Boom Blox was “the first idea that jumped into my head”, says Spielberg

Speaking to USA Today, Steven Spielberg has been fleshing out the thinking behind his first EA collaboration – physics-based block game Boom Blox, released exclusively for the Wii later this week.

He said that it was the Wii specifically which inspired the idea, which quickly came to him.

"I suddenly realized there were all sorts of applications for this tactile technology," he said, adding that Boom Blox was "the first idea that jumped into my head."

But the fun derived from smashing up block-based structures wasn’t his ultimate aim – instead he wanted to create a game that brought families together.

"There is a continental divide in my own house between what I play and the kind of games my kids play.

"I wanted something that would bring the family together in the same room, standing shoulder to shoulder with four different controllers," he said.

He also said that as a gaming parent he’s fairly strict on the games content he allows into the home, and it was avoiding this exclusion which helped further his idea into making an inclusive title: "There are games that are taboo. And I won’t have them on the premises. I don’t want my kids saying, ‘How come Dad is playing that and we can’t?’"

He added that he understood why kids are attracted to playing games that are for older age brackets: "My kids will never go in and take an R-rated DVD and play it. But there is something very compelling and different about the artwork on the box of what might be an M game that could tempt my kids."

Spielberg has a multi-game deal with EA in the works – and Boom Blox is just the first of the collaborations. The next game is said to be a more epic adventure-focused title, codenamed PQRS.

His ultimate aim, USA Today added, was to make "games that tell you stories and involve you emotionally in the characters" and which "move people to laughter and to tears and to all sorts of colorful emotions" – much like the movies he is used to making.