The following interview between Kurt Squire and Greg LoPiccolo ofHarmonix Games (on June 22, 2010) tries to get at how Harmonix thinksabout designing games to elicit particularly musical experiences.Harmonix, developers of FreQuency, Amplitude, KaraokeRevolution, Guitar Hero I and II, and nowthe Rock Band series, is known for its pioneering workin rhythm action games, taking them from a niche genre to broadmainstream success. Sarah Chu, who transcribed and cleaned up thetranscripts, contributed interview questions as well.

Kurt Squire: Can you talk a little bit about the game designphilosophy at Harmonix and a little about how you think about gamedesign?

Greg LoPiccolo: Well, the company charter from day one was touse technology to provide nonmusicians with the tremendous experience ofcreating music. Most of the people here are musicians or frustratedmusicians or some version of that. There’s a strong consensus herethat if you have proi ciency in an instrument, performing music is one ofthe great joys in life. It is enormously fun and rewarding, but thisexperience is denied to most people because the learning curve is so steep.It really requires multiple years of focus, dedication, and time to get goodenough on a traditional instrument to really express yourself. So, broadlyconceived, the ambition here has always been to try to use technology tobring more people into that experience. Harmonix was not originallygames-specii c. It wasn’t until maybe about four or five years ago that werealized that games are an appropriate platform to bring this vision tolife.