Scribble me this

Scribblenauts went into E3 relatively unknown, but came out one of the most hyped games of the show. Winning three best of show awards, Scribblenauts really shows the power of word of mouth. According to an interview with Creative Director Jeremiah Slaczka, they have done next to no advertising for the game. All the mega-hype is coming from people who played and really enjoyed the game.

For those who don’t know, Scribblenauts is a DS game where you can add almost anything to the world to help progress through levels. You may be faced with an elephant in your path and there are several ways to solve that problem. Perhaps you want to add a mouse to scare the elephant away? Maybe add a ladder to allow you to climb over? Any possible solution you can come up with is worth a try.

This game is extremely exciting for me. Not that it appears to be an entirely new concept, but because of the execution. The artstyle is brilliantly cute, and the game truly seems to recognize anything.

The sheer number of possibilities is what really sets this game apart for me. I’ve seen the drawing and creative puzzle solving concepts in games before, but none that have taken it this deep. Each obstacle can be solved many different ways, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look like a lot of fun.

However, with this magnitude of possibilites, one might find themselves in a position of too much choice. With so many things to choose from, players might disregard the options and solely use a ladder for climbing over things. While this would be a perfectly legitimate way to play through the game, people won’t really get the full creative experience if you don’t experiment.

If the developers remain on track and simply polish the game for release, I’m on board. My sole concern for this game is the possibility of turning off players creativity by giving them too many things to play with. I know I would automatically think of a ladder to climb, just because it’s the most familiar item to me.  What I think this game could do very well,  is help people to think outside of the box. Perhaps a catapult for getting over that elephant next time?