Amplitude

A PS4 revival of Harmonix's Amplitude, rebuilt with modern visuals and pipelines while preserving its psychedelic, abstract rhythm-game identity. The game paired fast, freeform beatmatching with an original soundtrack designed to feel narrative and emotionally driven rather than literal.

The original Amplitude had a distinct identity built around abstract visuals, speed, and musical flow, and that spirit was essential to preserve. The challenge was honoring what longtime fans loved while evolving the experience for new players and modern expectations. The revival needed to feel instantly recognizable, but not frozen in time.

At the same time, the game featured an original soundtrack with a strong emotional and narrative arc. The visuals needed to support that arc without forcing literal interpretations onto the music, allowing players to internalize meaning rather than having themes prescribed for them.

We were also operating under tight resource constraints while needing to convey scale, motion, and variety across vast spaces. And with up to four players active at once, gameplay clarity was non-negotiable. Ships, lanes, beats, and effects all had to remain readable, even with heavy motion and layered visuals on screen.

As Lead Artist, I directed the visual evolution of the game with a strong emphasis on systems over one-off environments. Levels were designed to support the narrative flow of the original soundtrack, focusing on emotional tone rather than representational themes. This allowed players to internalize the meaning of the music themselves instead of having it prescribed visually.

To address scale and scope, we developed environment systems that could be constructed extremely quickly and extended across vast spaces. These systems created the sensation of moving at high speed through enormous worlds, while still offering moments of visual detail as the camera approached surfaces and landmarks.

Ships, lanes, and VFX were carefully tuned for responsiveness and clarity, even in dense four-player scenarios. Visual feedback was designed to feel integrated into the world itself, rather than layered on top as UI or spectacle, helping the gameplay feel embedded in the environment rather than separated from it.

The project demonstrated that abstract, music-driven visuals could scale to modern hardware without losing identity or gameplay clarity. By prioritizing emotional tone over literal representation, the experience allowed players to form their own connection to the music. The system-driven approach also proved that large, expressive worlds could be built efficiently with small teams, reinforcing a production model that valued speed, readability, and musical immersion over visual excess.