Scribblenauts Emergent Gameplay: Cthulhu vs. God?
A friend of mine just sent me a link to a new video game coming out for the Nintendo DS. As of yet, I dont have the DS, but after seeing this E3 trailer on Scribblenauts, I know that I absolutely have to get one or more for myself and my boys…
Firstly, it boggles my mind that when Jeremiah Slaczka, the Creative Director for Scribblenauts said that anything that you can think of is in this game, that he means it. Naturally I was a bit skeptical. I’ve seen demos where they claim unlimited movement, unlimited choices and other wildly expansive claims. Yet, there he was… typing in things like “time machine”, “lumberjack” & other seemingly random items to solve puzzles. I think I’m a believer now. The puzzle play looks creative and fun and endlessly replayable.
I actually feel kind of bad that I haven’t really been keeping up on it, but since I dont have a Nintendo DS, those games have slipped on and off my radar lately.
At the 2:18 minute mark on the video he puts Cthulhu and God (riding a skateboard and carrying a shotgun) on the screen… then makes them fight it out. What happens next is absolutely priceless, securing my decision to not only get this game, but get the DS just so I could play what looks to be like one of the most amazing examples of emergent creative gameplay I’ve ever seen. We’re not talking about user generated content, we’re not talking about mods, expansions or DLC. It looks like this game will ship with a mind-boggling amount of content already available.
The game is developed by 5th Cell, which has done a load of other excellent DS and mobile games.
From a marketing perspective, this game could have some massive appeal and reach across gaming demographics. The ability to solve each puzzle your own way will create conversations, stories and memorable experiences that you manipulate that could drive it into the hearts and memories of gamers of all generations. I’m not sure if you can record your puzzle sessions… I’m not sure if you’ll be able to post your most creative solutions to YouTube or not.
If there was any kind of social interactivity with this game, especially because the DS is wireless enabled, this could push this game from iconic sleeper hit with great critical reviews to a user generated viral hit that everyone with a DS must have. I’m going to be watching this game very closely now and if it’s as good as I think it’s going to be, this could be my killer app for the DS.
Wow.
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July 13th, 2009 at 11:45 am
How long until marketers find out how to exploit this? type:”shotgun” Remington(R) shotgun appears. “shoes” Nike shoes materialize… you get the idea. And yes, the first twisted person to type in “tampon” will likely be marketed to by Tampex
July 13th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
HA! I know that product/ brand marketers have really been pushing for in-game product marketing tie ins (like mountain dew and world of warcraft) so i dont think that all ingame marketing is crass and stupid…
When i’ve consulted with marketers on the product end, I always try to caution them to think about the game as opposed to the brand potential first. You never want the brand or product to overshadow the game, you want it to enhance the game.
In this game, it’d be hard to track the effect of product input as opposed to an online game. For it to be good marketing, there would have to be some sort of promotion and as of now, there’s no call to action to select “coke”, “pepsi” as opposed to “soda” or “pop”. Also without any kind of tracking or a wireless game update, those kind of ingame promotions would have to be user generated. Nevertheless, in this game… more than many others… product placement could actually have a benefit.
If the problem was clearing a field of weeds to get the star, typing in “round-up” could clear the weeds in one pass as opposed to “weed killer” that would take more time. I think there could be some cool potential if it was done right. But without that kind of ingame call to action/ marketing built into the game itself, they’d be more “easter eggs” for the user to find than actual marketing campaigns.
I’d be curious to see how the ROI would be tracked if they did that.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
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