We talk: With Blue Lizard Games and Santillana.

So since our last We talk article was read over 70 times in less than an hour Joes felt like bringing you guys more We talk goodness, this time we talk with Blue Lizard Games and Santillana about their upcoming MMO Nanoland, a game that is intended for a younger audience like the well known MMO club penguin, be sure to read the whole interview beacuase inside of it we will have exclusive reveals. So this time we interviewed Fernando Revilla and Alfredo, the guys in charge of Nanoland development.

Why did you named the game Nanoland?

•Haha, because my son has the nickname of "nano" and one day he camed angry because his friends were laughing at his nickname so right there I told him that we would do "NANOLAND" for him, you can’t imagine how happy he was.

The firts "nano" ever

 What inspire you to make the game?

•I have been working 10 years with a multinational dedicated to education and culture, but they didnt had anything in the world of video games, so with the people of Blue Lizard Games we thought about something easy to monetize and distribute, so we came up with a virtual world, they liked the idea and they bet for us.

Why an MMO and not an FPS or RPG?

•Haha, because Santillana Group is an educative enterprise we didn’t believed they would let us make a game with violence! I think that an MMO is fun and has a nice public in the world of videogames. 

For how long the game will be on Beta?

•Two months we go live on September 7

Which are the actual problems in the Beta?

•A lot of bugs as we expect it, there is music missing, sound, minigames that don’t give virtual money to the player and a long etcetera, but all of this was predictable, for that is the Beta!

For how long has the game been in development?

•A year and a half, we started the serious developing in March of last year.

Why did u decided to make this game for a young audience and no a bigger one like Dofus audience?

•In this age range, in one side you have Club Penguin, Moshimonsters, Petpetpark, etc, that we believe reaches kids from 6 to 9 years but with a deficiency of educational content, so we think we have a competitive advantage in how we designed Nanoland in that aspect.

Why so much preoccupation about the players? Why to put such a strong parental control? Don’t you think it would alienate some users?

•We believe firmly in the obligation of giving safety to the parents about what the kids are doing and keep them updated about it, me as a father want to be totally safe about what my kids are doing in a virtual world.

To which audience you expect to reach? How many monthly users?

•Of course we would like to reach to numbers like other MMOs for children have, in the case of Club Penguin they reached 12 million users registered, but we know that this number is hard to reach, but if we talk about that goal it would be 1 million.

What type of minigames Nanoland has?

•We put minigames with easy mechanics, then you will find arcade type games, space invaders, frogger etc, in the amusement park you will find bumper cars, whack-a-mole, in the monsters zone a platformer , dance games, we even have a zone were the “Nanos” can do extreme sports  where they can jump in parachute, in another section you must take pictures like a paparazzi , but well besides the minigames we have group activities were several Nanos must meet to get a prize, there’s also the careers that can be chosen in the clubs, such as Magicians, Sports, Hunters…. Careers, like professions? Exactly, for example in the Hunter career you start as a butterfly hunter and you end up hunting dragons! Plus when you reach certain level you will have access to secret areas.

Which are the 4 principal zones, are they divided by professions?  Do they represent different countries or nations?

•They represent regions that exist in the mid of everyone, you start in the big city, the great metropolis, then you have a place with a Hollywood style linked to careers and minigames about the show, then the monsters zone and the Magic Valley. 

How many cities you expect to have inside the game when you release Nanoland?

•They would be six zones, but each one with different subzones, for example the city has the amusement park, the coliseum and the mall , and this last one has the arcade, at the end of the day Nanoland will be a bigger world.

Would you implement something like PvP? Or pets that will help you battle against monsters?

•Haha, no I don’t think we can implement PvP to Nanoland, is a game for kids from 6 to 12-13 years. We think the pets are important but in the moment we are just discussing about them.

What can your fans expect in a future about Nanoland?

•A lot of things, right now we have 15 minigames and 4 big zone, for September I hope we have duplicated that, plus we are working in a series of books about Nanoland wrote by a really recognized international author (In a couple of weeks when they are published I will tell you her name) *We were faster and we find out that the author will be Maria Fernanda Heredia Ecuadorian writer* The idea is that the books became an important intellectual propriety and moves to other medias. *TV?* For example we have scheduled an iPad that will give you rewards for your Nano.   

Would you like to do an adaptation of the game for Xbox 360, PS3 or something crazy like OnLive?

•Of course we would, but the limitations are only economical, if Nanoland is a successful game we would be able to reach new fronts.

Would you like to show the game in a gaming expo like E3 or something more local for you like South America?

•We have a bet; if we reach 500,000 registered users for the first of November we would go to MIGS (Montreal International Game Summit) in Montreal to talk about Nanoland!!!

Where will be the official launch of the game, what do you have planned for it?

•We will have two releases, one will be in a pair of weeks in Quito (Ecuador) for the local media, and for the end of September we will have an event in Madrid, we have planned a really strong marketing campaign for September, a lot of online marketing using social networks but also supporting us in the reach that Santillana has in 22 countries and the distribution of the Nanoland’s books that we hope will get a lot of attention.  

You can go and check the game at nanoland.com but is only in spanish and later will be available in portuguese and english
We want to thanks Fernando for letting us interviewed him.
All the questions were made by JOES and JDS
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