Intern for a Day, Vol. 1: Harmonix Music Systems

"Can I get you a refill for your Goblet of Rock, Ms. McWilliams?"
8/8/2008 6:32 PM | 8 Comments | Page 1 of 7

Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.

[Welcome, readers, to what I hope will be a regularly occurring feature on CG. The idea here is to spend one entire 10-to-6 workday as an intern inside a developer's offices, getting a sense of the sights, smells and sounds that routinely constitute their lives. My goal here is to take at least some of the mystery out of game development, to humanize the process a bit. (Yes, even as a 30-something-year-old gamer, I'm still very much in awe of the Glorious People Who Get to Make the Games.) Anyway, happy reading. -S. Jones]

Home: Boston, Massachusetts. Specifically, in Cambridge's Central Square.
Net Home: www.harmonixmusic.com
Number of Employees: About 270 (and rising).
Makers of: Rock Band and the upcoming Rock Band 2; Guitar Hero and GH II; Phase; FreQuency and Amplitude; EyeToy: AntiGrav; and the Karaoke Revolution series, among others.
The Backbone(s): Alex Rigopulous and Eran Egozy founded the company in 1995. The two met while they were students at nearby M.I.T.
Their Big Idea: To make the experience of making music accessible to people with little to no talent and/or discipline.
The Office: Second floor of a two-story building; situated above a Walgreens.
Approximate Number of Feet to Nearest Dunkin' Donuts: 60
Approximate Number of Feet to Nearest Bar: 40
Time of Visit: Early August, a few days after a big Rock Band 2 crunch.

9:45 a.m. Showered. Put on nice shirt. I want Harmonix to be proud to call me their intern -- or, more accurately, "intern" -- for the day. I want them to say, "Hey, look everybody; this is our intern!" Begin trek from Union Square to Central Square. In case you're not familiar with Boston, the city's founders were more than a little obsessed with squares.

Welcome to Central Square. Home of rock and roll ... and Walgreens.

10:04 a.m. Lost. Have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Instead of winding up in Central Square, I'm in some other Mystery Square
(Davis?). I get bad intel from a girl waiting for a bus. Central Square isn't where she told me it would be. I spot a 7-11: The fresh drinks and bright lights make it look like an oasis. I'm sweating like mad. Boston in August is always difficult. Two nice ladies emerge from the 7-11 and point me in the right direction. I realize I'm only an "intern," but am worried that even "interns" can be "fired."

10:05 a.m. Very much regretting the 9,000 or so beers I consumed the previous night (P.A.'s Lounge in Somerville. Don't go near that place unless you want to sucked into a beernado.). At the time it seemed very punk rock to arrive at the Harmonix offices with a hangover. But wandering lost and sweating and hungover through Boston's various squares on a muggy August morning? Let's just say there are better ways to start off your day.

10:14 a.m. I finally arrive. Security is tighter than expected. The guard picks up the phone on his desk and insists on announcing my presence. "But they are expecting me," I say. Then I add, very sheepishly, "It's my first day, you know."

He's not impressed. He calls upstairs. Says something into the phone. A few minutes later, I hear boots coming down the stairs. It's Helen McWilliams, Writer/Producer/Heart/Soul/Spokesperson/and Occasionally the Conscience of Harmonix. She's also the lead singer in a band called Vagiant. She's also the scariest and loveliest person I've ever met.

I ask her what the deal is with the high security. "We get the occasional crazy, trying to get upstairs," she explains.