A Genre Worth Fighting For – Our Return to Music Rhythm Games

A few years ago, a few of us reconnected. We had a question: could we, and more importantly should we try to make a new music rhythm game?

I (Lee), Brian Bright, Tim Clark, and our good friend John Devecka started chatting. We schemed, got excited, and probably overthought a bunch of things. We asked: how could we do this differently? How should we do it? Should we even attempt to do it?

Brian was still tinkering with rhythm games and pointed out the Clone Hero community and a newer game called YARG. That set us off down a rabbit hole. We did our research, kept meeting, and kept thinking.

At that point, I was already pushing to start prototyping. One early idea was to run the game on a tiny Android stick, not even targeting a console. But then… the games industry hit a rough patch. Studio closures, economic headwinds you know the story. So, we paused the game idea. But we didn’t stop meeting.

Then Tim said something that changed everything: “There’s clearly still an audience. Fans still love these games. Just start by making a guitar.”

[Early CRKDtar mid 2024]

So we did. We started prototyping a new guitar controller. One of the first challenges we tackled was the strum bar, and the headaches we all remembered from the old days. Back then it was a constant battle with mechanical switches: inconsistent quality, supply chain issues, wear and tear. So, we flipped the script. We started with a Hall Effect strum bar. That was the seed.

All of this was nights and weekends. At the same time, Jack, Marcus & I founded a small new brand CRKD, a place for some new young gamers & the hardware team of old to build the kind of products we believed the gamers would need. We announced Nitro Deck in summer 2023, and CRKD was live.

Then came Fortnite Festival, a welcomed release in late 2023. That Christmas I was at home, fiddling with it. The standard controller didn’t quite do it for me. I mocked up a little prototype… something that felt closer to home. A 5-fret handheld attachment, a nod to the old GH DS controller, but evolved.

[CRKD Purple Wave 5-Fret NEO S Controller (Doohickey)]

We showed Epic, and they liked it, both the novelty of it and the fact it could play Festival and other games. That little “doohickey” got us excited again.

Meanwhile, we were still pushing ahead with the guitar. But the question of a new game kept resurfacing. Around that time, we connected with some of the young developers behind YARG. It wasn’t a pitch, just a chat about what they loved about the space. But we saw it, that spark in their eyes. The same spark we had back in the early days.

Our old boys club kept meeting. We kept saying: “There’s a game here.” But how should we go about it?

As we started teasing the doohickey publicly, we dug deeper into the community.

First stop: Alec (Acai).

Brian had spoken to him before, and it was an obvious place to begin. From day one, Alec welcomed us with open arms. His knowledge, passion, and understanding of this scene were immediately clear. We were also impressed with not only his deep understanding of how these games work, but also the history of the space and his awareness and care of all areas of the community. Another interesting take from spending time with Alec was his curiosity on how we could potentially bring these experiences back to a wider audience in the future. 

Through Alec, we met Jason, JP and Moose. Legends, really. Alec & the team’s input, and the broader Lore Hero community helped shape the final stages of the guitar. I won’t go into detail, but that final 25% of the development process? It was massively shaped by these folks. We then hand-picked a few more community members to test and speak with in more detail as we moved into pilot production.

[Lore Hero visits CRKD HQ Feb 2025.]

During this time, we reconnected with the YARG team again. Alex, Nathan, Jacob, Quinton, and Kadu. We asked: “If we created a new studio focused on this space, would you be interested?” They said yes, it would be an honor. So, we started with a 3-month incubation test to see if we were a good fit. The rest is history.

We also brought the Lore Hero crew into brainstorming, and things started to move fast. It became clear: yes, we could make a new game. And yes, this mix of talented young devs, community legends, and a few old heads like us… this was the right core team, and more importantly we were doing this for the right reasons.

Next up: Simon Ebejer.

[Simon Ebejer - Studio Head]

I’d known Simon since the GH/Neversoft days. He’s a former musician and a deeply respected production leader, most recently helping ship Diablo IV at Blizzard. I asked Simon to meet the team and give me his honest read. Not only did he validate everything I felt, but he was also inspired by everyone involved and their attention to detail. I was over the moon when he agreed to join us as Studio Head, helping guide this whole thing forward with quality at the core.

So here we are, a new chapter begins.

We’ve got a team. A real one. We’ll grow it as we need to. But this project, this game is not just for the fans. It’s by the fans, and with the fans from day one.

This game won’t be Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Guitar Freaks or Rockband. This is something new. A rhythm game built with love, by people who care, with the community at its core in this fast-changing modern world we live in. We firmly believe the expert here is the community and a new generation of development talent, the folks that have kept the lights on these last few years.

In addition, we list out the roster of people working on this project that was involved back in the day. Simon, Brian, John, Lee, Tim, Cas, Trina, Candy, Stephen, Jared, Thomas, Bruce, Music, Colin, David, June, Betty, Shelly, Martin, Fox, and let’s not forget Charles & Kai who have agreed to join our advisory board for the studio. 

One last bit of lore. You will see the name Music above. Yes, that’s a real name. Music is our mechanical engineer based in Shenzhen. When he joined us all those years back, he picked an English name. I asked why he picked Music; his answer was guitar makes Music, I am Music. Music was the lead mechanical designer of our recently released CRKD Gibson Les Paul Guitar Controller.

[Hardware Development Team 2009 - Music far right]

Per Fidem Ad Ludos Rhythmicos.
(Through Faith to Rhythm Games)

- Lee & ROG Team.

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