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Game Franchise · Lead Environment Artist · Harmonix

Rock Band

A modular, music-driven venue and performance system built to adapt environments, visuals, and presentation on a per-song basis. Using real-time control systems and guided authoring, the platform translated music into color, lighting, avatar animation, post-processing, and camera movement-so every track felt visually distinct while still living inside a cohesive system.

It also supported a "rise to fame" narrative, using world-map navigation, venue progression, and interstitial cutscenes to show a band growing in popularity and traveling the globe over the course of their career.

Rock band members on gritty urban street with neon signs and smoky atmosphere
Character creator interface showing customization options for band member

What I Built

I designed and implemented the modular environment and visual control systems that let music directly drive how venues behaved, including:

  • Systems for direct music control via MIDI, later evolving into automated visual generation based on song structure and analysis
  • Modular venue components that could dynamically adjust color, lighting, animation, post-processing, and camera movement
  • Scalable frameworks that created visual variety across thousands of tracks without manual per-song setup
  • Player identity systems for band names, logos, and visual branding, integrated directly into stage design
  • Narrative layers that carried avatars beyond the venue—through menus, cutscenes, and progression moments—to support a persistent "rise to fame" journey
  • A unified experience model tying performance, identity, progression, and narrative into a single touring fantasy
  • Optimization and performance testing across all platforms, ensuring consistent visual quality and frame rates while supporting dynamic music-driven content at scale
  • Internal team management through all phases of development, providing oversight on all aspects of environment design, from initial concept through final implementation
Band performing on futuristic illuminated stage with geometric platform and dramatic lighting
Gameplay interface showing three-lane instrument tracks with band performing on stage
Rock Band game peripherals including electronic drums, guitar controller, foot pedal, and game case

Recognition & Impact

The Rock Band franchise received widespread industry recognition, including Game of the Year, Innovation, Design, Technology, Multiplayer, and Audio awards from D.I.C.E., GDC, BAFTA, and other major industry bodies, alongside over $1B in lifetime revenue and tens of millions of players worldwide.

Credits

Role

Senior Artist / Art Lead

Studio

Harmonix

Publisher

MTV Games / EA

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