I was the Lead Designer of Rock Band Blitz. I also designed Rock Band World, a Facebook app that extends the social, competitive, and collaborative aspects of the game.
The game originated from a shelved prototype, created by another Harmonix team. I was tasked with re-envisioning the game within the Rock Band ecosystem as well as creating a concept for a Facebook app that would enrich the game. I wrote the original pitches for these new products, refining them until we were ready to build a team around them.
During development, I was responsible for design decisions related to every aspect of the game, including: core mechanics, metagame/progression, tuning/balancing, competitive/cooperative play, UI/UX, economy, DLC purchase incentivization, Facebook app connectivity, and social mechanics.
In all this design work, my most important role was to crisply define the high-level vision and to curate the collaborative process that would fill in the details. As I was the only designer on the team, I democratized the design process and actively involved all team members, from whom so many great ideas originated.
The game received a Metacritic rating of 78. It was the top-selling XBLA game of September 2012 and sold well overall in the context of all 2012 XBLA releases.
I spoke on a panel at PAX East 2012 called “Harmonix and the Evolution of Beatmatch Gameplay.” You can read Joystiq’s summary, or watch the full panel below.