Release: 2007
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Wii
Studio: Harmonix
Publisher: MTV Games, Electronic Arts
rockband.com
Created by the team behind the first two Guitar Hero titles, Rock Band included options for drums and vocals, allowing a group of players to play together as a complete band.

Rock Band was my first gig in video games. My experience running Linux usability studies landed me in Harmonix's fledgling user research department, where I went from watching one person argue with a desktop OS about email, to watching four people argue with each other about Metallica.

My main function was to relieve the handful of developers who had been running ad-hoc playtests whenever they could, and help better organize the process.  Our primary goals  were to survive crunch, ensure that songs were introduced to the player in order of difficulty, and to stress-test the new guitar, drum, and microphone hardware before launch.


My contributions included...
  • Introducing formal research processes and methodologies to the playtesting system.
  • Recruiting and managing a database of potential playtesters by demographic.
  • Analyzing and reporting research data to evaluate short and long term issues.
  • Organizing an inventory of controller hardware for distribution amongst developers.
 
Typical design questions
  • How do we build a genuine feeling of camaraderie within a band?
  • When four people play together, who controls which UI functions, and how?
  • What makes drumming fun?  What makes it feel authentic?