Scribblenauts Preview/Impressions Thread - You will say "wow." (see post #217)

[BorkBork]

What is Scribblenauts?



It's a puzzle game built on one very simple but insane premise:

"Write ANYTHING. Solve EVERYTHING."

And by anything, it literally means everything within these rules from Jackson, our resident 5th Cell developer:

So I'll restate the rules here... Concrete Objects Only No Proper Nouns No Copyrighted Words No Adjectives E-E10 rated words only - this means No Vulgar/Offensive/Lewd/Drug/Alcohol related words Other than that... it works

Accolades:


Gametrailers.com E3 DS Game of the Show

IGN E3 Best Handheld Game, Special Achievement for Innovation, Best Puzzle Game, OVERALL GAME OF THE SHOW
(Beating Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Uncharted 2)

Gamespy E3 OVERALL GAME OF THE SHOW
(Beating Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect 2)

Gamespot's OVERALL GAME OF THE SHOW
(Beating Assassin's Creed 2, Forza 3, GoW 3, Modern Warfare 2, Silent Hill, Star Wars, Rock Band, Heavy Rain, Splinter Cell, and Uncharted 2)


Videos from E3:

Watch this Gametrailer.com walkthrough

God Vs. the Kraken

Cthulhu vs. a Lion 10:40 minutes in

1-UP Interview showing a slightly more complex action level

June 10th IGN video: SHOTGUN-TOTING SKATEBOARD-RIDING GOD FIGHTS CTHULHU. No, you read that right.

June 15: Gamespot Hands-On Demo

5th Cell has been kind enough to include MANY internet memes (longcat, LOL wut, NeoGAF also ), mythical creatures (Cthulhu, vampires, griffins etc.), and famous people (Einstein), but don't expect everything in those areas.

If you are lazy and don't feel like slogging through this very entertaining thread to find what is probably the greatest gaming post in the history of this forum, here it is. Post 217 in all its glory:

I had played all the big titles at E3. Private showings of God of War III, Heavy Rain, Alan Wake. But at 4:00 on Thursday, I was wandering around the show floor, wondering what else I had to see. I saw a small little booth for "Scribblenauts!" in the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment section. I mean, who goes to that booth? But I remember hearing about it on GAF, and so I decided to check it out. Best game of E3? Without a fucking doubt. Anyone who says otherwise did not play Scribblenauts. Best game of all time? Jesus Christ, I don't know, maybe. It's a game that challenges your IMAGINATION. No other game has ever done that. So listen to this story. I was in the early levels; I didn't quite have an idea of how ridiculously in-depth the database was. I was summoning things like ladders, glasses of water, rayguns, what have you. But I reached a level with zombie robots, and the zombie robots kept killing me. Rayguns didn't work, a torch didn't work, a pickaxe didn't work. In my frustration, I wrote in "Time Machine". And one popped up. What the fuck? A smile dawned on my face. I hopped in, and the option was given to me to either travel to the past or the future. I chose past. When I hopped out, there were fucking dinosaurs walking around. I clicked one, and realized I could RIDE THEM. So I hopped on a fucking DINOSAUR, traveled back to the present, and stomped the shit out of robot zombies. Did you just read that sentence? Did you really? I FUCKING TRAVELED THROUGH TIME AND JUMPED ON A DINOSAUR AND USED IT TO KILL MOTHERFUCKING ROBOT ZOMBIES. This game is unbelievable. Impossible. There's nothing you can't do. Holy fucking shit.

Forget your Uncharted 2, your Splinter Cell, your Metroid. Screw your Motion Plus, Dildo Wands, Natal and Milo. This is the highlight of E3 HANDS-DOWN. Probably the most insanely ambitious title in years and it looks to be fulfilling its potential on the oldest and weakest system on the market.

For the haters and the doubters, Evilore posted something that explains why people are so damn excited about this game:

Novelty? Novelty is the typical "sandbox" game of deciding on shooting this guy with an uzi or sniping him from a rooftop or hitting him with a car. Novelty is adding a few new shader effects and retooling some mechanics for sequel #35 of safe profit franchise #5037. This is thinking of basically any object and it appearing in the damn game with the attributes and functionality that you'd expect from it. That's not novelty, that's redefining what is possible in a video game.

