Book Excerpt: 'Music Games Rock: Rhythm Gaming's Greatest Hits of All Time'

Sept. 26, 2011 — -- Scott Steinberg, the CEO of TechSavvyGlobal, is out today with a new book about music video games. "Music Games Rock: Rhythm Gaming's Greatest Hits of All Time" (2011, Power Play Publishing) is free to download at www.MusicGamesRock.com, and is also available on iBooks, Kindle ($2.99) and in paperback ($24.99) editions. Here is a sampling:

Behind the Music: The Making of Guitar Hero

Thanks to an abundance of groove-inducing titles like Mad Maestro and the Dance Dance Revolution games, the PlayStation 2 was the hottest place to watch sound and vision collide for a very long time.

But it wasn't until publisher RedOctane shipped Guitar Hero in 2005 that aspiring rock stars with an axe to grind really got… well, an axe to grind. "It was the first game to actually make players feel like a famous musician," says Greg LoPiccolo, SVP of Product Development for series creator Harmonix. "You can party hard, even if you don't know how to carry a simple tune."

Thank the impressive plastic guitar controller the package shipped with, through which participants could jam along simultaneously with on-screen indicators. Sporting a whammy bar, strum bar, five fret buttons and a built-in tilt sensor, the home console device – the first of its kind in America – wasn't just a marvel of engineering. It was also the realization of a dream initially envisioned over a decade ago…

Founded in 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, two students who met while working at MIT's Media Lab, Harmonix wasn't created to be just a typical production house – it was a company with a mission. "The goal was to leverage technology to provide non-musicians with the opportunity to experience what it was like making music," explains LoPiccolo, "and to essentially remove the drudgery of learning insanely complex motor skills and let people jump right into expressing themselves."

Unfortunately, early experiments inventing tech toys like The Axe – PC software that turned joysticks and mice into musical instruments – and creating attractions for Disney's Epcot Center proved strangely unfulfilling. It wasn't until 1999, following an influx of manpower from now-defunct game developer Looking Glass Studios, that things really clicked and the seeds for Guitar Hero's genesis were first sown.

"There was this huge infusion of talent from the gaming biz into the company," LoPiccolo says. "Furthermore, Japanese titles like PaRappa The Rapper were just starting to catch on domestically and within six months, we knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was where the future of the firm lay."

Harmonix's first effort for home consoles, futuristic rhythm-based action outing FreQuency (2001), merely affirmed how sound a decision it was. Industry heavyweights knew a good thing when they saw it, says LoPiccolo – Sony snatched up rights to the critically-acclaimed smash within 15 minutes of the title's presentation. Its equally impressive successor, Amplitude, also proved to be yet another feather in the company's cap when it arrived to rave reviews two years later.

Wooed by the fledgling hitmaker's success, Konami soon called on the outfit to create its highly-regarded Karaoke Revolution series, while Sony also showed continued support by partnering with Harmonix on 2004 release EyeToy: AntiGrav. So it was no surprise when RedOctane – then known primarily for dance mat controllers – contacted the firm in January 2005 with an indecent proposal. The plan: Create a game that'd transform everyday people into rock-n-roll legends.

"We believed in the concept and specifically wanted to work with Harmonix to bring a guitar controller-based game for the US market," explains Dean Ku, then VP of Marketing for RedOctane. "After a few discussions, it was clear we shared the same vision for the title."

Initially skeptical, the firm eventually agreed to the deal. "The timing was serendipitous," admits LoPiccolo. "We had a team free and the more we thought about it, the more we realized this was the game we wanted to make as well."

"It only made sense," he laughs. "More than half the people here are current or former band members; being in prominent Boston act Tribe was how I myself first came into contact with people from the gaming industry, after all."

Still, schedules were tight, resources limited (the game was built in only nine months using a 30-man team) and morale questionable. "We didn't know the title would be successful. It was pretty much a crapshoot," LoPiccolo confesses. Days into the project though, things just clicked.

"My brother has a bachelor pad with an enormous projection TV and giant stereo," he says. "The first week, we took a giant stack of rock DVDs and went to his place to watch vintage concert footage. Everyone started fighting to get their favorite tunes in the game – I knew we were off to a great start."

And start they did, time and again, with over half a dozen software prototypes being made in total. After putting each through a rigorous series of tests (imagine the Air Guitar Olympics), the team would refine its design and begin development anew. Making matters worse, though, was the lack of access to their own guitar controller.

"RedOctane periodically sent us test units from the factory in China," LoPiccolo chuckles, "and to their credit, our associates there added all the features we requested, even if we didn't know exactly what they'd be used for when those requests were made. But we pretty much had to just do our thing and trust they'd come through in the end…"

As a temporary substitute, similarly-styled gamepads from a Japanese guitar-playing simulation were imported. Trouble was, the cheaply-made gizmos kept breaking. As such, over 100 in total were ordered with the vast majority ending up in an impromptu parking lot bonfire. Still, these units successfully served as a replacement until finished product arrived, and happily, these were everything the team dreamed of and more.

Though only a small publisher at the time, RedOctane's five years of experience making game accessories had taught it one thing: Sometimes, you've got put your money where your mouth is. "We felt that the hardware was a critical component of play," chuckles Ku, "and committed to its excellence from the start."

This in itself speaks volumes towards explaining the presence of Gibson Guitars in the original game, not to mention the legendary music manufacturer's obvious influence on the design of its unique controller. Unfortunately there was just one problem at the time: had the project failed, so too would Red Octane. "We literally bet the farm on Guitar Hero," says Ku, "and then doubled down on [the peripheral]."

All that remained was finalizing the soundtrack – "We were shooting for working class, meathead rock and roll," LoPiccolo says. But once again, fate smiled upon the dynamic duo, with one record label after another consenting to include songs on the disc. The final tally, which included over 30 punk, hard rock and heavy metal hits featuring everyone from Black Sabbath to Sum 41, was even better than anticipated.

The results spoke for themselves; despite being previously unheard of and a massive risk for both publisher and developer, the game ended up flying off store shelves faster than retailers could stock it. More than just pure sales figures though, Guitar Hero – regardless of it being based on design principles previously introduced in Frequency and Amplitude – didn't just sweep the nation. It also paved the way for future generations of mind-blowing, sonically-gifted games to come.

"It proved our original concept was valid: people love to make music," explains LoPiccolo. "Celebrities were into the game, consumers showed tremendous passion for the product and our phone was finally ringing off the hook. We actually felt like real Billboard artists must do."

RedOctane's Ku echoes the sentiment: "We were relieved that Guitar Hero was recognized by critics and fans alike. The fact it ended up being a huge sales success is also a positive, I suppose…"

Having gone on to become a multibillion-dollar franchise that's transformed the face of pop culture itself (and inspired entire South Park episodes), it's safe to say the team's experiment paid off for fans of histrionic power chords and finger-blistering solos in spades. Therefore, although temporarily benched by publisher Activision, it bears repeating.

As the game which changed a nation, and blew open the doors for the countless chart-topping artists and acoustically-inclined titles to come, realize. Whatever your stance on music and rhythm games, there's no discounting the influence the franchise -- a veritable rock of ages -- had, and will inevitably continue to exert via new vehicles like social networks and smartphones, on both society at large, and the video game world.