Valve, they made the game "Portal" which is winning every award at GDC (I think it is going to start winning awards it isn't even up for, like Best Sports Game, or Lifetime Achievement). Anyways they asked us if we would come over and help with a little secret awesomosity at the party. We, obviously, agreed as we not only love Doug Lombardi (the mastermind behind this) but we also unashamedly play a lot of Team Fortress 2.

Temple is a cool nightclub not too far from the Moscone Center which is painted all white (even the speaker stacks). It also has a really killer sound setup as well as a ton of rear projected screens. As far as venues go for parties at GDC it was pretty incredible. Even better than that was it being filled to capacity with other developers from a lot of awesome companies whose games we play. Sometimes it is nice to just hit an open bar and talk shop with people from Valve and Doublefine and Telltale and wherever.

The entertainment at the party was geek troubadour sensation Jonathan Coulton. If you aren't familiar with his songs I want you to go to his website and listen to a few. I suggest "RE Your Brains", "Skullcrusher Mountain", and "The Future Soon" (Creative Commons FTW). He has plenty of other rad tracks but those are some of the ones I like the best.

At around 10:00pm Jonathan took the stage. A bunch of us crowded up front, because we frankly have a bit of a man crush on him, and watched him run through his setlist. Right towards the end he announced he had only one left...

"I'd like to invite a couple of my friends up here to help me with my last song."

That is when we jumped on-stage and pulled out our Rock Band equipment piece by piece. Dan Teasdale (one of our senior designers) started picking a three person band with Jonathan and Alex Rigopulos (co-founder of Harmonix and head honcho). When they got to the song list they scrolled through an almost infinite amount of DLC until eventually they stopped on one-

"Still Alive" by GLaDOS

ALERT- THIS WAS A SPECIAL PREVIEW OF THIS SONG. IT WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE AS DLC AT A FUTURE DATE. WHEN I KNOW WHEN I'LL LET YOU KNOW. I NOW RETURN YOU TO THE NARRATIVE.

Yup. That is the song that Jonathan wrote that is the credits song at the end of Portal. The crowd went nuts. Earlier we had turned the backing vocals all the way down and the microphone vocals all the way up so we could actually hear his voice instead of GLaDOS. Alex was on drums ruling it, and Dan Teasdale held his own on guitar. By the end of the song even the people in the back of the room were screaming. It was an awesome way to debut a song we've been working on.

So awesome that one dude tried to jump onstage and steal the song onto a memory card he had in his pocket (who walks around with a memory card in their pocket at all times, just in case?) That was weird.

At any rate, it went very well, and everyone from Jonathan, to Harmonix, to Valve, to the other developers were stoked. I'd personally like to thank everybody for an incredible night but especially Doug Lombardi, Jonathan Coulton, the amazing staff at Temple, and our audio team for getting the song done in time.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Last week was one of the awesomest weeks of my life. So awesome, in fact, that I don’t even care that “awesomest” isn’t a word.

Let’s start at the beginning. John D and I headed out to Los Angeles last Tuesday to help with the Grammy’s in a couple different capacities. The first capacity was to educate. We showed up at USC bright and early (way too early for either of us probably) to participate as panelists for the Grammy Foundation. The Grammy Foundation is sort of the educational arm of the Grammy’s and they are active across the US. Our job that day was to talk to some LA-area high school students about careers in the music industry, in this case- music in the video game industry. We were joined on the panel by Steve Schnur who is the Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing for EA. Also he is awesome.

So anyways we show up early for the press reception where press can interview panelists and the Grammy Foundation people and the like. John and I figure there won’t be too many people who want to interview us once we see who else is giving talks. Steve Vai, Boyz II Men, Akon, Trinitee 5:17, Dave Koz, the cast of “Once”, Paul Wall, and Jimmy Jam (of the Time, holy crap). It was kind of overwhelming. They even took pictures of the lot of us together where I was in between Jimmy Jam and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. It was crazy.

