Session Name: | Break it Down! How Harmonix and Kinect Taught the World to Dance; The Design Process and Philosophy of Dance Central |
Speaker(s): | Dean Tate |
Company Name(s): | Harmonix Music |
Track / Format: | Game Design |
Overview: |
Join two Harmonix designers as they recount the story of how Dance Central came to be. With the introduction of Kinect, Harmonix saw the opportunity to create a game it had long dreamt about, one that could make learning to dance as fun as dancing itself. Despite a dependency on evolving technology, in just over a year's development time the team managed to create a game that not only realized this dream but also became a genre defining experience for full-body motion gaming. In order to accomplish this feat, the team employed novel practices to shape and refine the goal, rule out interesting but problematic concepts, and ultimately drive towards the core mechanics of what is now Dance Central. |