On Thursday, EA and Steven Spielberg announced Boom Blox Bash Party, the follow-up to the popular and award-winning Wii game, Boom Blox. Last year, the original game gained the interest of non-gamers who were attracted to the Nintendo Wii and also of the game's director, the fabled Steven Spielberg, who wanted to create a game that he could play with his kids. As fans of the first game, PlaySavvy gained a unique opportunity on Wednesday to speak with Amir Rahimi, Boom Blox Bash Party's Senior Producer to get the inside scoop on today's announcement.

A taste of Boom Blox under water.

PlaySavvy: What made Boom Blox so successful?
Amir Rahimi: The original Boom Blox appealed to a wide demographic, not only to 8-12 year olds and their parents but also the most jaded and hardcore gamer. And what we found was that they liked to get into a living room together and have a social experience by playing multiplayer, so what we wanted to do with Boom Blox Bash Party was really deliver on that experience.

PlaySavvy: Players love Boom Blox, what feature are you adding that those fans have been asking for?
Amir Rahimi: Boom Blox Bash Party is going to feature about twice as much multiplayer content so we really wanted to blow that out. Another feature that players really loved was the create mode and we wanted to let those [creators] share their creations with as many people as possible. With Boom Blox Bash Party, people can upload their own levels to EA and EA will broadcast those to the world. What this means for the average player is that they can go into go into any game mode and within one click, download more levels of that type.

And players really loved creating in Boom Blox. If you go onto YouTube and search for Boom Blox and you'll see tons of levels that might not offer a lot of gameplay but look like pixel art pieces. So they can submit more levels like that or levels with real rules, name the level and then categorize it by game mode. Players can also rate those levels, sort by most popular, search by keyword and more.

PlaySavvy: Do you worry about being classified in the oversaturated "party game genre?"
Amir Rahimi: No, the original Boom Blox offered so much to people who wanted a social experience. So I wouldn't worry with going toe to toe with any other party game out there and think that we would fare very favorably. Also, the single player experience for Boom Blox was very strong and the sequel will offer more than the original. One thing that we found interesting was that families would actually play single player mode together, and find that to be one of the most fun ways to play the game -- like passing the Wii Remote around the living room. So it really is a social game at its core and we're really pushing that in Bash Party.

PlaySavvy: How do you define Boom Blox since some view it as action while others view it as a Zen-like game?
Amir Rahimi: It's interesting since there are so many game styles in Boom Blox. There are the hardcore arcade-type games where you have bears and raccoons coming by to steal your gems and you have to fight them off. Then you have crazy action levels as well as pretty difficult puzzles. I really don't classify as one genre, it's a social party game that all encompassing.

PlaySavvy: Under water and space levels? How will the physics work?
Amir Rahimi: As we were getting ready to put the original Boom Blox in a box, Steven Spielberg and his team were chock full of ideas for what to do with the second version of the game. One of the ideas that Steven had was, "What if we took the game into outer space and what would happen if we took it under water?" So we got our physics expert on the case and we were able to nail down those phsyics. In outer space, as you would imagine, you wouldn't have any gravity so blocks would move differently and the characters would float around in space. And under water, you have all sorts of "floaty-ness" and drag that you would imagine as things float around.

PlaySavvy: What will the addition of cylinders and wedges mean for gameplay?
Amir Rahimi: Just adding two simple shapes opened up whole new world of possiblitites for us in terms of building levels. Just imagine what you could do with ramps and seeing how you can roll cylinders up and down them. You also get a very different feel when you're trying to plan a billiards-type shots, throw your ball at a precise angle, and then cause the block to hit something else. With a block, that's a lot harder to do than with a cylinder, right?

PlaySavvy: Are you developing the game or any modes for use with Nintendo's MotionPlus accessory?
Amir Rahimi: No, we are not.

PlaySavvy: Parents that I've talked to, who understand that there's a lot of real-world physics going on in Boom Bloxhave asked if there's even been talk about finding a way to educate kids more about the science behind the game.
Amir Rahimi: That was one of our goals with Boom Blox and we wanted kids to do with their parents in Create Mode. I know that kids learn a lot about physics when they play with blocks in their living room and with the Create Mode, so that was our way for parents to set up different structures that showoff various rules or laws of physics and then share and teach their kids.

PlaySavvy: The new Conveyor blox seem self-explanatory, but the new Virus blox seem scary. What do they do?
Amir Rahimi: Virus blox infect other blox and propagate their properties. If you remember the chemical blox from the first game, when two of them touched they created a gaseous explosion. Well, Virus blox are similar, when they touch, they detonate. But they don't explode and throw stuff all over the place. Instead, whatever ordinary wooden block that's touching them gains the virus property and so you can spread this thing and cause some interesting game dynamics. In addition to that, we will also have a virus ball, which wasn't announced in the press release, is a big ball that also has this virus in it. So you could throw a virus ball at a virus block to cause the virus to spread.

PlaySavvy: My five-year-old submitted one question, "Will there be more explosions?"
Amir Rahimi: Oh yeah! One of the things that was definitely not lost on us was how much everyone enjoyed blowing stuff up and that was one of the taglines for creating Bash Party with lots and lots of explosions. So there will be more fantastic explosions than in the original.