First, making a free-to-play multiplayer shooter is always risky. How hard was it to convince EA to move on such a game?

Not hard at all! Each studio in EA is given freedom to try out new ideas. DICE is always looking for ways to innovate, ways to try new things.

In terms of gameplay, how will Battlefield Heroes differ from the Battlefield games that have been released in the past?

Battlefield Heroes has been designed from the ground up to appeal to a broader audience than the traditional PC Battlefield games. The first big thing you'll notice is the camera is not in a traditional first-person position. Your character is always on screen. We found this helped new players better orientate themselves in the world, as well as allowing you to see your cool customisation items.

We added Abilities to the game to make the battles be somewhat less a test of your mouse control skill. Abilities basically fall into three categories; ones that help you survive, ones that help you do more damage and ones that help your teammates. Using them at the right times can turn the course of a fight in your favour. Or, at the very least, allow you to run away and regroup. At the core Battlefield Heroes maintains the familiar sandbox do-as-you-like mayhem of it's big-brother PC games.

The game's cartoony art style have also generated interest. Why go with that style as opposed to a more realistic style?

There's a few reasons why we went with this art style. Firstly we wanted the Heroes world to be a nice place to visit. Not some dark brown moody realistic world. Blue skies for the win.

Secondly we wanted really low system-specs for the game; so anyone with a 5 year old laptop could play, and have with nice visuals. Highly detailed visuals created for the newest computers don't translate well to less powerful machines. However the Heroes art style looks great on both low and high end machines.

The third motivation was we didn't want to go "OHAI! Here's Heroes, its got a realistic World War 2 art style!". I don't think anyone would find that very attractive.

When players first start playing the game, what should they expect? Will matches be quick or will they be long affairs online?

The first thing new players will notice is the game is a free download from our website. All we need is a brief account registration, while the game downloads and installs in the background. While waiting for the download the player can create their Hero. Which is just a simple matter of selecting your Faction and Class, and then how you would like your Hero to appear; things like hair colour and style. Once the installation is complete just push the big "Play Now" button on the website to get playing.

We've been making a lot of changes from the traditional PC Battlefield games. For instance we have introduced a console-style Matchamking system. So you play against people of your skill level. We've also trimmed down the respawn times a lot, and added in a camera which shows a view of who killed you and with what. Which we feel will help new players learn what went wrong, and how to avoid it next time. We have also added a tutorial area where you are free test out the abilities, weapons and vehicles without the inconvenience of the enemy trying to interfere.