Projects

Latest:

The Beatles: Rock Band

There is something kind of awe-inspiring about being entrusted with the image of the most legendary band of all time. It's like trying to do justice to Chopin, or trying to capture the essence of Shakespeare... but while they're alive, looking over your shoulder, and occasionally frowning. Ultimately, I think we did them justice. We introduced a new generation of fans to the music which not only defined the time they were in, but defined how music would be produced for decades to come.

Lego Rock Band (console)

I'll admit: I was skeptical at first too. Think about it, though, and it makes sense. Lego Rock Band is a fusion of musical gameplay with an established family-friendly shell. Traveler's Tales did a great job developing friendlier lego-centric gameplay mechanics in an exciting world. Where else are you going to run from a lego tyrannosaurs rex while playing the guitar solo from The Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla"? This lets the main game line push deeper into more mature, somber themes, while having a version that anybody can play.

Lego Rock Band (Nintendo DS)

The DS version is a unique property, with Rock Band Unplugged-like button based gameplay and a strong multiplayer component. This was handled by the great people at Backbone Entertainment. Well done, guys!

Recent:

Rock Band Unplugged

Portable Rock Band? If you've played phase, you might have some idea what is coming here. This is multitrack button-based rhythm gameplay at it's finest. Instead of just reskinning what had come before, the guys at Backbone took creative ownership and really ran with a difficult problem.

Again, interacting with Backbone was a joy. I always knew playtest results would be taken and thought about seriously. Which is not to say they cowtowed (the response would sometimes be "you're on crack and here is why") but the response would always be well thought out and would advance the overall dialog.

Also thanks to DJ Philip Tan and MIT Gambit for letting us use their facilities for running external playtests. Thanks for supporting the local development community, guys!

Rock Band 2

Sometimes life gives you second chances. Rock Band 2 was a chance to polish up RB1 with all of the things that we didn't have time to do before (And fix that awful add-a-player screen from RB1. Sorry about that!).

The biggest feature that we managed to add, which involved no small amount of technical and legal hurdles, was musical continuation. Up until this point, when you bought any game sequel, the stuff from the previous game was firewalled off to you. This didn't fit the soul of music. On Rock Band 2, we worked with Microsoft, Sony, the record labels, the artists, armies of lawers, and swaths of programmers to change that metaphor. Suddenly, everything you bought lived within one experiential world. The music continued, it was just a question of which particular game you wanted to experience it in.

Rock Band 1

Rock Band was a difficult nut to crack. We knew we wanted to replicate the sense of being in a full band, but what did that even mean? This wouldn't have been possible without an amazing design team, including the in-the-moment Rob Kay (Gutiar Hero), the deep thinking Dan Teasdale (Destroy All Humans), and the ever systematizing Chris Foster (Dungeons & Dragons Online). They were all at the top of their games.

Phase

Phase was a unique design challenge, as the system dynamically composed gem tracks to any music that the player might give to it. As such, the larger narrative structure, as well as the moment-to-moment gameplay, had to be as comfortable with Cowboy Troy as it was with Plushgun. This was also for the 4th generation iPod (yes, before the iPod touch), which was a wholly unproven platform for gaming.

I did 2 months of preproduction prototyping on this fun little title before the final design and team was decided upon. I was pulled off Phase to work on Rock Band.

Gutiar Hero 2

Guitar Hero 2 was one of the bestselling games of 2006, and has developed a cult following. To this day there are people who swear it is the best of the Gutiar Hero line. As the designer on the project, I saw the need to fix the narrative shortcomings of Guitar Hero 2, immerse the player more deeply into the real aspects of the touring musician lifestyle, and give the fans something to be really excited about again. I'd say we succeeded at all of those goals.

Older:

Karaoke Revolution: Party

Virtually begging to be played while drinking or doing other things we couldn't put on the box, Karaoke Revolution: Party is a party game through and through. Dispelling with the lives, the levels, and the controller, KRP creates a strangely compelling experience without everything that is considered standard in a modern game design.

Not only that, but KRP has a full Sing and Dance mode, with the dance authoring effort spearheaded by yours truly. As the legendary Dance Dance Revolution music game series has always had a big influence on me, and it was a dream come true to not just work on it, but to help reinvent it.

EyeToy: AntiGrav

In an industry not known for originality, Harmonix stands out as a company willing to take risks. Creators of Amplitude, Frequency, and Karaoke Revolution, Harmonix has decided to tackle a stunt boarding game driven entirely by a camera mimmocking the player's movements.

Creating a complicated game highly dependent upon the performance of an unproven technology in real-world situations was challenging, but the outcome was definitely worth the effort. Reaction has been strong, earning Eyetoy Antigrav places in more than a dozen must-have lists, in publications ranging from Parade to MTV.com.

I still think it was one of the most underrated games of 2003. A big part of that was our fault: we didn't expect expect the inherent problems using the low-dynamic-range camera in real living room situations, which caused problems for many users. However, if you have the chance, and a realtively quiet living room in the middle of the night, I strongly recommend the experience.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World

Mixing one part Historical Real Time Strategy and one part pick-up-and-go fun, Dawn of the Modern World lets you build an Empire from nothingness, struggle through adversity, and finally gloat on the field of battle as your enemies are carted away. Historically accurate munitions mix with spells and effects in what IGN called "One thousand years of history, one thousand hours of fun"

NCAA Basketball 2K3

Sega Sports / VCE / Kush is proud to present NCAA Basketball 2k3. Being the first year the college game has been split from the main NBA 2K line, this was to be a big proving ground for Kush and VCE. Thankfully, things came out quite well. With a critically acclaimed legacy mode, more open action on the floor, and dead-on statistics, NCAA Basketball 2K3 was the best college hoops game the year it was released. It's even held up in value significantly better than the rest of the 2k3 lineup, owing to great design, good gameplay, and intelligently selected options.

...IGN review

Entrepreneurship:

Quiet Computer Consulting

Quiet Computer Consulting was New England's only noise reduction-focused computer consulting company. We specialized in low-cost solutions for college students, home offices, sound recordings, and anyone who might need large amounts of computing power without large amounts of noise.

From this network of clients, QCC branched out into general computer consulting, with a focus on small business owners. The business ran successfully from 2002 until 2009, when I folded it to focus on other opportunities.

California Cycling Adventures

CCA was a small group of cycling enthusiasts bound by a desire to do something truly memorable that nobody around us thought possible. Inspired by the Aids ride but frustrated by their unfortunate habit of conflicting with Finals week, we decided to do the impossible and create an unsupported ride from Los Angeles to San Fransisco on a 300 dollar budget consisting entirely of people who had never done such a thing before. I led that first 500 mile ride, as well as several others. I also did a previously undefined 1,300 mile ride from Oregon to Tia Juana, though that was solo.

We slept on campgrounds, ate at some of California's best and worst resturants, and gained a sense of ownership and stewardship over the most beautiful coastline in the world. We spoke to retired parents of globetrotting stars who never called home, homeless bums who are that way because they refused to give up their dogs, and park rangers who dreamed of saving the world but settled for tending a small patch of it. While we never had any explicitly stated goals except for success, we achieved far more than we had set out to.