Development
Industry rumors circulated in early 2009 of the game's existence and appeared to be true when mention of the game was shown in a slide (that was later removed) in Harmonix's Dan Teasdale's presentation at the 2009 Game Developers Conference. The game was announced officially on April 21, 2009. TT Fusion's head of animation, Matt Palmer, stated that Harmonix had approached Traveler's Tales who, in turn, approached TT Fusion on the game concept around October 2008. At that time, about 50% of the studio was against the concept, but had come around by the end of 2008, realizing that they "weren’t just skinning one franchise on another". Despite skepticism for the viability of the game, the game is stated to combine "two compelling properties" by Traveller's Tales managing director Tom Stone, and has been called "a social game experience that crosses every generation and every genre of rock" by MTV Games senior vice president Bob Picunko.
Iggy Pop voices the in-game tutorials for the game, and lends his trademark shirtless image to a Lego avatar for the game. David Bowie, along with his band and a venue loosely based on his music video for "Let's Dance", also appears in the game. The bands Queen, Blur, and Spinal Tap have Lego avatars for the game. In the case of Queen guitarist Brian May, he had required that the developers represent his hair style on his Lego caricature. John Drake of Harmonix stated the presence of Pop and Bowie add "rock credibility" to the family-friendly title. TT Fusion opted to map the motions of the Lego mini-figurines to key frame animation instead of motion capture which had been used on previous Rock Band titles, as it allowed for them to animate more exaggerated motions and effects.
Read more about this topic: Lego Rock Band
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“John B. Watson, the most influential child-rearing expert [of the 1920s], warned that doting mothers could retard the development of children,... Demonstrations of affection were therefore limited. “If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say goodnight. Shake hands with them in the morning.””
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“Dissonance between family and school, therefore, is not only inevitable in a changing society; it also helps to make children more malleable and responsive to a changing world. By the same token, one could say that absolute homogeneity between family and school would reflect a static, authoritarian society and discourage creative, adaptive development in children.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)