First, can you tell us about the formation of Hidden Path Entertainment?

Hidden Path Entertainment was founded in 2006 by five partners who had each been making top games for more than 10 years at places such as Access Software, Ensemble, FASA, Sierra On-Line, and Virtual World Entertainment. After working on the Age of Empires, Amped, Crimson Skies, Half-Life, Homeworld, and Lord of the Rings franchises, the group came together at Microsoft's Xbox division, joining a consulting organization that went all over the world to help game developers make their games the best they could be for the Xbox and Xbox 360. After helping launch the Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE services, the group decided to form Hidden Path Entertainment to get back to their roots and make great games directly.

What can you tell us about how the idea for Defense Grid came about?

In 2007 there was a large increase of flash games emphasizing the tower defense mechanics previously seen in Warcraft 3 and Starcraft mods. They became very popular around the office, but just like a good movie you are hoping will turn out to be great, they all seemed to be just short of a fully satisfying experience to us and we kept talking about what we'd do if we built a tower defense game. Then as one of our teams started to free up after finishing a previous project, we decided to move forward on that idea and work to make the definitive tower defense strategy game experience in Defense Grid: The Awakening.

Is there a fictional backstory for the game that you can tell us about?

The invasion began without warning. After a thousand years of peace, the aliens have returned. The planet's survival depends on activating the ancient Defense Grid... If it still functions at all. With trembling fingers, you key the activation switch...

In the far future, humanity struggles against a relentless enemy with weak tactics, but seemingly infinite troops. On one small planet, they were successful in driving the invaders off by using advanced technology to protect the power cores that the aliens were desperate to have. One of the generals in the war volunteered to have himself uploaded into the computer to assist the colony should the aliens ever return.

A thousand years later, the aliens are back. The player manages to make it to one of the ancient bases, and awakens the artificial intelligence construct of the general who was placed there in the previous war. The general understands how the bases operate, and can assist the player when needed, all while facing his own memories and losses from the previous engagement...

and from there we really don't want to spoil the story too much for players. We feel that the journey through the game with the AI general's assistance will be an enjoyable one for players.