Saturday, April 18, 2009

Interview: Miley Cyrus Star of Hannah Montana: The Movie Game

I meet Miley Cyrus in the kitchen of Chattanooga's Mayor's Mansion Inn, both of us eyeing a spread of home cooked Rotisserie chicken and potato salad on the final day of a harrowing month-long press junket for her new film Hannah Montana: The Movie.  Her first interview of the day following a late night post-screening Q&A session at The University of Tennessee, I confided in Cyrus that I had not seen her television show, movie, or played her video game.  She asks if I found any form of satisfaction in my job and hands me a first edition copy of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism.  She says it changed her life.

Reports of Cyrus' wildchild attitude been greatly exaggerated.  They've become the story, I suspect, in lieu of any real attempt to engage with her works on a genuine level.  Lanky, hazel-eyed, and with the demeanor of a greasy spoon waitress who's known you for years, Cyrus gives the impression, first and foremost, of having a genuine, penetrating curiosity.  She has a church-bred politeness and Southern charm without a trace of contempt or self-righteousness.  She seems to see the world through an artist's eyes, able to experience a poetry and wonder in even the most mundane parts of her day to day life.  I wouldn't have though so if you'd asked me a month ago, but there may be no more vital an American voice in the game industry at this moment.

Radio Free Videoland: What was your first gaming experience?
Miley Cyrus: When I was five or six, my dad was completely addicted to Madden on PlayStation.  I was a pretty aggressive kid and sometimes I would grab the controller and just make the players run around in circles.  There was something magical about me being in control of what was on the screen and, you know, despite seeing my dad on it, on an intellectual level, TV seemed liked this holy thing where fantastic images got beamed into the family room from the gods.  In hindsight, wanting control over that image probably helped spark my desire for fame.

Was it weird for you to be a gamer, as a girl?
That's kind of a weird thing to ask.  I'm not trying to be mean, but maybe you're a little old (laughs).  This makes me sound like a girly girl I guess, but I always played online flash games and The Sims and Pokémon and cell phone games and stuff.  I mean, within the last few years I've played more of what you would probably call "hardcore" games: Saints Row, Call of Duty, Soul Calibur...but no matter how supposedly hardcore the stuff I play is, I don't think I would ever define myself as a "gamer".  Don't you think it's kind of sad to define yourself by the entertainment products you consume?

To a degree, isn't that what your audience does?
Those are children.  I mean, by the time you're in high school, shouldn't you have developed a personality outside of "I like Products X, Y, and Z"?  I understand the sad fact that society is becoming more and more isolated.  There is less and less of a reason to talk to another human being every day.  And that in turn, leads to our only common touchstones being pop culture, which I am obviously a big part of.  That's why I try to spread as positive a message I can through my work.  It is kind of hard for me to reconcile sometimes.  I mean, I have a series of "lifestyle products" with my face on them.  But in the 21st century what else is there for kids?  Parents are too afraid to let them explore on their own and every personality quirk is an opportunity for medication and...I'm going off on a tangent--I sound like a fucking Adbusters--I just wish we as a society did a better job of making people into people.  You must think I'm so new.

Why did you decide to take a more prominent role in the design of this specific game?  This isn't the first one with the Hannah Montana name.
So I went on tour in Japan and after a concert I met with these two kids backstage.  They noticed the game that I had on pause on the in-room online service: Kabuki Quantum Fighter.  The Japanese version is pretty much the same except the main dude is a 15 year old named Bobby Yano instead of a 25 year old named Scott O'Connor.  You know what else is kind of weird?  The American character looks a lot more anime-like for some reason.  Anyway, it turns out that these kids dad is Hiroyuki Itoh--they guy who designed the game back in the late 80s.  He's retired since then.  So the kids are all excited and they bring Itoh-San in the room and he's kind of embarrassed at first but we ended up having a nice long talk about how he developed the game and it led into a conversation about game design and I think we just about wore the translator out (laughs).

