The Creative and Art teams share how the sequel’s aesthetics have moved away from the “man cave” style of the original game.
Feeling like a big star playing to a loud, sold-out crowd is great when you have mastered the elaborate solo, but when you stutter through it twenty or thirty times, trying to get it perfect, an empty practice room feels less intimidating. “Open, airy, nice, and friendly,” is the feeling that the developers say they were going for with the sequel to the original Rocksmith. In a video released today, the development team at Studio SF in Ubisoft’s San Francisco office share the reasoning behind some changes to the design and user interface in Rocksmith 2014.
Technical Art Project Lead Aaron Murray says, “We had this idea of this is inclusive and it’s the opposite of “man cave”, but it’s still credible – we were always hanging on to the credibility, the gear and the guitars and all the stuff.” The developers looked to interior design, fashion design, and album covers while creating the loft over which the menus appear. The video also shows off the physical set for the lesson videos, a white brick apartment space full of comfortable chairs, amplifiers, and beautiful guitars. Omar Siu, Environment Art Lead, says that the set was so well liked by the team and the performers that “We didn’t want to take it down.”
Rocksmith 2014 teaches guitar using a real guitar as a controller. Any guitar with a standard 1/4 inch output jack is compatible. In addition to lessons and feedback on your playing, the game includes a Session Mode that lets you play with AI musicians who respond to what you play, mini-games for practicing scales and technique, and a Riff Repeater Mode accessible at any time in a song for practicing difficult sections. Ubisoft revealed the full track list for the game on October 16. Rocksmith 2014 is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Mac.
Source: PlayStation.com.
