[The Motion Sick] An Interview with Dance Dance Revolution Step Artist Joseph...

Jan 9, 2009 at 2:24 PM
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As you've all heard by now (see our

previous posts if you haven't), our song "30 Lives
(Up-Up-Down-Dance Mix)" is included in several versions of the video
game Dance Dance Revolution (made by
Konami): DDR X (Playstation 2), DDR
Universe 3 (XBox 360), and DDR X Arcade (Japan currently, US and EU
releases later this year).

For the uninitiated, DDR (which originated in 1998) is a dance video game
in which players stand on a special dance pad or platform and hit colored
arrows with their feet to match musical and visual cues. Players are
judged by how well they time their steps to the patterns whizzing by on
the screen.

We were lucky enough to get in touch with Joseph Eder, who is responsible
for the creation of the step patterns that go along with "30
Lives" in the game. We love the steps in the game and we thought it
would be interesting to learn a bit more about creating steps for DDR.
Joseph was gracious enough to answer some questions for us all:

What is your official title?

Again, my name is Joseph Eder. You can find it in the (rapidly
scrolling) credits of the game listed under "DDR Step Artists"
if I remember correctly. For Universe 3, my official title is DDR Step
Data Creator.

What is your elevator-speech description of your job?

"Yea, Hi, my name is Joe. You know DDR? Yea, I'm the guy that
places the arrows. Yep, that's right, I decide where you step."
Which is usually followed up by "Ooooooooh!....Oh My God I hate you!
Those steps in *insert song name here* were SO HARD!"

How did you end up working in this position? Is there specific
training for it?

I got this position through a combination of luck and coincidence.
There was a listing for the position on a popular Bemani website
(http://www.bemanistyle.com/)
[Editors Note: Bemani is the name of Konami's music-based video game
division], I sent in my resume, a cover letter, called, did the
things you're suppose to do when you apply for any position, came in for
an interview, interviewed well, and got the job. There was training when
I got here, but to be fair, the bulk of the skill needed to be a DDR Step
Artist comes from playing the game for a long time. I've played the game
since January of 2001. That fact, along with having started a DDR club
during college, helped me get the job, and helped as far as skills needed
to write steps.

Do you generally choose from a pool or are you assigned songs?

I will say that when the team got 30 lives, I specifically requested
the song.

What is the process by which you create the steps? Do you first listen
many times? Do you just look for patterns and structure in the song?

I've listened to the songs I've made steps for maybe a hundred times
each, at least. Some songs have patterns and structure built in, and some
you need to create structure from scratch. It all depends on the song
given really.

Have you ever created steps for songs with a non-4/4 time
signature?

I've not done anything that wasn't in common time. However, I was
responsible for the charts for
Parade (Witchery
Skank) and Man
with a Hex (Atomic Fireballs) which are both done in 4/4
"Swing" time. Triplets are fun to work with, and challenging
:)

Do you ever create steps that are too difficult for you to ace?

See Midnight Blaze (SysF Mix) - Heavy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hsYNb8rx2Q

and Akibarrific - Oni

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsdZoQJ6tkg

What makes a song a good/bad choice for DDR?

The simply answer to this is songs that are easy to dance to are
songs that work well for DDR.

Do you have any recommendations for people trying to create songs for
DDR?

Give it a good strong dance beat, beyond that, anything unique is
good ^^

Anything else you would like to tell everyone?

I hope you all enjoy the charts to 30 lives and all the other songs
in the game! It was a lot of fun to work on :)

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