[Lynnie]

There's a new interview up with Sam Lewis, the lead designer of the game here. Some interesting tid bits from the interview-

Jason: What characters are going to be the nanos?

Sam: We've got thirty-six. We've got characters from the Kids Next Door – Numbers 1 thru 5. Ben 10. We're not actually giving you a Ben nano, but rather one of Ben 10's alien forms. We are using the newest version of Ben 10.

Jason: The series that has aged him?

Sam: Right, so we selected that. So we have some of the new alien forms and some of the old ones. We've got Grim, Billy, and Mandy. We've got Courage. Dexter, Deedee, and Mandark. Oh, Foster's Home – we've got Blue and Coco. The cool thing is we have Blue in there being as snarky as ever, but we've also got the Blue nano. The cool thing is saying, "Okay, how does Blue and Mandy get along? How long until Mandy kicks Number Three?" So we had a lot of fun with those reactions.

Jason: Besides being nanos, are you going to ever be questing with the characters?

Sam: Yes, they'll be in the party with you. So during the quests you'll be taking missions from the characters, but sometimes they'll join you and fight with you. You'll be joined by people like Blue, Billy, and they'll help you complete these missions. So you'll be interacting with them as NPCs, nanos, and as characters that tag along with you.

Jason: Is the battle system going to be standard "click and attack" or is it going to be more action oriented like running and attacking?

Sam: It's definitely a little FPS-ish – not like click on this pixel to hit that pixel, but more hand-eye coordination. A lot of it is also managing the nanos as each nano is better at fighting certain types of monsters; a simple rock, paper, and scissor type of system. So if you have the right nano up you'll do more damage. The monsters have targeted attacks that really take you out of that sandwich combat formula. As you progress a little higher, you will have to pay attention, and we're finding out the kids are really enjoying showing off their player skill.

Jason: Is it going to be free play?

Sam: Oh that one I already know – the business model has not been announced yet. How is that? There will be a free component though.

Jason: Are there going to be microtransactions?

Sam: The business model has not been announced yet. (hahaha) That's one of the great things about working for Turner – they are very hands off and give you a tremendous amount of freedom with the property, but the bad thing is there are certain things – like the marketing and PR – that is very important to them and we can't discuss. It's a system that is news worthy enough that they want to make a big deal of it.

Sooooo, it sounds like there will be free parts of the game. That's cool. Although it sounds like probably the most fun parts will require a fee. And hehe, whoever typed this up clearly is not familiar with our favorite show and how to correctly spell Bloo's name.