Rock Band Lead Designer Dan Teasdale Leaves Harmonix For Twisted Pixel

Harmonix isn't lacking ambition with Rock Band 3, but in the game's final months, the design is etched in stone. The game is what it is. What's next? For Rock Band lead designer Dan Teasdale, it's accepting a new position at Comic Jumper developer Twisted Pixel and leaving Harmonix.

Teasdale revealed the news on Twitter and his personal blog.

"Today's my last day in the office at Harmonix," announced Teasdale. "Tomorrow, I hop on a plane and fly down to Austin, TX, where I'll get ready to start work at Twisted Pixel on a ridiculously cool new project. It's the holy grail of game design positions - I'll get to contribute and help drive the direction of a well funded and supported new title with a close knit superteam, while at the same time being hands on and able to directly impact all aspects of the game."

The designer expressed frustration at ascending into large team management, which coincided with no longer being hands-on with the day-to-day process of actually making a video game.

"The hit from releasing the title and seeing people enjoy your games was still a big part of it," he explained, "but I craved the hit of being hands on. It's 100% of your job as a staff designer, but as I became a senior and then a lead on AAA titles with 200+ people on them, the ability to chart the vision and the direction of a title starts to encroach how much time you can spend tweaking the details personally."

Twisted Pixel is currently finishing work on Comic Jumper, scheduled for an Xbox Live Arcade release before the end of the summer. The team was previously responsible for The Maw.

Rock Band 3 will be released later this year. I kind of really want that keyboard.

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