roland13x

@roland13x Even though I'm a bit bummed by the actual star count, I really do appreciate Justin and Joystiq taking the time to review our game! Seriously appreciate it!

Hey guys,

I'm Bryan at Epicenter. Aside from not liking the musical selection and some knocks on the note tracking, it sounded like Justin actually had fun playing the game once he realized it wasn't what he had originally expected. While I do think we probably could have pushed the musical aspect of the gameplay a bit further, we never set out to create a core rhythm game. Rock of the Dead is much more of a twitch/action game that has elements of the rhythm genre while using a rather unique control scheme. When we first started working on the game, my biggest fear was that it would turn into an interactive music video, and we wanted to create a Game game, not a GH or RB knockoff.

@Courtney - The player gets to select which enemy they attack first by playing that particular enemy's first note or chord. This way you can decide to attack enemies that are the most dangerous to you and/or try to steal your co-op partner's kills (who doesn't like a little competition in your co-op?)

@PixelHustler I can go into that a little bit for sure.

We actually started developing the game on all three platforms at once using different internal teams. As you know, it just takes more time to get art and tech ready on the HD platforms, so around January this year, even though they were all started at the same time, the Wii was much closer to completion.

One of our biggest fears was that someone else was going to make a similar game. The concept just seemed too damn obvious, and there's roughly 6.8 billion guitars and drums out there, so it seemed doubly obvious. I know gamers don't want to hear a developer talk about budgets, but we're a damn tiny studio, so if one of the big boys decided to make a similar concept, we were screwed.

We decided that even though the 360/PS3 versions were still coming along nicely, we should announce the game and show the Wii version as soon as possible. At the very least, we'd be "the first" to bring the concept out. Think of it as an aggressive defense.

I don't think we actually called it an exclusive, but since we hadn't talked about the other platforms yet, I think people sort of went in that direction.

And now as it turns out, the HD versions are coming out first, which is not at all what we anticipated when we started this game. But that's the funny thing about game development...you just never know how stuff is going to turn out, and you often finding yourself just rolling with the punches as best you can.

At the end of the day though, we're really happy with how the game turned out, and absolutely cannot wait for people to check it out.

Thanks for asking by the way!

@adv2k169 Hello! Yeah, music games traditionally sell very well on the Wii...stop reminding me! :)

As far as the DLC vs. retail disc...this game is actually quite a big chunk of game. It takes our testers, who have been playing this thing for, what, 8 months now, over 6 hours to play through the game. New players on higher difficulty levels should take longer. Plus there's a ton of replayability...and personally, same-console multiplayer means I'd be playing it over again quite often.

And frankly, it's actually too huge for a DLC game. We're talking GIGs of fun! And I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned before, but this is going to come out at a $39.99 price.

Anyway, don't be afraid of giving it a chance!

@koehler83 Hey man! There are quite a few reasons why the notes are horizontal. The biggest reason is for gameplay purposes. During some missions, we have a dozen or so enemies on-screen at any time. The horizontal bar helps fit all these guys in there. There are other, more boring reasons (hello video game patents that small indie studios need to avoid!), but the reality is these horizontal measures worked best for the game.

Besides, that's how sheet music is read. Also, that's how PaRappa did it. And you can't argue with the dog.

Hey guys, I'm one of the founders of Epicenter. Just wanted to clear a few things up as there's a ton of info going around now, and not much of it is really true.

We absolutely love the Wii here at Epicenter. Our first two games were Wii exclusives...hell, our first game was a WiiWare Japanese launch title. As mentioned before, the Wii is just on the back-burner right now. The reasons for that are complicated, and frankly, boring. Just know that this choice is completely out of our and UFO's hands, and we're just as disappointed as you guys are. I honestly do think it'll still happen though, for what it's worth.

And yes, even though we (unfortunately) have tiny budgets that we have to work with, we absolutely put every penny and every 12 hour day into the games we make. We know we're never going to have a Gears of War title graphically...but we do feel we make games that are fun. And in the end, isn't that what matters the most?

With Rock of the Dead....yes, it's not the prettiest girl at the dance. But she dances real well. Just don't knock it until you can actually try it. I have yet to find someone who played it for more than 5 minutes who didn't "get it". We've often had to pry the guitars and drums out of hands. Again, it's fun that matters the most, right?

Thanks for hearing me out guys!
bryan

Hey guys, I'm Bryan at Epicenter Studios. Just wanted to say in our defense that the image used in this article is a roughly 4-5 months old Wii screenshot.

Still, while we're never going to be Gears of War (we're only 19 people at the studio, so we just can't be), we put all our focus on making the most fun game possible.

Thanks for checking it out!