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Thus began the development of a new title on the down-low, called "Guitar Hero: Phoenix". It was to be a somewhat radical departure from the existing menu-driven UX. You would have your own apartment, and could upgrade/decorate it as you hit it big.

The fixed venues would be replaced with a feel more akin to being on the set of a music video shoot, something which Activision apparently appreciated, as they largely retooled this concept for Guitar Hero: Live some years later.

Lastly - most importantly - there was to be one additional button added to the controllers - a purple button - as well as the addition of a six-string strum attachment on the body of the guitar. A sort of middle ground between Rock Band 3's Pro Controller and the traditional one.

In late 2010, shortly after the release of Warriors of Rock, there was a minor layoff at VV involving about 8 people, one of whom was my good friend, mentor, and long-time associate Mike C. He was a senior designer, and had worked at such powerhouses as Looking Glass in the past.

Fast-forward another couple of months, and in late January, there was an executive review of our progress on Phoenix. It went well. It went so well, in fact, that we were told we would be getting an extra year to polish the game up to a mirror sheen.

Unfortunately, this meant that as our only next release was to be Spyro Skylanders 3DS in September, we would be knuckling down on expenses by way of laying off a bunch of the studio's testers. Thus my other friend and roommate, Bonafede, was laid off as well.

Finally, a couple of weeks later, one cold February morning, an e-mail went out to everyone at the studio from HR: "The Q4 2010 earnings call is today at 4PM (our time). We will have an all-hands meeting in the kitchen at 3PM to discuss what this means for the company."

Anyone who could see the writing on the wall could immediately clock what this meant. Some people were numb. Some were worried. But there were still some folks who wanted to believe that the company would do the right thing.