This week on the EXP Podcast, Scott and I discuss Scribblenauts, an upcoming game from 5th Cell. In an interview, the studio's creative director Jeremiah Slaczka makes some pretty big claims we are hesitant to believe. According to Jeremiah, his creation is limited only by your imagination. If the game can live up to its promise, Scribblenauts can have some major repercussions.
If you haven't seen the Scribblenauts preview, you can find the original article in the show notes below. We encourage any feedback. Also, I apologize for the tone of my voice and any sniffles you might have heard. Apparently I had snorted a cat earlier in the day.
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Shownotes:
- Run time: 23m 33s
- Preview and interview courtesy of IGN.
- As always, music provided by Brad Sucks.
I want to be excited about this game, but the skeptic inside of me won't allow it. There are just too many crazy ways to solve a puzzle that I can conjure up in my head that I can almost guarantee will not be possible in that game. I hope they prove me wrong. If they do, I will, with haste, gladly pay whatever they ask for this game.
ReplyDeleteI know gamers have been burned by promises in the past, but let us not be so cynical as to fear dreaming the impossible dream!
ReplyDelete5th cell also made Drawn to Life, which is a very interesting game with a related approach.
ReplyDeleteThey also did Lock's Quest which I found quite enjoyable.
I was wondering why you think this is such a technically difficult thing to pull off? There is not enough information out there yet but from what I understand, the technology behind it is quite simple. There is always only a very small amount of objects actually interacting with each other. The only difficult thing would be just creating the staggering library of objects and define interactions between them but that's just difficult to develop, not difficult to put on a portable system. You certainly won't need a PS3's processing power for that kind of a game.
@Kyrstian
ReplyDeletePersonally, the reasons I thought the game might be difficult to execute as described are two fold:
1. My understanding of how actual programming works is probably similar to that of a chimp's understanding of how fire works ;-)
2. Gaming history is littered with grandiose promises that often come up a bit short. Remember the hype around the original Fable, or more recently, the circus that was Too Human? I hope that they can work out how all the objects will interact, but experience has taught me caution.
Ah, this stuff makes me want to buy a DS!