You've been logged out of GDC Vault since the maximum users allowed for this account has been reached. To access Members Only content on GDC Vault, please log out of GDC Vault from the computer which last accessed this account.

Click here to find out about GDC Vault Membership options for more users.

close

The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

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

Did you know free users get access to 30% of content from the last 2 years?


Get your team full access to the most up to date GDC content

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.

GDC Europe 2011

Dean Tate

Harmonix Music

free content

Game Design

Design