The game has a hefty single player mode, how long is the campaign?

SS: Depends on how deft you are with the controller, I suppose. Since I go through countless gruesome deaths and restarts playing (sadly, I'm as coordinated with games as I am in real-life), it takes me six-to-eight weeks to finish it.

That being said, most folks with rudimentary motorskills and a pulse will probably finish the campaign in a few fun-filled hours. But we built the campaign mode to be played through many times, as there are several different reasons to replay the campaign:

1. Unlocks. There are 50 unlocks in the game, and as you play each faction (the B*D*I and the Scorched), you unlock additional characters, character abilities, weapons and weapon modes.

You can unlock these items playing in any game mode (multiplayer, co-op or single-player), but I think most folks will unlock them in the campaign getting a feel for how to play the game so that they have the most options available to them going into Multiplayer.

We also have a rank system similar to CoD where once you have achieved all 50 unlocks, you can cash them in and move up to a new set of ranks, so that will definitely lend itself to playing the campaign again.

2. Skins. There are two special unlocks that you get for completing the campaign. When you complete it as a member of the B*D*I, you unlock the Major Stone skin (he's your commander and he’s the one who guides you through the campaign on the B*D*I side). But once you complete the campaign, you can play Stone as a character in the game. Similarly, you can unlock the Grok skin if you complete the campaign as a member of the Scorched.

3. Secrets. To get one of our achievements, you need to find all 50 secrets in the campaign. The secrets are mostly log books left behind by an old explorer that explain some of the backstory of the campaign (or are just dumb jokes). Most levels have 5-6 of them hidden around. Some are pretty hard to find, and some are pretty tricky to access.

4. Score. The campaign is arcade-style with multiplier pickups, so the more you explore and find the maximum number of multipliers (and minimize how many times you are hit), you can get better and better scores in the game. We support over 50 Leaderboards for single-player, co-op and multiplayer. There are different leaderboards for the whole campaign, or single levels or...

5. Co-op. You can play the whole campaign in single-player or co-op mode.

We built-in multiple paths in most levels, and it feels different playing with different characters, it's a very replayable campaign.

Each character has a very different shape and size – what special characteristics do each of the characters have?

SS: Well, there are 5 different character classes that all play differently, and the abilities are asymmetric between the factions.

For example, the "Heavy" class on the B*D*I side is Robo who disarms opponents. Magmor on the Scorched Brotherhood faction has a rock shield and can turn into a giant ball of lava that lets you roll over and crush your opponents. Both have a similar "feel"-- they're big and slow and heavy and you'll notice that weapon recoil is minimal with them, but they both play very differently because of their abilities. They also have different damage vulnerabilities and resistances, which make them valuable in different situations.

The damage system in the game is there to add a layer of depth, but it's kept simple. There are four damage types made up of two pairs arranged in opposites. Heat & Cold, Energy & Impact. Most characters are vulnerable to one type in a pair and resistant to the other.

So Magmor is a giant ball of molten rock, so he's naturally resistant to heat and vulnerable to cold. Robo's armor makes him resistant to impact damage, but he is vulnerable to Energy.

What cooperative modes are available?

SS: You can play two co-op Campaign modes, both support 2-4 players online. The "Level Attack" let's you play any level of the campaign as a group to maximize your score. You are timed, and the difficulty ramps up with every player you add.

"Enduro Mode" is playing through the entire campaign as a team.

Are any of the original Babo maps remade for Invasion?

SS: No, but there are definite influences and lessons learned in what makes so many of the original Babo maps so much fun. Just to clarify, we have 21 multiplayer maps to support a variety of game sizes.

How did the use of the Madballs licensing come about? Who went to whom?

SS: Microsoft introduced us after originally believing that we were a Madballs game. We liked the idea of bring some more personality into the game, and we brought them into the game, all the while being very careful not to affect the goal of creating what is, in essence, a hardcore shooter.

The license holder (American Greetings Properties) also licenses the Care bears and Strawberry Shortcake, but they didn't fit into the game as well. A Care Bears shooter would be awesome though. The emotions painted on their tummies when they are on the receiving end of gunfire would be quite expressive, I'd think.

Babo: Invasion appears to only use two of the Madballs characters. Are any more unlockable? Any chance of the baseball making an appearance?

SS: We do have the possibility of including more Madballs as DLC later, but none are unlockable as of right now.And sure, Screamin' Meanie is possible, but we'll need to see how good he is with guns on the field of battle first.

You recently revealed Avatar Attack, the ability to play as your Avatar’s head in game. There are a lot of rules for Avatars, especially when violence is involved. How did you get around these rules?

SS: Well, our treatment of putting Avatars in combat is quite comical in nature, and we try to abstract them out as much as possible, first with a transition and also with how they act in battle. We already deal with frags in-game with exploding goo (not blood), In Avatar Attack, we're one step further-- heads explode in confetti and streamers when they're popped.

This is particularly gratifying if the player you pop has acquired enough multiplier drops. The heads grow as you go long terms without getting killed. But really, Microsoft has been great to work with-- they see that we're a silly balls-with-guns game and avatar heads just adds to the fun.

Can Avatars be used in all multiplayer modes or must they only be used in Avatar only matches?

SS: Right now, it's Multiplayer skirmishes only. Part of the problem with trying to put them in co-op (which we would love to do) is handling transmogrification. How can your avatar become Magmor (or get Magmor-like abilities and make that visual)?

Babo: Invasion includes online multiplayer in the trial version - 3 matches or 30 minutes, whichever comes last. What rules and requirements are there to include such an option? Is this difficult to implement?

SS: We thought that was important since multiplayer is so much of what makes the game fun. We wanted folks to get a really good feel for it, and we thought 3 sessions was fair. But what if you join a game and there is only a couple of minutes left? What if the host ends the game early? So we asked for (and got) the 30-minute rider so you can be sure you're going to get at least 30 minutes of multiplayer, even if it takes 10 sessions to play that much.

By the same token, if you join a game that lasts for a long time (we support 30 minute matches), we still wanted you to get a feel for the different game modes (you can play any of the avatar attack, CTF, skirmishes, team skirmishes or the granddaddy of 'em all, Invasion mode), so you can actually end up playing for longer than 30 minutes if you have sessions left.

The game is also coming to Steam – does the game have support for mods and user created levels? Are there any plans for new maps down the line for the Xbox Live Arcade version?

SS: New maps are definitely already in line for DLC , but the problem with new maps is that they fragment the player base. If I have a particular map pack and you don't, I can't host a game you can be guaranteed to join. But yeah, there is definitely plans for more maps (and ways of creating maps).

Anything else you’d like to say to the community?

SS: I hope that covers it-- Just that we think we've created a feature-rich game that should have loads of playability long after the title is released. We are hoping to have the same kind of commitment we have with BV2—we’re in for the long-term here, it’s not supposed to be the kind of game you finish in a week. We hope the deep multiplayer experience will keep folks playing the game for a long time to come.