We were especially surprised that after that lineup anyone would even show up for our panel. That 60 kids showed up for our panel with that lineup in competing panels to see us jamokes talk about how we rarely venture out into the sun and play video games all day surprised me more than just about anything. The panel rules. Steve is a cool guy, and John and I are more than happy to act dumb for laughs so it all worked out. We brought 10 bundles with us so after we were done talk all the kids could play for a while.

From there we had to jump in our rental car and head to the Staples Center where I was scheduled to work at the Gifting Lounge (John continues to the Style Studio in West Hollywood but we’ll get to that later and in his blog). The Gifting Lounge is a large tent with multiple rooms where various companies are giving out free stuff to celebrities. We were the last setup the talent had to go through before shoving their gigantic duffel bags filled to the brim with goods (plus a 360 Rock Band Bundle) into the trunk of their nearby limo. Having been involved in a similar setup last year at a different show I wasn’t expecting much. At that show only one band ever came through and I didn’t actually know who they were (nor did anyone else really). The rest of the talent just sent someone else to go pick up their swag.

This was a bit different.

Within 15 minutes of being there I had talked to Solange Knowles and Taylor Dayne who were both very nice. They didn’t play the game per se but were happy to take a picture with our peripherals so that was cool. Jesse McCartney then stopped by and played the drums which was pretty cool. Things kind of slowed down after that. We got a few executives through and some people who worked for the Grammys but it was mostly quiet. That was fine. I just played the game with some media outlets that were coming through including the awesome and very entertaining crew from Livevideo.com who were pretty much owning me on drums by the end of the day.

As I was saying things were slow for a bit. They picked up when Andrea Boccelli and Josh Groban came through. Andrea Boccelli was first. The man is amazing. First of all, to be honest, he has one of the most beautiful voices on Earth, second of all the dude is very tall and kind of royal seeming (in a good way). I was impressed. He didn’t have much time to hang out at our booth but he felt the outline of the Strat (he’s blind) and declared it “beautiful”, which was the only thing I remember him saying in English. Rad.

Josh Groban came through next and for some bizarre reason on my part I thought he would not be interested at all. Turns out he was jonesing for Rock Band since it was announced because he wanted to play some drums. John and I decide that deep down inside Josh Groban wants to thrash. He also didn’t get a chance to play the game (he and Andrea Boccelli were being pulled back into rehearsal) but was stoked to get it and play later.

It was right around then that John got back from the Style Studio which closed earlier than the Gifting Lounge. It was also right around then that the guys from Daft Punk came through. I, and many other Harmonix folk, am a huge Daft Punk fan so this was particularly awesome. Guy came through first and I explained the game to him. He didn’t play it but I think he was excited. Thomas came through right after and that dude rules. He sat down at the drums, ruled the songs he played, and talked to us a bit about the mechanics. At one point when I didn’t think he was listening I told John that “the song Technologic is always stuck in my head when I am answering emails.” Thomas started laughing, looked at me, and said “We did that on purpose. To brainwash you.” I’m still not sure if he was serious. Either way I am ok with it.

We were feeling pretty great about ourselves. Daft Punk. Damn. It couldn’t really prep us for the next person through though – Album of the Year winner Herbie Hancock. Here is what you need to understand – Herbie Hancock is awesome. Some of his songs are the first songs I (and probably many of you) ever remember hearing (Chameleon, Rockit, the Fat Albert theme song). He came over and was one of the coolest, nicest, most genuine people I have ever met. We asked if he wanted to play and he seemed stoked to try the game. I hopped on the mic, John jumped on the drums, and Herbie grabbed a guitar. We started going through the song list (we brought all the DLC with us) and asked him what he wanted to play. His daughter yelled out “play Roxanne!” Now I am sweating. I have to sing “Roxanne” of all songs in fron to THE Herbie Hancock. Luckily with fear I managed to pull out my “A” game and not stink up the place too bad. John ruled it on drums. Herbie managed an awesome 82% notes hit on the guitar (first try, very little tutorial).



