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5th Cell's new game of HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE revealed - Scribblenauts (DS)

Stuff I wonder about Scribblenauts:

• How does the game deal with homonyms? For example, if you enter “bow”, will you get something for shooting arrows, or a knot tied in a ribbon, or something else?
• How does it deal with vague terms? What happens if you ask it to spawn “thing”, “stuff”, “object”, or “entity”?
• How does it deal with gender? Was the policeman in the trailer spawned by writing “policeman”, “police officer”, or “cop”? Is there a “policewoman”? How will feminists react if all the gender neutral terms like “police officer” produce males?
• Regarding the screenshot with the vampire and Maxwell thinking of a cross: Is Christianity the only religion that can deal with vampires? What would holy objects of other religions do?
• How does the game deal with self reference? If you write “Starite”, will you have to collect the new Starites you just spawned? Will writing “Maxwell” clone your character? If you write “Scribblenauts”, do you get to play a subgame of the game within the game?
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
This game sounds absolutely too good to be true. I mean, that interview was 100% hype. And, seriously, write anything?

Of course, if this turns out to be "real," then....

whoa.
 

CiSTM

Banned
I'm bit sceptical about this game but still I think it's going to be a wonderful experience. And it's nice to see new and innovative games on the market.
 

bdouble

Member
cooljeanius said:
Stuff I wonder about Scribblenauts:

• How does the game deal with homonyms? For example, if you enter “bow”, wiil you get something for shooting arrows, or a knot tied in a ribbon, or something else?
• How does it deal with vague terms? What happens if you ask it to spawn “thing”, “stuff”, “object”, or “entity”?
• How does it deal with gender? Was the policeman in the trailer spawned by writing “policeman”, “police officer”, or “cop”? Is there a “policewoman”? How will feminists react if all the gender neutral terms like “police officer” produce males?
• Regarding the screenshot with the vampire and Maxwell thinking of a cross: Is Christianity the only religion that can deal with vampires? What would holy objects of other religions do?
• How does the game deal with self reference? If you write “Starite”, will you have to collect the new Starites you just spawned? Will writing “Maxwell” clone your character? If you write “Scribblenauts”, do tiy get to play a subgame of the game within the game?

Most of these were answered on previous pages. I know one page back the "bow" thing specifically was mentioned.
 

Galactic Fork

A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
cooljeanius said:
Stuff I wonder about Scribblenauts:

• How does the game deal with homonyms? For example, if you enter “bow”, wiil you get something for shooting arrows, or a knot tied in a ribbon, or something else?

Well Jackson said there was a system for words with multiple meanings. Just have to wait. Possibly a menu or something.

cooljeanius said:
• How does it deal with vague terms? What happens if you ask it to spawn “thing”, “stuff”, “object”, or “entity”?
Vague terms do nothing. Only specifics work. That's been said many times.


cooljeanius said:
• How does it deal with gender? Was the policeman in the trailer spawned by writing “policeman”, “police officer”, or “cop”? Is there a “policewoman”? How will feminists react if all the gender neutral terms like “police officer” produce males?

Dunno, i figured they'll have a male and female version of all spawnable humans, so if no gender is specified, it randomly chooses one.

cooljeanius said:
• Regarding the screenshot with the vampire and Maxwell thinking of a cross: Is Christianity the only religion that can deal with vampires? What would holy objects of other religions do?

Because vampire lore is sooo malleable to whatever story it's in, it really doesn't matter, it'll be whatever the vampire legend of the scribblenaughts universe is. No matter what they do, you can just say that's how it is in the game. The vampires can even sparkle in sunlight and go to highschool


cooljeanius said:
• How does the game deal with self reference? If you write “Starite”, will you have to collect the new Starites you just spawned? Will writing “Maxwell” clone your character? If you write “Scribblenauts”, do tiy get to play a subgame of the game within the game?
"Starite" and "scribblenaughts" were words I wanted to try myself. Maxwell won't do anything because it's a name and that was already addressed.
 
Galactic Fork said:
Well Jackson said there was a system for words with multiple meanings. Just have to wait. Possibly a menu or something.


Vague terms do nothing. Only specifics work. That's been said many times.




Dunno, i figured they'll have a male and female version of all spawnable humans, so if no gender is specified, it randomly chooses one.



Because vampire lore is sooo malleable to whatever story it's in, it really doesn't matter, it'll be whatever the vampire legend of the scribblenaughts universe is. No matter what they do, you can just say that's how it is in the game. The vampires can even sparkle in sunlight and go to highschool



"Starite" and "scribblenaughts" were words I wanted to try myself. Maxwell won't do anything because it's a name and that was already addressed.

But what about Santa Claus?
 

Jackson

Member
Stephen Totilo said:
I started looking around my office and naming stuff, trying to stump him:

Cake mix? (Because I have “Portal” cake mix from Valve)

Slaczka did a search and said that the game can render a cake mixer, cake mix and pancake mix — all different objects with different properties.

Hourglass? (Because I have a “Phantom Hourglass” from Nintendo)

Yes.

Pushpins?

Of course.

Briefcase?

Yes, the game will make the same object whether you write “briefcase,” “suitcase” or “case.” They would be classified as containers. Dragging something else to them would put that something else in the container.

Lint?

Sure, that’s classified as kindling. Combine it with a match and it’ll burn.

I stopped naming things. Slackza swears that they’ve thought of everything. Exotic foods may not make it. Don’t expect “some eastern mountain Bolivian dish,” he said. But do expect… “dialysis machine” to work.
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/12/19/scribblenauts-ds-developer-skepticism/

:D
 

Galactic Fork

A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
Jackson said:
Of course it can! But exotic eastern Bolivian mountain dishes are just too much for the matrix
Ah... So you're going to make the Exotic Eastern Bolivian I spawn starve to death? You monster! I demand you learn every single food dish of every nation for all time right now and put it in your game! Scoot!


Also I demand "your mom" be put in on principle... Hmmm I just came up with an interesting use for the DSi's camera. It should be out when this game's out.
 

Pseudo_Sam

Survives without air, food, or water
So when's the second trailer from the website gonna be available? I wanna see where that hobo comes into play.

Awesome idea, by the way. This is one of those game ideas I used to fantasize about as a kid, until my jaded teenager self finally accepted that it would never happen. But now it has.
 

Mason

Member
What the shit? I am as skeptical as anyone else, but sounds like an amazing concept.



Also, port it to phones (specifically Blackberries!) I would play this so hard on my Blackberry. Just typing in the words... even more intuitive than having to write them.
 

Jackson

Member
A Link to the Snitch said:
I meant that Santa Claus is a proper noun, but IIRC, they use that as an object.

As a general rule, we don't use proper nouns. But there's some exceptions such as Santa Claus.
 
Jackson said:
As a general rule, we don't use proper nouns. But there's some exceptions such as Santa Claus.

Ah, okay.

I also have a couple questions...

Will there be a way to see a checklist of everything you've used to beat a level?

And...

What happens if you write a location, such as Antarctica? Or does that fall under the proper noun rule?
 
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