If you want to support 5th Cell for coming up with this innovative and original game:

Pre-ordering the game is how the game will be promoted better actually, if it has large pre-orders then it will get more backing, because they know its going to be a success. People should always pre-order games they want to support. :)

Spread the word about Scribblenauts. Preorder the game and pick it up this fall.

[eznark]

Twitter:
pkollarSCRIBBLENAUTS ACTUALLY WORKS. Like really well. This game deserves a lot more buzz, IMO.

[Forkball]

I can't wait for this game. I wish they would release a new trailer for E3.

[lawblob]

If this game actually pans out, it should be very fun.


Now play me off, Keyboard Cat!!!

[abstract alien]

Ok, game of show, easily

[lawblob]

DP

[lawblob]

NM

[RubxQub]

...that sounds really awesome.

So the general idea is that to push that whale into the ocean the guy could have wrote "steamroller" or "super strength" or "conveyor belt"?

...that sounds incredible if so.

[EatChildren]

...that sounds really awesome. So the general idea is that to push that whale into the ocean the guy could have wrote "steamroller" or "super strength" or "conveyor belt"? ...that sounds incredible if so.

Pretty much, minus "super strength". Only objects.

[_dementia]

triple post?

play him off, keyboat cat

[Amir0x]

definitely one of my most hyped games.

5th Cell is really growing into something special.

[Gexecuter]

This game sounds awesome, hopefully they can deliver.

[stuminus3]

This game just blows my mind right out of my head every time I hear about it. If they do what they said they are going to do (and all indications point to that they have), and they can fit it around a fun game, they deserve some kind of crazy Kings of the Universe award or something.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Man, that's going to be one puzzling Easter Egg in ten years.

[laserbeam]

woo.

If this game actually pans out, it should be very fun. Now play me off, Keyboard Cat!!!

[_dementia]

Man, that's going to be one puzzling Easter Egg in ten years.

KC died 20 years ago, but his contribution is ageless.

[BorkBork]

Pretty much, minus "super strength". Only objects.

Yeah... something like Superman or bodybuilder works, but super strength probably won't.

[GDGF]

Yeah... something like Superman or bodybuilder works, but super strength probably won't.

I wonder if steroids would work

Or spinach!

[Colocho]

The first word I'm gonna try is penis.

[RubxQub]

The first word I'm gonna try is penis.

This game is likely going to be very difficult for you, as you can't seem to read.

[Colocho]

This game is likely going to be very difficult for you, as you can't seem to read.

Doesn't mean that's not the first word I'm gonna try, followed by butt.

[justchris]

Yeah... something like Superman or bodybuilder works, but super strength probably won't.

Superman probably won't be in, since he's copyrighted. Maybe you can get around it with uber mensch.

Either way, this game looks awesome. Of course, now I'm going to have to spend months testing out memes looking for easter eggs. Thanks a lot Jackson.

[bounchfx]

Tried this today... Holy awesome. It does everything but copywrited and vulgar stuff.

It did shrimp, lighter, pool, zombie, pirate, ninja, ping pong ball, grill, rollercoaster, lanyard, sword, chainsaw, trampoline, lawnmower, shiruken..

You can summon a corpse, battery, and wire, attach them and it will bring the corpse back to life . I also put raw meat on the grill and it cooked it!

If anyone has any requests let me know here and I'll try to test it tomorrow.

[Sciz]

"GAF" and "NeoGAF", respectively. Possibly "DinoGAF" as well.

[Wii Will Rock U]

Played it on the show floor.

Other internet memes present inside the game include "LOL WUT" and "Longcat".

LOL WUT drops the famous smiling lima bean onto the stage. He is useless. Longcat drops into the stage inside a cloud and grows tall then shrinks back into the cloud.

The game has to be one of my DS games of the show.

[BorkBork]

Played it on the show floor. Other internet memes present inside the game include "LOL WUT" and "Longcat". LOL WUT drops the famous smiling lima bean onto the stage. He is useless. Longcat drops into the stage inside a cloud and grows tall then shrinks back into the cloud. The game has to be one of my DS games of the show.

OMG This game will be GLORIOUS.

[JohnsonUT]

WOW! Great to hear the dictionary works. How are the actual puzzles?

[RubxQub]

Tried this today... Holy awesome. It does everything but copywrited and vulgar stuff. It did shrimp, lighter, pool, zombie, pirate, ninja, ping pong ball, grill, rollercoaster, lanyard, sword, chainsaw, trampoline, lawnmower, shiruken.. You can summon a corpse, battery, and wire, attach them and it will bring the corpse back to life . I also put raw meat on the grill and it cooked it! If anyone has any requests let me know here and I'll try to test it tomorrow.