I really expected to get the whole trip down in one blog but I doubt that will happen (part two comes soon). I will leave you with the post script though. I watched the Grammy’s from my house on Sunday night. When Herbie won Best Album I immediately ran to my computer and shot off a congratulatory email to Hancock Music Company (I was wicked happy for them). The next day his daughter responded “How many people can say they played a cover of Roxanne with Herbie Hancock on guitar?” Just us lucky two as far as I can see. Herbie doesn’t actually play guitar!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

So... long time no see. I haven't blogged on here since November and to be perfectly honest I haven't really been getting all up in threads and replying either. I have been on, I have been reading, but in a lot of ways the launch of the game and new website and then the PS2 launch and Canada has kept me pretty much reactive instead of proactive - so I do apologize.

What's been going on? Well when the game came out we went from about 5000 active users to about 60,000 which is actually a pretty significant leap to have in such a small period. Meanwhile we've also been touring around and showing the game off at places like Sundance, and on the news, and at people's houses, and for the Child's Play Charity, and a lot of other places. I guess you could say that most of the Rock Band team was in crunch last summer to get the game out and we kind of had the same thing right after launch.

Floods of people came on in that time. Some just signed up to ask a question (often a question that would have been answered a billion times if they had used search but that is beside the point - and on that note thanks to all the forum posters who didn't just reply to the thread slamming the person, who kindly answered the question and then suggested they search next time - y'all are my heroes). Others have stuck around and participated in the ongoing conversations and become part of the fabric of the place which totally rules.

And the entire thing has started to have the slightest whiff of anarchy which is both wicked rad and a little distressing. Trust me, we're working on that now and I think you'll really like the results. We don't want this to turn into a big, dumb, cynical, negative, monosyllabic WahFest like pretty much the rest of the internet. We want this community to be an awesome place to hang out and have a good conversation about Rock Band, share your achievements, talk about music, have access to Harmonix, and generally just chill. We're working on overhauling the current forum rules for a new set that is more adequate for a community of this size.

Oh and while we're here - big huge thanks from me and Johnlok to our community mods. Without the help of Apples, TBradshaw, and Feigned we would be in a tough spot indeed. They do an awesome job and I don't know what I would do without them.

If I haven't answered your PMs I apologize. I lost a whole bunch over my vacation but starting.... now... I will do better at getting on that. That said please don't PM me requests for songs. Save that for the Ultimate Setlist forum section! Other stuff I am wicked helpful with. Sometimes.

What else? Heading out to LA tomorrow with the other John to talk to kids about careers in videogame audio for the Grammy Foundation. I keep hinting that when I am there I am going to pretend that I think I am there to deliver a "Scared Straight" speech and just yell at them about prison and returning your books on time. I'm actually pretty honored to do this. Going out and meeting people and getting to talk about Harmonix and what we do and try to get kids interested in this field is always really cool.

Also heading out to GDC after that which I am really stoked about. First of all I dig San Francisco. Good seafood, [URL="http://www.museemechanique.org/"]my favorite arcade[/URL], lots of friends, fun lectures, and probably some pretty sweet parties. I also have tickets to Jonathan Coulton's show that Friday night where he is recording his DVD. That will be awesome in the extreme.

There is actually a ton of other stuff going on as well, some of which I can probably talk about (that would bore you) and some I can't (that wouldn't bore you probably).

Anyways, it is good to be back posting and I hope to do it more than I have done as of late. Also I'm going to try to read YOUR blogs more often.

-Sean

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

 

But what does it mean? 

Monday, November 5, 2007

 

 

 

What is your job at
Harmonix?



My job at Harmonix is
that of a UI Artist. I mainly design the art and animation on the menu systems
and screen select areas of the game. My job is to bring the classic look and
feel of rock-n-roll into our game and make it kick total ass with some of my
artwork.



 



How long have you worked at
Harmonix?



