Rhode Island gave Curt Schilling a $75 million loan guarantee primarily to lure his company 38 Studios to Providence. But enlisting the former Red Sox ace as a one-man spokesman could prove pretty valuable, too.

Schilling sang the praises of Rhode Island and its leaders in a prime-time interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity last week, defending his acceptance of the taxpayer backstop and offering a description of the state’s business climate that must have been music to Smith Hill’s ears.

“The growth of our company, 38 Studios, is government doing – gone right,” Schilling told Hannity (who lived in Rhode Island before he went into broadcasting and described 38 Studios as “a huge business”).

Schilling continued: ”I watched the speaker of the House, who is a Democrat in Rhode Island, adamantly push to create this job guaranty program, this job creation program, along with Republicans and independents, to do right by the people. When you have politicians – I don’t care which side of the aisle you’re on – working for the better of the people, of their constituents, good things happen when you have people with pure motives.”

“I lived in Rhode Island for five years,” Hannity interjected. “They have a million warehouses. It’s all textile warehouses. They are available.”

“And it’s changing,” Schilling replied. “This is one of the initiatives to change that, is to bring technology companies into downtown Providence and grow out of that. 38 Studios is one of the first companies to do that.”

38 Studios started out with 11 individuals on staff and now has 400 employees who are “incredibly talented, passionate people,” Schilling said. “We’ve kind of taken some people by surprise.” The company’s first game, “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning,” sold 330,000 copies in the U.S. last month; Schilling welcomed it with a launch event in Bellingham, Mass.

On Fox News, Schilling mostly resisted Hannity’s efforts to get him to criticize President Obama for engaging in what Hannity termed “class warfare,” but Schilling – an active Republican – did agree with his host’s sentiments more generally. ”Every dollar I can’t commit to my company that’s paid in taxes is paying a government that I believe is too big and doing way too much that I don’t want done,” he said.

“I’m not looking, never have been, for handouts,” Schilling later added.

The interview closed with a direct pitch from Schilling to potential “Reckoning” players: “All the gamers that watch your show, think ‘God of War’ meets ‘Skyrim.’ They will totally just understand what I said and they will be way fired up.”

• Related: Schilling video game backed by RI is high-risk, high reward (Aug. 3, 2010)