So when you do the corpse + battery + wire combo, does it essentially create a zombie or just bring he person back to life?

That's cool regardless...

How about "Baking Soda" and "Vinegar" to try and create a mini-volcano?

[KevinCow]

[JohnsonUT]

So when you do the corpse + battery + wire combo, does it essentially create a zombie or just bring he person back to life? That's cool regardless... How about "Baking Soda" and "Vinegar" to try and create a mini-volcano?

Also, try gunpowder, cannon, and cannonball.

[GDGF]

This is one of the big ones.

[Haunted]

sounds amazing

[julls]

this game sounds fascinating and absolutely insane.

[STG!]

Oh shit, how about Tacgnol?

Everything I've read about this game makes me want to try it more and more.

[bounchfx]

Hah yeah it brings a zombie up. I did the longcat one too because he recommended it, though I hadn't heard of that meme before heh. I gotta try more combos tomorrow.

Come to think of it, the dude is probably on gaf haha, if so, sup

[jrricky]

Played it on the show floor. Other internet memes present inside the game include "LOL WUT" and "Longcat". LOL WUT drops the famous smiling lima bean onto the stage. He is useless. Longcat drops into the stage inside a cloud and grows tall then shrinks back into the cloud. The game has to be one of my DS games of the show.

This just solidifies my purchase even more.

Jackson, where are you? Are you at E3? Could someone give this hunk a pat on the back if you see him please.

[~Kinggi~]

I am actually going to buy this DS game. Yeah.

[Hazaro]

Diet / Coke + Mentos, or perhaps soda + mentos?
42
Cup, then Cake
Potion
H5N1 / H1A1
Cereal

Galbladder
Chapstick
Conventional Toaster-Oven
Chip clip
Tapestry
Mandolin

[Wii Will Rock U]

This just solidifies my purchase even more. Jackson, where are you? Are you at E3? Could someone give this hunk a pat on the back if you see him please.

Am I the hunk?

[BorkBork]

Impressions from Nintendo world Report:

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/i...fm?artid=18750

This DS game is one of the most creative games on the show floor, but it’s terribly misnamed. You don’t scribble anything. There is no drawing of any kind. Rather, you type words to make objects appear, then use those objects to solve puzzles. What’s impressive is exactly how many words and objects the game recognizes and spawns sprites for. We typed in “dinosaur” and a generalized theropod appeared. We typed “zombie” and a zombie appeared, and it immediately began consuming the human character, who then turned into a zombie. We typed “God” and Zeus was born. We typed “Death” and the Grim Reaper popped up and immediately began fighting God, who eventually died. Even “fishing pole” and “time machine” were recognized by the software. There’s a spell checker in case you miss a letter or two, and you can select what use you mean when you type a homonym. It’s all very impressive and interesting. There’s a sandbox mode where you can just screw around and pop things into existence, then see what happens. The meat and potatoes of the game lies in the puzzle and challenge modes, which either ask you to do something specific (give two characters things they’d use) or find a way to grab a star that is floating on the environment. In one instance, a star sat atop a tree. The booth attendant typed in “beaver,” and a toothy rodent appeared and immediately fell the tree, allowing our character to grab the star. There are a few problems that I noticed. The graphical style of the game, while generally awesome, is abstract enough so that some objects aren’t really clear. When we attached the fishing rod to the character, icons appeared asking us whether he should use the rod or merely hold it. Neither button looked anything like “holding” or “using;” they both looked like blobs. Also, not every object has a use. The time machine didn't actually do anything (that would could tell). Controlling the main character is a little more finnicky than I would like, as it's hard to make him stop exactly where you want. Even so, I’m sure getting used to the layout and interface will become a breeze with more time. Scribblenauts looks like a fantastically original creation, and WB hopes to have it out by the end of the year.

Kind of some silly complaints about stuff not doing anything, but the more impressions the better

[Slavik81]

I see your key-pounding cat, and raise you a cat on a keyboard in space.

[HK-47]

I see your key-pounding cat, and raise you a cat on a keyboard in space.

That cat is the fucking destroyer of worlds.

