That hush-hush, E.T.-like project, which has been building buzz across the Web, will have to wait awhile.

First up is Boom Blox, a lively puzzle game based on a brainstorm Spielberg says hit him in the EA parking lot after one of his LMNO story sessions.

He guides his kids to games "that send out good messages, and are also eye candy — stimulating to the eye and to all senses." Among the reasons he pitched Boom Blox was that "there were not enough games for my kids to play that would also interest me as a grown-up. I wanted something that would appeal to all ages, starting with kids 8 to 12, then hopefully spreading upward to teenagers and adults."

And he tries to get them "to play activity games that they can learn from," but he has learned to be careful that the games aren't too didactic lest he hears: "Oh, Dad, this is too educational. I know why you bought this for me." Nonetheless, it was important to him that the game have at least some educational value. "They will learn physics from Boom Blox and not even realize it."

That's where the unique and highly physical Wii controller comes in. "When the Wii came onto the scene, which really allowed you to stand up and do backhanded and forehanded tennis strokes, I realized that the technology was requiring something more physical from the player, and that was really compelling," he says.

He was so impressed by the activity that he placed Wiis around his house. "It gets people off their keisters. It's a pretty darn good upper-body workout."

Because Boom Blox uses a real physics engine in the game, Spielberg promises it'll get people moving. "You'll be throwing and you'll be pulling, and you will be moving objects from your hand through space to the images on the screen."

Though LMNO will be Spielberg's epic tale, Boom Blox tells "little stories in each of the levels," he says. "There are characters that are really easy to fall in love with." The characters, represented as animated blocks, have unique characteristics that play a role in how you solve the block puzzles.

"You are given a premise and a mission; then you set out on a journey to accomplish that mission," he says. It's "not a paradigm change by any means, but certainly this is more than building blocks and knocking them down."

He was involved with the game's design "every step along the way," from the artwork to the characters and the ideas for the different lands in the game, including a graveyard, "a sort of Halloween-type theme," he says. He even named three of the more than 30 characters after his daughters, Sasha, 17, Mikaela, 12, and Destry, 11.

Spielberg likens the process to producing a motion picture. "My job as a producer is to try to draw the best out of the talent that is available."

He even had his kids test a limited demo, and when they became "obsessed with it," he took that as a "great sign." He adds: "This has been fun for me. This has been a great break from the movies."

Enlarge Electronic Arts Doc Babadoo: Knock the character's blocks off.

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