RB3 - Development

Development

Despite previous success of rhythm games, the genre as a whole saw nearly a 50% drop in revenues in 2009; sales of top-tier titles The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 were significantly off from initial projections. Part of this has been attributed to the late-2000s recession limiting new purchases, but other analysis have speculated that consumers had grown tired of purchasing new iterations of instrument controllers for the same gameplay. While designing Rock Band 3, Harmonix sought to capture the playing experience that "really started this whole phenomenon in the first place", according to project director Daniel Sussman. Harmonix's CEO, Alex Rigopulos, stated that "Our ambition for Rock Band 3 was really to re-energize and reinvigorate the (music game) category and advance it and move it forward." In introducing the game to journalists at a closed media event about a month prior to the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Harmonix called Rock Band 3 a "disruptive title" for the music game industry. Another aspect that Harmonix considered was "a ground-up rebuild of the Rock Band platform" and how players could interact better with the game and music library, according to Sussman.

Harmonix included the keyboard controller to help address these goals. The keyboard functionality was "designed basically to answer that staleness factor" that has been seen in music games, as said by Sussman. The gameplay for Basic keys was designed so that it was party-accessible, simple, and easy for existing Rock Band players to learn. Pro keys, on the other hand, was designed so that it would be fun playing the accurate song. The team also included Pro mode to help invigorate existing players to give them new challenges, aimed at those that "had any aspirations of connecting with the music in a deeper way", according to senior designer Sylvain Dubrofsky. Sussman commented that the combination of existing and new gameplay modes provides "an experience that is both accessible to players who are just getting into this thing, and builds something for the hard-core player who is maybe a little bored with where music games are". Sussman noted that there still remains a large gap between mastering the Pro modes and playing real instruments: "We see Pro as a different experience from the five-button simulation, but not necessarily a track to expertise." Sussman further commented that inclusion of Pro mode, particularly at higher difficulty levels, was "because it shows the potential ceiling of where this can take you". However, Harmonix was still dedicated to helping to "open doors" for players interested in learning real musical instruments, such as by including appropriate music fundamentals that can be used outside of the game. Harmonix created the Pro Guitar charts for songs through careful audio interpretation of master tracks and through watching live performances of the songs to ensure they were using the correct chords.