Category Archive
Behind the Scenes
State of the Band - Software Update Announcement
Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale shares details of the new features in the latest software update to Rock Band. Read full post
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Let There Be Rock Band 2
Rock Band 2's lead designer reveals details about Rock Band 2. Read full post
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Rock Band 2 Q&A, Part I
Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale answers your questions about Rock Band 2. Read full post
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Inside Rock Band 2 Quickplay
Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale shares sneak peeks at the new Rock Band 2 Quickplay Menu. Read full post
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E3 Round-Up
Harmonix visited E3 and revealed Rock Band 2 features. Read full post
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John Drake Ransom-o-thon, Day #1
This is what happens when PR Coordinators don't approve blog posts quickly. Read full post
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John Drake Ransom-o-thon, Day #2
Day Two of what happens when the PR Coordinator doesn't approve a blog post. Read full post
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Rock Band 2 Small Stuff
Details on some small, but really awesome, Rock Band 2 features. Read full post
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Rock Band 2 Q&A, Part II
Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale answers more of your Rock Band 2 questions. Read full post
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Rock Band 2 Statistics
Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale shares some interesting Rock Band 2 stats. Read full post
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PAX and Tour Challenges
A closer look at Rock Band 2's Tour Challenges. Read full post
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Secret Rock Band 2 Feature Announced! (Update 4)
Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale reveals a super secret Rock Band 2 feature. Read full post
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Pre-Production
The secret to good game development. Read full post
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Tips for Rock Shows
Insider tips for surviving the rock scene. Read full post
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Pre-Production: How to Make a Game
An insider's look at the step-by-step basics to making a video game. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Never Say Never
An insider's look at what not to do in a video game. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Design Utopia
A glimpse at video game design utopia. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Official vs. Unofficial Systems
How to get things done in the real world. Read full post
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Pre-Production: In Defense of Dice
A look at the role chance plays in games. Read full post
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A Review of Bad Mojo
A Harmonixer's review of '90s video game Bad Mojo Read full post
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Pre-Production: Just Having Fun
The joys of playtesting Rock Band are revealed. Read full post
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Pre-Production: New Space
Harmonix has a new office. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Visitors from Another Planet
More playtesters stop by the Harmonix office. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Playtest Thank You
A heartfelt thank you from a playtester Read full post
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Pre-Production: Testers
A letter from a Rock Band playtester Read full post
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Pre-Production: Staying Quirky
A little bit of quirkiness can go a long way. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Ideas and Scope
Making large game tweaks costs a mossillion dollars. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Drum Revisions
How the Rock Band drums came to be. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Cheezing Out
Things to do while waiting for Rock Band to hit stores Read full post
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Pre-Production: More Cowbell Edition
Real rock stars rock out on Rock Band Read full post
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Pre-Production: Intervention Edition
Hints on breaking into the music or gaming industries Read full post
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Pre-Production: Elements of Character
A look at the character creator in Rock Band Read full post
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Pre-Production: More Drums
A behind-the-scenes look at the Rock Band drum kit Read full post
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Pre-Production: Accessibility
Some notes about Rock Band's accessibility by leftys, color-blind people, and people with small hands. Read full post
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Pre-Production: Design Philosophies
Insight into the design choices made by the Rock Band team Read full post
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Welcome to Rock Band
Sean welcomes you to the new Rock Band website. Read full post
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I Go Through On Bets (Even When I Lose)
Sean explores why you shouldn't make bets you might lose. Read full post
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I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS
As you may have noticed I have been absent from blog writingclass the past few weeks. This is because I changed jobs, went on vacation, andhad a Monday holiday, in that order. Read full post
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Crash
Congrats! You crashed the site! Read full post
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Sleep When You're Dead
Sean has an extremely busy week. Read full post
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Phantom Gourmet - Ghost?
