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Another update on Hero Interactive’s new title: Bubble Tanks Arenas. This time they have released a question and answer interview with regard to various aspects of the game. Read it below!

Hi everyone, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog myself! But rest assured that I’m always on here and I read each and every comment (true story). Since I’ve seen hundreds of comments in response to our upcoming game, Bubble Tanks Arenas, I thought I’d step in and try to address a number of those.

Q. When is BTA going to be released? Hurry up already!

A. Right now we don’t have a release date set and we’re too far out to give one. We’ve recently moved from the design and pre-production stage and into full blown development. During this time you’ll start to get more information such as screenshots, videos, etc… We joke that the release date will be in 2012 just to make SURE we’ll have the game released before when we promise, but realistically I think we’re looking at about 2 months yet before the game is out. Making these games is hard work!

Q. What’s with the “time permitting” comments in the feature specs? You should spend as long as you need to to make the game the best ever!

A. While we agree that we definitely want to make BTA the best possible game it can be, we also like to have food on our table and a roof to sleep under. Hero Interactive is a business, this is our only job, we do it all day every day. Many players assume all flash game developers create the games as a hobby in their spare time, but for us it’s our job. If we don’t get a game out, we don’t get paid.

The truth is, if we spent as much time as we wanted putting in every single feature we ever thought of and liked, we’d never release the game at all- we’re always coming up with new and better features we’d love to put in there.

Bubble Tanks 2 had somewhere around 30 weapons (including the secondary special abilities). That’s a lot, and we hope to get many of those into BTA. If we have enough time, we’d like to add a few new ones as well. If adding new weapons means we’re going to add another month to our schedule, we’d rather get the game out sooner. And of course, there’s always the possibility of a BT3…

Q. Will you be able to change the colors of your tank? Will the game be a different color than blue?

A. BTA will be colored in a red/purplish theme, differing from our traditional blue. While we have considered allowing players to change the colors of their tanks or background, we’ve decided against this feature as a) we’re worried about an inconsistent mish-mash of colors that would result and hurt our eyes and b) because adding this feature would greatly lengthen the amount of time to develop the game. So the tank/background colors will be different than blue this time around, but you won’t be able to custom color anything.

Q. You should make the tank editor allow you to purchase upgrades for your tank or use my awesome ___ idea!

A. We want to make tank creation as easy as possible. You drag bubbles onto the creator screen and drop them where you’d like. Making your tank bigger will make it slower, but it will give you extra armor and open up heavier weapons. Keeping your tank smaller will give you less armor, but you’ll be much faster and agile. To place weapons, simply select them from our list and drag and drop them onto your tank. Worried about keeping your tank looking symmetric? Just check a box and placing a bubble on one side of the tank will also place one on the other side to keep it looking even. It’s that simple.

Q. Will we be able to design our own weapons?

A. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to create your own weapons. First of all, outside of the art, the programming for game weapons is very complicated. Creating this feature would take a very long time and the end result would be too complicated for most casual players to enjoy. Also, in order to keep the game balanced we need to assign costs to weapons so that you’re amply rewarded for your bubble blasting skills!