Rhythm and Motion

As the Nintendo Wii came out of the shadow of the Nintendo Revolution rumor, movement based gaming suddenly received a jolt of life on the home console. Games that were traditionally thought of as arcade titles and not feasible for the home environment were now entirely possible and encouraged.

However, the gaming community began to see this as a dilution of their hallowed pastime. Now that everyone was encouraged to play since the controller became as complicated as their bodily movement, gamers felt that their hobby was no longer unique and the hardcore games were fading away for more family friendly titles.

Those rabbids are...ravin'.

The first wave were games like "Red Steel" or the surprisingly popular "Rayman: Raving Rabbids." Simply enough, the tech focused on moving the controller in time with directions or beats to get the correct sequence. I mention these before the shameful peripheral that was the PlayStation EyeToy or even the home version of "Dance Dance Revolution" because the Wii games were actually considered triple-a titles.


"Red Steel" was shamed and hailed as a glitchy and bugged-out game that should never have been a launch title. Sad, but true for the game that was actually somewhat fun if it wasn't for the awful use of motion control. "Rabbids," however, was socially looked down on, but reviewers and consumers ate it up. The gaming community couldn't really see any interest in it, and yet copies sold.


It took time, but eventually Nintendo figured out a somewhat workable use for the Wiimote and it became commonplace and accepted to a degree to those who were fans of the company. Soon, Sony and Microsoft were announcing their own movement based peripherals that were eerily similar to Nintendo's design, except for the Kinect using everything but a physical item in your hand.


Now, motion-based gameplay is still a gimmick, but one that gaming companies use cautiously. "Ghost Recon: Future Soldier" used in in their weapon customization system, which was probably the best use for the Xbox Kinect in recent years. The Nintendo Wii's motion controls have been streamlined so much so that even a novice to video gaming can use the system to workout with. Oprah gave her entire audience Wii systems and copies of "Wii Fit" during a taping of her daytime talk show. Sony still remains an the back of the race, unable to truly garner the attention of their customers to the PlayStation Move, awarding it a mediocre place in history just like the EyeToy.

What with "Dance Central" and "Just Dance" on Xbox and the Wii, motion controls are becoming more sophisticated than ever, completely removing the need for the "Dance Dance Revolution" floor pads.


The fever pitch of dancing games and music-based gameplay would not have reached the fever pitch that it did without the success of Harmonix's "Guitar Hero" franchise, which has been taken over by Neversoft, or their other music-based hit series, "Rock Band." Gamers could now feel a connection to something other than cyclops evisceration and collecting coins by working to make the chords and notes of their favorite songs happen. They felt a sense of accomplishment, and there was even a feeling of skill as people began to master certain songs.


Of course, gaming companies felt that this meant they could make comebacks for lightguns and props. Who could forget the completely awkward and unusable attachments to Wiimotes for "Wii Sports" made by Nerf? Or the ineffective and cumbersome Wii Zapper? Let's not forget the serious piece of hardware that Sony made recently that looks almost exactly like the Wii Zapper for their Move controllers and shooter games.


As musical gaming became more sophisticated and mainstream, drum sets were added along with keyboards and microphones that detected correct pitch. An entire band could be formed in a living room instead of a garage. The logical evolution? "Rocksmith."

The Vault tested out the effectiveness of "Rocksmith" and proved that it is indeed a working learning tool for those players looking to strum a six string. Now the gauntlet has been thrown down, and gamer speculation rises as to what the next instrument or game will be to teach the masses rather than just entertain them.


Success in both movement and music simulators, a term used hesitantly now as "Rocksmith" actually teaches the player, is an excellent lesson in game development and market manipulation.


Nintendo took a chance with the Wii. One could argue that motion-based gameplay was the evolution of the industry, but nonetheless it was a gamble to be the first in the running with that. Again, we must acknowledge Sony's attempt with the EyeToy, but it's utter failure cannot be ignored. It was no competition for a system built around motion control.

Even the marketing focused on physical movement.

The idea of the player actually moving meant that they were invested in the action and the game more than if they were merely sitting in a chair and watching their character do all the action. It's the sense of accomplishment that one gets from actually killing the dragon instead of watching someone else do it as you press four buttons. Of course, games are not there just yet, but they are moving towards it.


To that same idea, however, a gamer getting a high score when playing "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" feels that they've actually done something because they've made the music. Yes, they are still pressing buttons, but "Rocksmith" and the pro peripherals for "Rock Band" change the playing field because at that point a gamer is using an actual instrument.


How do game makers achieve a sense of accomplishment and investment in their games? If a developer can get the player more involved in a game, surely they'll want to keep coming back for more That's half the reason conversation options exist in RPGs, so that the player feels that they are responsible for the choices and events that occur. If that could be translated into actions, then perhaps something big would happen.


Looking at the musical game evolution, the argument could be made for the idea that if the player is engaged in learning something, then they will be more invested and more motivated to play. The "Dance Central" games may teach someone nothing but line dancing techniques, but they do teach you something. There have been no recorded instances of people actually dancing like that in clubs, but it's really only a matter of time now.

From a handheld device, to a person.

Buttons no longer do the job of getting the player into the game. As gaming has become more social, mental and physical through multiplayer, engaging storylines and technological advancements, more is expected from a game. People are now used to epic storylines spanning several games like "Mass Effect." A multiplayer element that pits gamers against other gamers where stories and experiences can be shared is almost standard in any game that features a gun. If the game uses motion controls, the way to garner success seems to be teaching something actually relevant that can be used with others or to give a desired outcome like learning an instrument or getting fit.


