Hannah Montana: The Game, Joe Montana Football, and Scarface’s Tony Montana. Type “Montana video game developers” into Google and references to those titles will populate the screen.

Dig deeper and results for Team Kaizen, a start-up video game developer based in Great Falls, Montana, will appear. A game studio in the mountain west is rare, but the real surprise comes as the founders, Josh and Trevor Hughes, share their motivations behind creating the company.

By the time Josh Hughes graduated high school in 2002, he had contributed to a PC game called Eternal War: Shadows of Light with Two Guys Software and was on his way to learning the ins-and-outs of game development.

Meanwhile, his younger brother, Trevor, was looking to carve his own path. At a friend’s urging, he decided to join the junior high school football team. His only obstacle was the mandatory physical exam.

He failed three times.

Doctors diagnosed Trevor with Chronic Renal Insufficiency, meaning his kidneys had slowly deteriorated to the point of near failure. The Hughes family lost their house, their car, and their livelihoods in an effort to pay the mounting medical bills accumulated during Trevor’s 30-plus operations.

“It was like a massive bomb hit us,” Josh said. Knowing if they continued down this road they wouldn’t last long without enduring severe hardships, he went to his mom and told her “Normal life’s not working for us. We have to try crazy.”

Starting a family-based company appealed to the group. Initially, the Hughes’ plan was to create and sell T-shirts. After hearing about the brothers’ long-time interest in gaming and Josh’s previous experience making games, the Great Falls Development Authority approached them in 2006 with the hope they’d someday grow and bring development jobs to the area.

“They knew we wanted to make video games and took us under their wing,” Josh explained. “They taught us how to become an investment-ready business and how to pitch ourselves.”

Future-proofing themselves was important. In order to handle multiple development projects, Josh and Trevor created Add-A-Tudez Entertainment as the umbrella company for Team Kaizen, their first studio.

While the GFDA taught the Hughes brothers the basics of the business world, they soon discovered the harsh realities of being a newcomer in the arena.

A now-defunct company, Fortitude Entertainment Group, approached Add-A-Tudez with a $3 million offer to fund the studio’s projects. Josh said he has never received a countersigned copy of their agreement and regards the two and a half years the company deceived them as “a waste.”

He discovered the Fortitude’s bankruptcy only after performing a Google search.

“We could have been more proactive during that time and catered to our company’s needs instead of waiting for them to live up to their word,” Josh said of the episode.

Members of Fortitude have been involved in a lawsuit in Arizona, claiming they had defrauded the plaintiffs.

Add-A-Tudez remains open to the idea of public investment in the company, but keeping majority ownership and remaining in Great Falls is ideal.

“We want to see downtown Great Falls become for independent video game development what Park City, Utah is for the indie film industry,” Josh said. “If someone buys you out, there’s no guarantee you’ll stay there.”

Though some industry members scratch their heads when they hear he’s from Montana, Josh thinks of the company’s obscure location as more of a benefit.

“When people [in the gaming industry] hear we’re out in the middle of nowhere Montana, I think it’s more of a, ‘Wow, they’re all the way out there and they’re already making waves,’” Josh suggested. “I think it helps them take us more seriously.”

The company models itself after Insomniac Games, who keep in touch with the start-up.

“They’re a huge inspiration to us,” Josh said. He even received a personal phone call from the company’s President and CEO, Ted Price, offering advice on being a newcomer to the industry.

In spite of all the high and low points, Team Kaizen hasn’t lost focus on their short-term goal: getting Shattered Soul, a role-playing fighting game, ready for demonstration.

“We’re hoping to be pitch-ready by the end of May,” Josh said. In addition, Team Kaizen was awarded a $40,000 grant from the Digital Media Learning Competition to create 10 educational levels within LittleBigPlanet 2 for the PlayStation 3. The project is due in July.

As they approach daunting deadlines, continue promoting their company, and await a kidney donor for Trevor, Josh says the company’s motivation remains the same:

“Do or die – and dying is not an option.”

At the moment, the former is prevailing.

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Team Kaizen is currently in the running for a Sony-sponsored contest in which the winners will have their company meetings filmed in 3D as part of the Make.Believe campaign. To vote, visit Sony Electronic’s Facebook page here.