Highlight — 2007 to 2008
Hired out of David Perry's "Project Top Secret" competition to design his Guitar Hero-style, browser-based multiplayer game, which later shipped as Rock Free, published by Acclaim Games.
In the press
“After just seven days, Perry had already hired the first fan from the forum for his personal team: the young German Michael Liebwein. Perry considers him so talented that he lets him work out another of his ideas.”
Original: „Perry hat bereits nach sieben Tagen den ersten Fan aus dem Forum heraus für sein persönliches Team (siehe GameConsultants.com) angeheuert: den jungen Deutschen Michael Liebwein. Perry hält ihn für so talentiert, dass er ihn eine weitere seiner Ideen ausarbeiten lässt.“
Jörg Langer, GameStar 06/2007, p. 179 · my translation · Liebwein is my birth name
What I did
I surveyed the music and band games of the day: Guitar Hero I and II, the upcoming Rock Band, and open-source projects like Frets on Fire.
I analyzed those games and similar ones, such as Dance! Online and its competitors, to identify the key mechanics that worked or stood out, and that should be replicated or integrated into the new game. And of course I was also encouraged to give the whole thing my personal spin with own ideas and inspriation from other games I had played in the past.
I researched and compiled visual reference guides for the artists.
I created flowcharts of the game’s progression and dependencies between the different systems/mechanics.
I distilled and compiled everything into proper sections in the game design document so the rest of the team had an overview how things were supposed to come together.
I took part in the meetings with the off-shore development team.
Show me more!
Because of the non-disclosure agreement I signed when I was hired, I can’t show the reference compilations, game design documents or mechanics overviews I created there. I am truly sorry about that - they were actually quite cool :)
Why it ended
At the time splitting my attention between games and my IT consultancy started to wear me out and I had to make a decision — and since there was not enough GameConsultants budget yet to bring me on full-time, I had to let go and focus on dreizehnelf. Real bummer. :(
Before the job
Participants were asked to explain Dance! Online, its mechanics and its unique angle as well as come up with possible features for future releases. This three-page overview was my entry, made before I was hired and before any non-disclosure agreement. Click a page to see it full size.
The context
In 2007 David Perry opened the design of an online game to his fans: tens of thousands of hobby designers took part through a forum, with the winner promised a game project of their own, including team and financing. GameStar counted about 28,000 participants. The contest itself ran on into 2008.
Game developer who founded Shiny Entertainment in 1993 (Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah, Enter the Matrix) and left in 2006. He then worked as an independent game consultant, among others for Acclaim, before co-founding the cloud gaming company Gaikai in 2008, which Sony acquired in 2012.
Acclaim Entertainment, founded in New York in 1987, published hits like Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam and Turok before going bankrupt in 2004. The brand was revived in 2006 as Acclaim Games, a publisher of free-to-play online games, among them Dance! Online and RockFree. It was sold to Playdom in 2010 and closed that summer.
A free-to-play multiplayer dancing game from Acclaim Games with licensed music from Warner Music Group. Players pressed arrow or WASD keys, or used a dance pad, in time with the music while avatars danced together in a shared 3D room, and bought song packs and outfits with real money. The closed beta began in January 2007 and the open beta in April 2007. The game was shut down in 2010.
A free browser-based rhythm game in the style of Guitar Hero, published by Acclaim. After a closed beta in November 2008 it opened to the public in March 2009. Players hit notes with the number and cursor keys, competed in rock battles of up to eight players and could upload their own songs, including ones made for Frets on Fire. Cover versions came from Wavegroup, the studio behind the Guitar Hero covers. Songs were licensed for 90 days and renewed with the in-game currency Coins. It closed with Acclaim’s other free-to-play games in 2010.