[xir]

our dev walkthrough is coming up soon. at the end we asked if it knew 'waffle iron' and it did.


want to try 'pope'

[Rezbit]

Played it on the show floor. Other internet memes present inside the game include "LOL WUT" and "Longcat". LOL WUT drops the famous smiling lima bean onto the stage. He is useless. Longcat drops into the stage inside a cloud and grows tall then shrinks back into the cloud. The game has to be one of my DS games of the show.

Incredible.

[Brashnir]

our dev walkthrough is coming up soon. at the end we asked if it knew 'waffle iron' and it did. want to try 'pope'

the real question is does it know Waffle, Iron, and Waffle Iron?

[Danthrax]

This game sounds amazing. Might be the first DS game I've bought in a long time.

[BorkBork]

the real question is does it know Waffle, Iron, and Waffle Iron?

All of them, of course.

[HappyBivouac]

The concept alone is enough to make me giddy at the prospects of this game. If it is packed full of good 2D platformer-ish puzzles (ala Donkey Kong GB and its spiritual successors) this game will be legendary.

[octopusman]

That cat is the fucking destroyer of worlds.

[BorkBork]

Gamespot Impressions:

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6211254...on-impressions

The Nintendo DS is rife with platforming games, but not a single one is like Scribblenauts. In this game, you guide a cute kid named Maxwell throughout a world, which consists of 220 increasingly difficult levels. The one common theme that draws all of these levels together is the way that you conquer the obstacles that lie before you: think of a solution, type it out on the touch screen, and that object will appear before you, ready to be used. With tens of thousands of objects in the game, it's awfully hard to think of something that the game doesn't have in it (provided you're not thinking of such an abstract concept as communism). Who's Making This Game: Scribblenauts is being developed by 5th Cell, a studio with a history of charming and creativity-driven DS games. The company most recently brought us Lock's Quest, but before that it made Drawn to Life, a platformer in which you actually drew your main character. So it's a team with a good track record for taking interesting ideas for how to use the DS touch screen and putting them into action. What the Game Looks Like: It's 2D platformer with a rough, hand-drawn art style, but a style that's also cute and appealing at the same time. It's quite similar to the look of Drawn to Life. The objects that you call into the world aren't terribly detailed, but with the sheer number of them stored in the system, that's entirely understandable. What There Is to Do: The game is split into traditional platforming levels and smaller, more deliberate puzzles. In the puzzles, you're given a quandary and told to find a solution by using objects that you think of on your own. One example that we saw put the player on one side of a small island, and a star (your goal) on the other side beyond a tall wall. The easiest solution is to write the word jetpack, have it appear, pick it up, and attach it to Maxwell and let him fly over the wall. But if you want to get more creative, you can spawn a dolphin into the water, a diving helmet for Maxwell, and ride the friendly dolphin under the island to the other side. The platforming levels are more traditional 2D, run-and-jump fare. You might encounter a wall too high for Maxwell to leap over, so a quick solution would be to spawn a ladder and climb it. If you reach a gap too wide to leap across, you can simply spawn a plank of wood to cover it up. These sound easy, but some of the later levels that we saw were pretty nasty. The difficulty definitely ramps up as the game goes on. At one point, we encountered a level with deadly sharks in the water between you and your goal. It took us a few tries to figure out the best solution as we continued to get eaten over and over, before realizing those same dolphins that we used earlier would actually fight the sharks on our behalf. That, or you could just drop a toaster in the water and electrocute them to death. Adding more replay value is the fact that you can return to all of the levels that you've beaten to edit them with the level-editing tool, and replay them in an advanced difficulty mode that remembers which objects you used last time and prohibits you from using them again. How the Game Is Played: Every bit of movement is done with the touch screen. You tap where you want Maxwell to go, and he'll automatically jump over small obstacles and gaps. You punch in letters with the stylus to write objects, and then drag and drop them wherever you want them to go. In fact, the only buttons that you use are on the directional pad, which is for moving the camera to scope out terrain that you haven't reached yet. What They Say: The official Web site asks, "What if anything you could think of could be used to help you in a video game?" What We Say: Well, it obviously doesn't have everything you can think of, but it's sure close. All sorts of things from shark repellent to the specter of death are in there for you to type up, call into the world, and use for solving puzzles and traversing over 2D platforming environments. We really enjoyed what we played of Scribblenauts. You can expect to see more on the game in the very near future

Sounds like it's a bit of a challenge too. Niiiice. Toaster. Awesome. I would have totally have thought of dolphins for killing sharks.