BOOM BLOX [Wii]

It takes some getting used to, but the Boom Blox editor is a huge part of what makes the experience fun, and it provides near-endless depth to the package. Once you build a level you can add point values to blocks or change the properties via the "paint" tool, and then set rules depending on if the level is single player, multiplayer, time based, point based, or limited on how many throws the player gets. Once you're done (or mid-creation) you can launch the level and play it, and then save, share, and swap levels with friends wirelessly. Good call, EA.

And now, on to the levels themselves.

Level 1: Bozonia

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In this first level we experimented with a classic tower design, but wanted to make a two player points-based game out of it. Since doing a regular tower is extremely basic - and already included in single and multiplayer play - we decided to increase the amount of points in each section of it, adding in some negative or penalty points across the top as well. Using the copy tool the towers were simple to create and duplicate, but an early mistake at the beginning of editing had us adding five point block on the base of each tower. Since point blocks disappear when they hit the ground, we had to remove them and re-build part of the level. Aside from that, it was a breeze, and took us about 10 mins total to create this basic, fun multiplayer level. It could use more variation in points though, as it's all fives and a few -10 bricks.

Level 2: Trial and Error

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Things don't always go as planned, and that's shown off in great lengths in our "Trial and Error" video. We wanted to show of the behaviors of the animals in Boom Blox, specifically the ball-throwing Dirk, and bomb-detonating Buckley. The idea was for them to face off, with Dirk throwing balls at the army of Duckley blox, but some tower malfunctions kept us from really getting the result we wanted. We've done this one a few times previously, but this specific level shows how physics can trip up careless designers. We changed the amount of characters, the layout of the towers, and then had to stabilize them to make sure Dirk didn't fall to his death. This level did run a bit slow due to a lot of AI usage, but it's a funny little "skit" of sorts. Not really a legit level by any means.

Level 3: Top Heavy

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Top Heavy was a fun one, as we're sure you can tell from the creation. We started out with a tower, checked to make sure everything was stable in the preview mode, and then just ran with it Originally there were some issues with the 50 block, and we wanted it to slide down and score if someone toppled the tower, rather than allowing people to just snipe at the huge block itself. Once we got it working for the most part, we had a whole mass of level still to play with, so we made it symmetrical, adding even more point possibilities in the middle with a pyramid of 50 pointers. We had some good runs with this level in multiplayer, but as you can see by the end of the clip, the 50 blocks aren't always as simple to score as we thought they would be. It's a decent first run, but needs some improvement. This is also a level where we had a chance to experiment with the height tool. For the most part it worked great, though it takes some serious pre-planning if you want to get it right the first time; gravity is a cruel, cruel thing.

Level 4: Random Insanity

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In this final video, we tried a few random setups with characters and structures to play around with the world a bit. The editor itself doesn't' need to be used just to make serious levels or puzzles for other players; sometimes it's fun just to see what you can do with the world itself. Mostly it ends up boiling down to sheep harassment, but it's all good fun. Sure it's a bit crude and simple, but sometimes you just want to huck a baseball at one of those critters and after a few hours of level editing, that's just what the doctor ordered in this one. Enjoy.

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