I started at the end of
April 2006, and was placed into the concept and mechanics of the track system.
Basically I helped out in getting things running correctly on the track system
and tried coming up with new ways of making our game awesome. Throughout Rock Band's
development I also worked lightly on GH2 360 build adding new hi-res textures . 



How did you get into the video game
industry?  What is your background?



I graduated from
Ringling School of Art and Design with a major in Illustration. I ended up
getting a job at a small edutainment game developer in Canton Connecticut
animating on Fisher Price type games. It sucked, but I realized I was gaining
the experience that I was going need to get a better job even though I was
animating Barbie and Friends. I kept at it and continued to paint on the side
just to improve my painting techniques. I did that for about 4 years before I
left for New York City
to give it shot as a Illustrator.



I found out the hard
way that making a living as a illustrator in NYC is hard as ****, especially
when you are up against the best of the best. I started to take on any work to
keep my head above the water. I ended up scoring a job at MTV as an inker
slowly moving into animation and design. I slowly jumped around from studio to
studio working on animated commercials to television shows for another 8 years.
During that time I took lot of crap. I mean tons of it. But during the workloads
I was nominated for a day-time Emmy for the work that I was doing. That was a
cool bonus!



 



Who are some of the artists whose
work influenced you?



I'm a big fan of Mark
Ryden, Jeff Soto, Shepard Fairey, and Peter Michail (the Flash Master).......that's
just a few. I was college roommates with Scott Sinclair and Shawn Robertson of
Bioshock fame, So a lot of my progression and inspiration in illustration came
from both of these guys.



 



What is the coolest part of your
job?



Getting paid to paint
and animate my stuff. I always hoped to have my paintings in a gallery and have
some of my animated stuff included in my body of work. Here at Harmonix, I'm
getting paid to make my stylized paintings come to life through animation and
design. It's pretty rad because it's really the best of both worlds for me as an
artist.



 



What is the hardest part?



Trying to envision what
the non-visions can't vision. Basically trying to create something that someone
else is thinking and getting it right in a couple of times.



 



How does a drawing start for
you? 



It really depends on
what I'm working on. For our game, I try and think of the spirit of rock-n-roll
and what that means for me as a artist. I tend to rough out my designs in Flash
on my Wacom monitor, this helps cut down time in scanning and running around
setting stuff up. I brainstorm a lot with reference books and internet images
for help on the design direction. A lot of the work I put into the game was a
reflection of all the cool black light posters I had growing up as a kid. This
was a huge inspiration for the look and feel of the shell for Rock Band.



 



What is the process?



Basically I kind of had
to re-learn the way 2D things animate in a 3D world. This was the biggest thing
for me to understand as a animator. The way things are set up in our game
system, I needed to find a way to bring over my traditional animation skills
and apply them in a very unique way and make it work. Tons of trial and error.



 



How would you describe the look of
your work?



Dark and Surreal with
just a touch of Gary Coleman. I have been trying to do my own thing and get
inspired from everyday life. The ornate design work I have been doing in the
game has floated over into my everyday work and vice versa. That's the cool
part about bringing your own style into the game......it awesome to share the
designs in both of my art endeavors.



 



Will you design Melissa's tattoo?



Yes if time permits.
Does she still want the ornate "THUG LIFE" 
stomach tat with the eagle grabbing the letters?



 



When you were a little kid did you
color inside or outside the lines?



Mainly outside of the
lines,,I think it had something to do with my characters being engulfed in
flames while running and screaming.



 



Are there any other places we can
see some of your work?



I have a blog which has
not been updated in like a good year,.due to work on Rock Band. Hopefully more
updates will begin to follow after we ship.



Here are my links with
some art.



http://www.rockband.com/index.php?do=/public/user/name_DEEZ-NUTTZ/




check out my
rockbandpage for some of my art located in the gallery.



http://deez-nuttz.blogspot.com/  :this has a
lot of my early animation and paintings from before I started at Harmonix.



myspace.com/deez_nuttz  :this has
some art work that might be cool to see.