The bar has been raised, expectations have been changed and just sitting on the couch doesn't cut it anymore. The industry has changed and it's time for games to reflect that.

Industry Interview with Nao Higo of Ubisoft

So, we went to Ubisoft when we were making our Rocksmith experiment with the burning questions you submitted to us, and Nao Higo, one of the producers of the game, was kind enough to talk to us about the experiment and working on the game! And he was even kinder by letting us know some very important information about an upcoming expansion! Hankering to learn bass guitar though? NEVER FEAR! Higo confirmed that it is true that Ubisoft is indeed making a bass guitar portion for the game so look out for that in the future!

When we asked Higo what he thought of the experiment itself, he said, "I thought it was really great! In terms of you guys really taking the time and trying to do it as scientific as you can achieve with the people that you have available...I thought that was a great thing."

Nao Higo himself!

So not only was I feeling really good about our team, I felt even better that one of the professionals behind this game even said that he liked our experiment. Well done, GCV, well done. But enough of that! Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

We began to talk about the game itself, and really what the goal was behind making a game like this that was so outside the realm of Ubisoft's usual fare.

"I think the key thing that really started it off is that our president here in the San Francisco office, Laurent Detoc, he is actually a guitarist," said Higo. "But he's really into games with benefits. So games that actually have something you can take away from the game...So when he came across this piece of technology made by the guys over at GameTank, he was really excited about it when he first saw it."

GameTank, as you can already guess, is the company that developed the software the Ubisoft utilized in Rocksmith. GameTank is now a part of Ubisoft, as Rolling Stone explains in their article about the development of the game.

"But then when the project came around our way...we said 'Okay, well, where are we going to take this game and what are we going to do with it? Is it going to be a hardcore guitar game...or are we going to try and make it a guitar game for everyone?' I think the reason why we picked our approach was simply because Paul [Paul Cross - Creative director for the game] and I didn't know how to play the guitar whatsoever. I hadn't even held a guitar in my hands till getting involved in this project." Higo explained.

So the team was now faced with the challenge of getting guys like Higo and Cross to play the guitar and what it would take to get that done, shaking the screen and the audience sometimes booing. The first barrier they had to get over was getting the player comfortable with just "making noise" Higo talked about how other music games let you know when you get things wrong right away. The biggest fear of musicians is making a fool of themselves when they screw up, and the team had to find a way to make sure the player didn't fall into the trap while learning.

As far as the music is concerned, we noticed and you can too if you research the game and the set list, that there is a broad range of types of artists and guitarists. It felt like the creators were trying to reach every kind of taste with the game. 

"We actually wanted to cover a range of genres and relative difficulty of playing so that people who are newbies at playing the guitar can have songs that are immensely fun for beginners to play while we offer songs that are for people who are familiar with playing the guitar...there's still enough of a challenge," Higo said.

While other games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero sold well in America, Ubisoft noticed that their foreign sales and feedback were lacking as the markets there felt the songs were a little too "US centric." 

Higo went on to explain that "We looked at some of the competing products out on the market as far as rhythm games and what they've done as far as their music lineup, and we thought about it from a worldwide appeal standpoint."

Switching gears for a second,  I want to ask you a question: Did you see a lot of advertisement for Rocksmith about? No? Well, neither did I. I assumed it was because the game itself required, a system and an actual electric guitar. The amount of gamers that have something as expensive as an instrument is probably not as high as you think, so that being said, mass advertising might have reached people who didn't really understand that they needed a real guitar to play it.

What's scary was that I was right. Higo explained that they didn't want people to feel robbed by the game if they bought it and didn't have all the necessary equipment needed to enjoy it. So from their first press announcement, they tried to get the message across that you needed a real guitar. If you saw that announcement, you would have seen a bunch of people just plugging in electric guitars to systems and jamming away, no game screen, no gameplay, nothing but people with actual instruments.

And now, something for you educational buffs. I asked about the decisions in regards to what notes and information to give the player as the difficulty increased, and Higo said that they had a team of people breaking down each song and the technique challenges working on the game. So, naturally, they went to that team and their teaching experience to help make the decisions on where the player would be in learning a song and how they would teach the player.

Playing video games and guitar at the same time. For science.

Higo also talked about how they've seen people progress much further by playing the other songs the game recommends and the technique challenges along with specific songs. We have to agree with him because if we hadn't done the technique challenges we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did with the game.

After we stopped joking about "introducing the pinky" when you play, I asked Higo what one of the biggest challenges was when working on the game.

"From a development standpoint I think the biggest challenge was trying to convey all the necessary information to the player in a way where it's still coherent, in a way that people can still process." With all that is being thrown at the player, Ubisoft didn't want to clutter the screen with information or make the player feel overwhelmed when looking at the screen. So, of course, the decision was to make the game as streamlined as possible for the player's benefit.

One of the things that they didn't expect while working on the project was having to build a game with such a small team as the project itself was a gamble. Higo talked about how they couldn't ramp up the team size and had to take their time with production because they didn't know how the game would go over. Every day was a new challenge that they overcame.

Well there you have it folks! We're so thankful to Nao Higo and his team for making this game and for taking the time to talk to us. 

The videos detailing out experiment with Rocksmith can be viewed right here:

Rocksmith Experiment: Week 1 -


Rocksmith Experiment: Week 2 -

Rock on Vault fans!