Baseball games on the DS are few and far between. Was it a challenge in creating one for this particular platform?

For us the biggest challenge was constantly ensuring that we were making a fun game. We spent many days tuning and playing the game to make sure as best we could that the game was accessible to everyone, yet also had enough shelf life to have value for serious gamers. We tried to stick with the “easy to learn, difficult to master” mantra that came out of a game designer’s speech at a GDC or E3 a while back This was difficult for us, as we were also inventing a new interface to pitching and batting that nobody has done before. So we didn’t have any sort of metrics to compare our gameplay to.

Luckily for us we have a team of highly experienced programmers and artists that easily handled the technical limitations of the DS, yet still produced what we feel is a great looking game. Focusing our art and style in a direction that would look great on the DS allowed us to fully concentrate on the game and using the touchpad to do baseball in a new and fun way. This was another factor in our decision to stray away from the standard simulation versions of sports games on the DS; it’s very difficult to get a player or stadium looking exactly like real life when you only have 4MB of RAM and a small screen.

How is the stylus being implemented in both hitting and pitching? Can you throw various pitches? Bunt? Swing for the fences, etc?

Both pitching and batting will utilize the touch screen to control the gameplay, with the batter dragging the stylus in a semi circle arc across the touch pad in time with the pitch, and with the pitcher drawing various lines toward the plate to deliver specific pitches. It’s an all-new system that we think players are really going to love.

We know the game isn't shooting to be a real baseball "simulation" and is more of a light-hearted arcade game; can you give us some examples of the “power-ups” that are available?

We have three categories of power-ups: fielding, batting and pitching. The idea for power-ups in general is to greatly increase (but not guarantee) your chances for success on a single play. So for example while fielding if your opponent has just nailed a powerful hit with bases loaded that is undoubtedly going to be a grand slam, you can fire off your Brick WallTM power-up to shoot up a brick wall that stops the ball in its tracks and prevents the home run. Or, if your bases are loaded and you’re pitching and just need one more strike to end the inning you can spend your power-up meter on the ghost ball which will invisibly fly over the plate, let’s see your opponent try and hit that! Things get really wacky for batting, for example if you want to guarantee you’ve got enough time to get a man on second home to tie the game you can activate the chicken ball power-up. When you hit the ball into the outfield and the fielder goes to pick it up, the ball will run away from him like a crazy chicken giving you plenty of time to run home!

What exactly are “All-Star training mini-games” – can you give us some examples?

The all-star training mini-games are your opportunity to become an all-star. They are the best example of our “easy to learn, difficult to master” philosophy. They are designed to teach new players how to use these new gameplay mechanics we have invented to play baseball, while extending the shelf life of our game by escalating in their difficulty as you try to earn more and more points which in turn earn you medals and unlock rewards. We have four mini-games that teach you each of the four components of baseball: batting, pitching, base running and fielding.

In the batting mini-game you are playing our interpretation of red light – green light. Four giant bats rotate on the field and you must run your players around the bases without coming into contact with the bats. It’s easy to run one player around the bases, however if you want to earn the maximum number of points possible you have to have every base line full at all times.

In the pitching mini-game you are taught the pitch gesture system. Your goal is to not only draw the gesture in the right pattern, but also to direct the pitch over the moving plate at the right position. This teaches you how to pitch all six types of pitches in the game, as well as how to position the ball over the plate. It’s easy to pitch a few balls and earn the bronze medal in this game, but very difficult to earn the maximum points, missing the plate will make the batter hit the ball into the outfield, reducing the time you have to pitch more balls.

Are the player ratings for the hitters and pitchers the same as in the other versions of MLB 2K8 or does it use a different set of parameters?

We reduced the skills for players to 4 attributes to create a more arcade-style version of Baseball. These 4 attributes are batting, running, pitching and fielding. The higher your skill the better or faster you are at any of those 4 things. We wanted to be sure though that we matched the real world abilities of the players featured in our game. So we compiled a huge list of the player’s previous year’s statistics and created formulas to condense a player’s batting average into their batting skill and stats like stolen bases into their running skill. We found this worked very well and gave us a nice distribution of player skill. For pitching all pitchers are able to pitch all of the pitch types, it is up to the user to learn the appropriate gesture to trigger the pitch.

Are there any multiplayer options?

We support head to head multiplayer over both Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and DS wireless (local network). Online you will be able to join matches against a random player, or against friends. You can make friendships either by playing a DS wireless match with an opponent and trading friend codes after the game, or by sharing your friend code with someone manually. In all of the multiplayer modes you can play with any of the MLB teams, and in any of the stadiums you have unlocked in offline play modes. You’ll also be able to go into game sporting any unlocked equipment rewards you’ve earned to make your opponent jealous.

We'd like to thank Rob for taking the time to talk with us. Major League Baseball 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars is set to ship on April 14th.