Sean checks out MC Frontalot and fixes his mom's computer - all in one weekend! Read full post
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Focusing Your Furor Into Effective Emails
Sean provides guidelines for writing an angry letter to a company. Read full post
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Getting Back on the Horse
Getting back to writing Read full post
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Harmonix is Wired
Wired visited the Harmonix office and wrote up a nifty story on us. Read full post
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How Did I Get Here, Part I
Sean tells how he came to work at Harmonix. Read full post
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A Title is Required
This past week I finished the last of the Rock Shop names and descriptions (excluding instruments, that's Helen domain - she knows waaay more about instruments than I do), which leaves bug fixes for this week. I get all sorts of bugs, mostly grammar ones as I am notorious for forgetting commas. Some of my best bugs revolve around misinterpretations of slang terms. I have to give major props to EA QA though, as they have found a lot of tiny things I've needed to fix. Read full post
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Further Explanation of the Desert Heist
Sean tells his previously mentioned desert heist story. Read full post
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Write about it
Yesterday a group of us went to a magical place called Monster Golf! It's like an arcade and mini golf course in a black-lit, Halloween themed, former bank. The course is flat but has lots of angles and even wandering monsters in the form of two caked-up gangs of children dodging our every hole. I didn't get enough tickets for butterfly candy by playing Ice Ball (what monsters call ski ball), but rest assured I will return and conquer. Read full post
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Johnny Come Lately
Last Wednesday, August the 1st saw the inauguration of the following thread on our newsgroups, Subject: Damn you, bathroom boombox! The thread was started by Robotkid (our Creative Director) because listening to the bathroom boombox had caused him to purchase a reggae album. Read full post
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Who Does What: Tech Art
An introduction to what a technical artist does Read full post
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Better Than Quicksand
Saturday it rained a lot. Like, a lot. It rained so hard the QA ceiling leaked. It was also the first of a new weekly tradition: Sushi Saturdays. Since we are in crunch and nearly everyone is required to work Saturdays the company pays for lunch. Kris thought it would be cool if we had sushi for lunch to make working on those days nicer. Read full post
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Where Everybody Knows your Name
The BIG project is finished and can now be revealed... We Moved! (see I told you it wouldn't be that exciting for you) Read full post
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Yes, We Listen To Everything
Sean explains that we read every song request fans send us. Read full post
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Why Things Take So Long
Sean explains why you haven't seen a gameplay video of Rock Band yet. Read full post
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Lemons Into Lemonade
In the event of a zombie takeover, we will trade you games for string cheese and beef jerky. Read full post
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Profile: Audio Lead, Eric Brosius
Q&A with Harmonix Audio Lead Eric Brosius Read full post
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Profile: Artist, John Dee
Q&A with Harmonix Artist John Dee. Read full post
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Prodigal Brain Dump
The Rock Band community jumped from 5,000 members to 60,000 after the launch of the game. Read full post
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Grammy All Access
Sean gives you an all-access pass to backstage at the Grammys. Read full post
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Valve Party at GDC and Special Preview of an Upcoming DLC Song
New extra-special DLC song revealed! Read full post
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What are you guys still wondering about?
Hey everyone: Finished writing my epic blog update, and realized maybe you guys would want to ask a few followup questions with regards to Rock Band 2. So I figured I'd make a blog post here. Read full post
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Perfect Potato Recipe
Sean shares his perfect potato recipe with the world. Read full post
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First Recorded Outside Musician
Some backstory on Florence Foster Jenkins, an "outsider" musician Read full post
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Trip to St. Paul
Harmonix participates in the Grammy Foundation's Career Day. Read full post
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Travel? Travel.
