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Guitar Hero project director discusses aiming for the 'core' audience
For better or for worse, Neversoft has decided to go a very different direction with the Guitar Hero franchise from its competitor, Rock Band. In an interview with Develop, project director Brian Bright explained that the the stark difference between the two games is intentional. "Rather than go head-to-head with our own games and our competitors, we decided we wanted to make something different." Being tasked with developing three games in the Hero franchise simultaneously -- Band Hero, Guitar Hero Metallica and Guitar Hero 5 -- was a drain on the team's creativity, Bright admits. "We did make quite a few games last year ... But the release of all those games split the marketing team's focus, it split our studio's focus." The upcoming Warriors of Rock, however, represents a newfound yearning to go back to the franchise's origins, and deliver a game for "the core audience," the kind of gamer that loves guitar music, and has already mastered the plastic guitar. "The core has got to a pretty high level, so we really want to up the challenge." Developing a game that even franchise stalwarts would find difficult would set the game apart from the upcoming Rock Band 3. It's somewhat fitting that Neversoft is paying homage to the franchise's origins, considering Warriors of Rock is supposedly the last Neversoft-developed Guitar Hero game. But will it be the end of the franchise? No way. "I think it's a given that there will be a Guitar Hero game every year," Bright said, perhaps relieved that his studio won't be tasked with that burden. Who knows? We may even learn more about the team's new shooter before Guitar Hero 7 finds its way to store shelves.
Rhythm game devs: genre hasn't peaked, user-generated content is key
[Image credit: Jaymiek] In the latest issue of Edge Magazine, Harmonix head Alex Rigopulos and Neversoft project director Brian Bright both speak out regarding the current state of rhythm-music gaming. As you might imagine, neither developer thinks that the genre is flatlining. In fact, Rigopulos even believes that "future music games will exceed the sales success of the last generation." Surprisingly, though, while each heads up their own approach to the genre, the two seem to be in near-direct agreement on the next step for their franchises. "User-generated content will be absolutely critical to the ongoing success of the genre, I think," Rigopulos says. Bright echoes his statement, saying, "I think user-created content is key to the evolution ... if you can't create or edit licensed music due to copyright laws, then you're limited to pretending to play someone else's music." That said, each developer differs in their definition of exactly what that "user-created content" will be. In the case of Rigopulos, he believes the Rock Band Network and its potentially "huge community of power-users -- skilled music creators" will be his company's next "defining moment." Bright is less sure of a plan, simply stating, "I think the key is to create music, but make it compelling to create, so the game is in the creation."
Neversoft would like to add turntable support to Guitar Hero
During E3, we got to check out the folks from FreeStyleGames playing DJ Hero -- Activision's upcoming rhythm/music game -- using blasphemous guitar controllers in-tandem with the ubiquitous plastic turntable (seen above). While Activision is still keeping mum on whether or not the ability to use guitars in all tracks of the game (none the less vocals) will be shipping with DJ Hero, apparently the folks working on the game think including their turntable in Guitar Hero titles "Sounds like a great idea!"In fact, both the DJ Hero team and Neversoft (developers of the Guitar Hero franchise) seem open to the idea of cross-game instrument implementation (say that three times fast). GH director Brian Bright told Eurogamer, "We would love to integrate in the future," speaking to the cross-franchise possibilities with each game's respective peripheral. So if we can use a turntable, have a group of folks on various instruments, and get someone spitting hot fire into a mic, what's the point of Def Jam Rapstar again?
Joystiq interview: Guitar Hero World Tour's Brian Bright
At last night's Guitar Hero World Tour party we made sure to seek out project director Brian Bright, and it took us a few hours to find him amidst the party-going rhythm gaming crowd. He agreed to go on the record, "even though I've had a few drinks!" We quizzed him about how he thinks it'll do against Rock Band, his feelings now that it's all over, and what's next for Neversoft and the world of musical games. Check out the full interview after the break.%Gallery-23477%
Guitar Hero World Tour won't condone your awful cover songs
"We can't condone people putting up covers of music. It's really there for original content." That's the word from Guitar Hero World Tour director Brian Bright, who's well aware that his upcoming game's music creator may also double as a copyright infringer. Speaking to 1UP, Bright explained that uploaded, custom-made tunes will be monitored by Activision and indiscriminately yanked should they contain any suspiciously familiar riffs."If there's a licensed song and someone holds the copyright to it, we'll take it down regardless of whether or not someone complains," added Bright. We sincerely hope this gives you pause before you decide to share your unoriginal, ill-advised rendition of "Motel" California with the rest of the world.Guitar Hero World Tour and its 86 master tracks are out on October 26th.
Rumorong: New Guitar Hero peripheral not a keyboard
Remember when Neversoft's Brian Bright allegedly told G4 that a new peripheral was coming to Guitar Hero World Tour, and G4 speculated it would, in fact, be a keyboard? We had a chance to talk to the very same Brian Bright who told us that "a keyboard controller deserves to be introduced with its own game. This is something we're thinking about." B-b-b-but what about all the keyboard section in the song creator? Bright says, "there are reasons why we haven't included a keyboard controller." He elaborates that not all of the songs have keyboard parts so, "adding a keyboard controller would either have limited our choices, or the players."... so Keyboard Hero: Billy Joel confirmed? Check out the full interview for more on World Tour's song creation system.
