Ars Technica recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Jeremiah Slaczka, creative director and co-founder of 5th Cell, the gaming studio responsible for the upcoming Scribblenauts. You remember that game that the entire world is raving about, right? The one where you get to write stuff in and it magically appears on screen to help you solve the game’s many puzzles? I thought so.
The best part of the interview deals with the development process, which Slaczka gladly lays out. The development team started with their object handler, named Objectnaut, which was just a database framework for all of the objects players would be able to use and their methods of interaction. From there it was just a matter of words.
Scribblenauts makes use of a massive word database, the only exceptions being proper nouns, copyrighted or trademarked words, and nothing vulgar. It took five people about six months to come up with the initial “tens of thousands” of words that would be used. Then it was just a matter of playtesting to see what was left out. When asked how many objects players could actually use, Slaczka simply said, “More than you’ll ever be able to use!”
The game almost has me worked up enough to go buy a DS, though for now I’ll wait. We already know the game could be coming to other platforms. I just hope I can wait that long.