Harmonix celebrates the European launch of Rock Band. Read full post
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MTV Movie Awards
Harmonix rocks with the American Gladiators, the Pussycat Dolls, and even Tila Tequila at the MTV Movie Awards. Read full post
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Just Came Back From E3
Sean shares some of the passion Harmonix puts into their games. Read full post
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HMX On The Road LA (EPIC UPDATE)
Hope you're all doing well and shacking with antici....pation for Rock Band 2 to drop officially in just an hour and a half. I'm astounded and excited that all of the hard work we've done and all the feedback you guys have provided is finally being churned out on a real gods-honest videogame. ROCK! Read full post
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HMX On The Road Seattle
We've been wailing at PAX (penny arcade expo) pretty much round the clock since Thursday. Some pretty amazing stuff ("Sex Generals" Penny Arcade guys playing on stage, a band of storm troopers at our booth, a great panel featuring HMXers, this weeks DLC announcement and much more), but mostly just a LOT of Rock Band 2 playing. Like...A LOT. Read full post
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HMX On The Road- Leipzig Update #2
Live from Leipzig, en route to Munich, here’s my second and final missive from Germany, as I’m moments from boarding a flight back to JFK. Upcoming week in NYC should be great, including an awesome DLC night at Angels and Kings on Wednesday Evening (which is just a few blocks away from where I stay with friends when I’m in town…I’m quite the imposer). Read full post
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HMX On The Road- Leipzig Update
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The Harmonix Life
Hi I'm Heather, my official title is: Librarian/Administrative Assistant. I maintain our book and game library as well as doing all sorts of administrative odds and ends. Read full post
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Clambake Ought Six
This week I need to call the catering place that feeds us during our clambakes. Last year one of their employees was nearly hit by lightening on our ill-fated trip. Read full post
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The Stickers are Red
The Harmonix library is what you probably wish your public library were like, full of games, books about games, the coolest art books ever, and books about programming for games. Read full post
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Informational Post
On Fridays the whole of Harmonix gathers in the Freq Pit (a giant room in the middle of our main floor) for Weely. Weely is a weekly meeting and catered lunch. Read full post
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Nervous Breakdown
On the road at PAX, plus responding to some craziness on the forums. Read full post
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Memorial Day Long Weekend
We were closed Memorial Day, which is a nice start to a summer where we'll probably have to crunch a little to get Rock Band out the door. When crunch rolls around the team works ten hour days, six days a week. Read full post
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Monday, Bloody Monday
As you may or may not have noticed my blog was conspicuously absent last Monday. This is because I spent the majority of my non-work hours last week crunching on writing for something exciting. Read full post
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Funland at the Beach
Harmonix employees take a break with a company-wide clambake. Read full post
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This is Boston, Not LA
Details of Rock Band 2 revealed at E3 Read full post
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My Annoying Morning!
Can I just say how annoyed I am this morning? Read full post
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Never Go Back
A small note about reunion shows Read full post
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MMMM Brains
Zombie discussion ensues. Read full post
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Everything Turns Gray
HMXHenry recommends some sad summertime storm listening materials. Read full post
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New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones
The Harmonix Community Team rocks the Nintendo World Store in New York City. Read full post
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TV Party
HMXHenry shares his thoughts on the new Lego Indiana Jones game. Read full post
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Julyoween
You are probably wondering where my bloggity blogging self has been for the past couple of weeks, well I have been working on an all encompassing secret project that has taken up all of my time. Read full post
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Young and Dangerous
HMXHenry welcomes kids from Zumix to Harmonix HQ. Read full post
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Scene Report
H2O rocked the Middle East in Cambridge, near HMX HQ. Read full post
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No Friends
Please welcome Max, the Community Team Intern. Read full post
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Better Than Quicksand
Saturday it rained a lot. Like, a lot. It rained so hard the QA ceiling leaked. Read full post
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California Sun
HMXHenry shares his summertime feel good playlist. Read full post
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Everybody Wants to Rock and Roll
HMXHenry shares his most recently played tracks on iTunes. Read full post
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At The Movies
HMXHenry's Top Five Movie Soundtracks Read full post
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More Than Fashion
Were The Ramones secretly a glam band? Read full post
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From Baseball Cards to Colored Wax
Anyone else have Vinyl Madness? Read full post
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Live Today
Support live music. Go see a show. Read full post
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Clambake
Bum bum bum! Friday June 15th was the second annual Harmonix Clambake. My day started with checking email to see if anyone wasn't able to make it at the last minute (one person was sick, a couple more were stuck in CA). Read full post
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Harmonix Answers Questions from the Forums, Part I
Harmonix employees answer your burning questions from the forums. Read full post
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Harmonix Answers Questions from the Forums, Part II
Harmonix continues to answer your questions from the forums. Read full post
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Crunch Time
John discusses the video game industry's legendary "crunch" times, and how it has changed over the years. Read full post
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E3 Wrapup
John shares his E3 experience. Read full post
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PAX Wrapup
Some notes about PAX and an announcement from John. Read full post
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