What gang of rock friends hasn’t ever fantasized about how cool a board game about rock would be? There are some, but none of them recreate with as much realism the odyssey of starting a band to seek stardom as ‘Rock Hard 1977’ (Devir), a little madness from the bassist of the legendary Runaways, Jackie Foxwhich will delight as a Christmas gift to any lover of the genre who wants to have fun throwing dice on a board, as old-fashioned as listening to vinyl on the record player.
Rehearsing, giving concerts, writing songs, doing promo, negotiating with record companies, spreading out like a rock star, everything that surrounds the life of a group from the seventies has been reflected in this original entertainment that Fox created taking advantage of the time. free that the pandemic gave him. “It occurred to me to make a strategy and rock’n’roll game that five people could play at the same time and still be agile and exciting,” explains this living legend.
It was clear to me that the action had to take place in the seventies, without streaming or social networks. Something that older players will like, and will be curious for young players.
Young people love the game. Some know something about the history of rock through documentaries, series and movies, and I looked at some of them and what they might have attractive to young people. I don’t know if ‘Stranger Things’ has been successful in Spain…
A lot!
Well, for example, thanks to that series Kate Bush is now more famous than ever. There is something about the music of that time that sounds very real to young people, very human. Older people like it too, but there are some who get desperate with the plots, like when you have to drive all night to get to a city, and then it turns out there’s a blackout and you can’t play.
There are enough plots in the game that it never gets repetitive. I imagine that creating that whole framework was very laborious, although on the other hand, having lived the real experience in first person has made it easier.
It was laborious. People who get into a band don’t usually do it because it’s a good career path (laughs). You do it because you love music, and because you sense that being a rock star has to be tremendously fun. So all that had to be there: the parties, the chaos with fans chasing you to sign autographs, etc.
Was it easy to come up with the visual presentation you had envisioned when you came up with the game in your head?
The final result is quite similar to what I had imagined. I spent a year designing a prototype to serve as a guide for what needed to be built. There were several elements that were fundamental for me, such as the amplifier chips, etc… The manufacturer that accepted the project had to accept those “whims”, or I would go look for another brand.
Were you based on real rock stars to create the game’s characters?
Yes, I wanted them to look like the friends I had in the scene in the late seventies. I also wanted to represent that in rock there were not only white men, but also women, blacks, Asians, Hispanics…
In how many countries are you going to launch the game?
It has been released in many, but for now only in English and Spanish. I speak your language a little, and I liked seeing how everything has been translated. The problem with publishing it in Latin America is that they speak Spanish but there are many words that are different.
Have you thought about creating expansions dedicated to other decades or subgenres?
Yes, there are many things that could be added and that I have already thought about. New ways to improve as a composer, new styles like hair metal from the eighties or rap in the nineties. We’ll see if that possibility arises.
If it reaches the present day, it would be interesting to include cancel culture, for example.
We would have to see the shape (laughs), but there is still a long way to go in expansions to get there. In the seventies, artists could say whatever we wanted without fear of being judged, and that was great. It must be difficult to be young now and live with the fear of saying something stupid on social media that will haunt you your entire life. I said a lot of stupid things! But they were not recorded anywhere (laughs).
Before finishing, I would like to ask you: why did you refuse to give up your image rights for The Runaways movie that was made in 2010?
They told me that all of us in the group were going to charge the same for the image rights, but through my lawyers I found out that Joan Jett was going to charge more. I understood it, because she is a big superstar, but I didn’t like that they didn’t give me the right information. I insisted again to ask them how much less she was going to charge, so I could decide with that information. They didn’t want to give it to me, so I refused to participate.
.
#Jackie #Fox #creator #board #game #Rock #Hard #great #rock #star #fear #cancelled
