Scribblenauts Interview

JR: Was this game initially pitched at a young audience exclusively, and has that changed to include more mature players?

Brett: Games for the DS platform by default need to have kids in mind. However I don't think there has been a point where we have approached Scribblenauts as a title exclusively for the young. The game's heart is creativity, and though children probably have the most active imaginations, creativity is within all of us and this game helps to bring it out.

Scribblenauts truly does adapt itself to each player's style. It became apparent very quickly that a game that lets you spawn practically anything, has an appeal to practically everybody.

JR: Are there any plans to port Scribblenauts to another platform?

Brett: Not yet. The team is presently concentrating on bringing Scribblenauts to the DS. The game was designed for this system with its touch screen and stylus which makes it easy and intuitive for anyone to pick up and play. But other systems offer their own special features, too. If we look at other systems, it won't be for a while.

JR: Were there many game-breaking errors found during development with so many animations and objects?

Brett: In a word, yes. An immense amount of effort from the creative, engineering and QA teams was required to refine out the problems created by the expansiveness of the game's possibilities.

I can recall comments from people early in development saying that we didn't realise what we were getting yourselves into, in terms of the amount of quality assurance and refinement that would be required. I think we had a pretty clear picture of what we were up against, and I personally adopted the perspective during the main body of development, of being amazed when nothing went wrong. But I always had faith that we would get there in time, and the passion of the entire team towards that goal made possible what many considered impossible.

JR: Will Scribblenauts take advantage of any DSi features?

Brett: Scribblenauts has wireless features for sharing user created levels which are available on all flavours of DS. The DSi proved tricky to differentiate for, given it was sprung on us by Nintendo during development, so the game has no DSi specific features.

JR: What limitations are placed on the player in terms of the objects accessible and usable at any given time?

Brett: There is a budget system which stops the player from spawning so many objects that the game crashes. In normal gameplay I've never reached the limit without deliberately trying.

JR: What features didn't make it into the game that had been included in the original concept?

Brett: Depends how far back into the concept you look. If we just look at the concept branch that led to the Scribblenauts we have today, the vast majority made it in. There were some ideas like level specific rules that would restrict what a player could use in that level, and time limits, which in the end didn't seem necessary or fun so they were cut.

JR: What was the most surprising combination of objects to achieve a goal?

Brett:This seems a logical and easy enough question, but answering it is profoundly difficult! Every day in testing people came up with solutions nobody had thought of, and sometimes which they themselves hadn't intended. Picking the most surprising one seems an impossible task and I'll probably have to go for the now somewhat Internet-famous story reported in a forum post after someone had played the game at E3.

He entered a level that had zombie robots in it which he needed to get past. Rayguns, torches and pickaxes proved ineffective at dispatching the enemies, so in frustration he put in "time machine", and to his surprise up one popped.

He climbed into the time machine and travelled to pre-historic times, jumped on a dinosaur and rode it back through the time machine and used it to stomp all over the zombies, thus allowing him to get to the starite and finish the level.

Everyone who plays Scribblenauts has stories to tell about things that happened that they didn't plan or expect. Such antics have reduced myself and my wife to tears of laughter more than once. It is a game full of surprises where the only limit is your imagination.

JR: Thanks for your time, Brett. Scribblenauts is set to hit stores next month on Tuesday, September 15th.