So talking with Itoh led you to want to take a more active role in the design of Hannah Montana: The Movie Game?
Definitely.  You know, I don't want to be disrespectful, but Kabuki Quantum Fighter is honestly a pretty mediocre Ninja Gaiden clone.  Great music and concept, but it ain't exactly about to set the world on fire.  I only took a look at it in the first place a couple years ago because I was scrolling through a list of roms and the name stuck out.  Also don't pirate my game for like fifteen years, kids (laughs).  Anyhoo, it's basically digital comfort food for me and I wanted at least that for my games, you know.  They didn't have to redefine the industry or some nonsense like that just to rise above the pitiful standard of quality they'd had before and to be something that a kid enjoys for more reasons than because I'm so wonderfully great.  I didn't want it to be something that this kid in the year 2020 looks back on and says why did I ever play this horseshit? 

How hard was it to convince Disney to let you be a "real" producer on the game?
Not too tricky.  I do have a little bit of pull, there (laughs).  It wasn't too bad.  Honestly, they don't really treat their game division with the same attention to detail that they do television or concerts.  It's mostly shovelware.  What was kind of hard, was to win over the dudes who actually worked on the thing.  I mean, they're just as cute as a button, but they are kind of shy around girls to begin with, and then compound that with the idea that corporate sent some teen beat ditz to tell them how to do their job.  But after I did a little bit of geeky adventure game namedropping and showed them the first draft of my design doc, they warmed up a little bit.  A lot of the guys used to have more creative aspirations and they either got scooped up at IGF or signed on because they had families or needed the health insurance or a steady 9-5.  So I think in the end, they were happy that the suits let me be pseudo-in-charge because the concepts we were working with were much more--rewarding to build than That's So Raven Fetch Quest 7 or whatever.  I love you Raven, but your games are busted.  Write that down.

What were some specific improvements that you helped bring to the table?
Well, in Hannah Montana: The Movie available now for all lead SKUs you really can go home again.  In this installment of the highly successful Hannah Montana video game franchise, we promise fans a memorable mix of songs and new adventures with several of your favorite characters for some "down home fun".  In addition the game Hannah Montana Star Moves will bring the franchises adventures to all major wireless characters (laughs).

Did you play any other adventure games to get ideas for this one?
Well, Hannah Montana: The Movie taps into the familiar elements that have made the Hannah Montana franchise such a success - multi-faceted characters, hit music and popular fashion.    Please delete all interview content from before the seven minute mark.  Not to mention the fact that fans play as Miley Stewart or her superstar alter ego Hannah Montana as she returns to her hometown of Crowley Jordan Mechner's The Last Express had some fascinating ideas in the way of how time works in a typical puzzle game so I wanted to develop rediscover her roots.  Please do not deviate any further from the pre-approved question list.

What's the gameplay like?
I'm glad you asked.  Players can perform as hideous corpse-like terribly animated models of Miley or Hannah to 11 soulless hit songs, including five practically identical new songs from the film, in six different uninspired concert venues. In the completely tedious performance mode, players launch what we creepily refer to as signature dance moves and jam with band members on the drums, guitar and keyboard. In story mode, they explore Miley's basically empty hometown of Crowley Corners to help family and friends complete bullshit fetch quests around town. Players can select outfits seen in the movie for Hannah and Miley or create and customize unique outfits for Hannah. Hannah's tour bus, including the bedroom, closet and make-up area, can be customized to suit players and that pathetic garbage is how we claim to be" sparking" player imaginations.  Did I already say the mobile shit was out?  Parentheses Laughs parentheses.

So where can we learn more about your game?
You know, there's a great pub downtown on Market street, I think you can probably walk there from the Aquarium.  They have these Reuben Rolls.  So Fucking Addictive.  And they just soak up a Sam Adams like the dickens.  I force every hotel to make them for me.  I put 'em on my rider.  You gotta try them, dude.  Let's go.

More information can be found at www.hannahmontanavideogames.com.

About Disney Interactive Studios Disney Interactive Studios, part of Disney Interactive Media Group, is the interactive entertainment affiliate of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS).

Disney Interactive Studios self publishes and distributes a broad portfolio of multi-platform video games, mobile games and interactive entertainment worldwide. The company also licenses properties and works directly with other interactive game publishers to bring products for all ages to market. Disney Interactive Studios is based in Glendale, California, and has internal development studios around the world. For more information, log on to http://www.disneyinteractivestudios.com.

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