The PAX demo was actually only one version of the game's competitive multiplayer. Fire Hose's founder and creative director, Eitan Glinert, says there's way more to come, including different game types – like free-for-all rather than 2 vs. 2 – levels, enemies and blocks. Eitan foresees eight types of blocks upon completion, each with its own subset of weapons, depending on the size.

The game will also include a co-op campaign with up to four players. “It has the same mechanics, but you go through levels, collecting different types of blocks,” explained Eitan. Players can also level up their flying muscle men, gain abilities, visit Slam Bolt City and maybe even unlock some new hats – a somewhat odd way to aesthetically customize your mustached avatars.

“Our game is a little cartoony. [The hats] started out as a joke, but we decided to keep them.” Having already decked my guy out in a sombrero during the demo, I asked what other headware may be in store. “That's super secret proprietary hat stuff.”

Eitan cracked a good number of sarcastic jokes during the interview, but Fire Hose hasn't always been fun and games. Of course, developing indie games never really is. “I don't like getting paid, eating...” Eitan reasoned. Then, more seriously: “I don't like being micromanaged. And I figured that's something you would get no matter where you worked.”

Thus, in the summer of 2008, Eitan launched Fire Hose Games having already helped create the only Wii game completely accessible to the visually impaired, AudiOdyssey, at the Singapore-MIT Gambit Lab and Immune Attack at the Federation of American Scientists. Since founding Fire Hose, Eitan has upped the team to six, from former Harmonix developer Ethan Fenn to 3D animator Jason Wiener.

Under his own management, Eitan “wanted to make video games that benefit the user in some way,” something that offers players “creative freedom” like in LittleBigPlanet and integrates real science and engineering without being strictly educational.

Having previewed Slam Bolt Scrappers, Fire Hose's first game, I'd say Eitan's sticking by his guns. But it hasn't been easy. The game I played at PAX is actually the sixth iteration of the title. It began with a single concept: building and fighting. But through a series of focus testing, the team had to throw many versions out the window, sometimes even re-starting from scratch. “The concept with building and fighting we knew was good but people felt it wasn't integrated that well. They seemed too separate.” In another version, the act of building was too hard. In another, too easy. “We had to stop and keep going back to the drawing board.”

This time, the team may just have it right. The company has yet to announce the release date, but Eitan says to expect it within a year. Check out Fire Hose's blog, stocked with development updates and miscellaneous video game-related posts, at www.firehosegames.com .