i must admit, i haven’t played scribblenauts yet. all the information i have on this title is based on previews and gaming podcasts. but: scribblenauts is great!
for those of you, who don’t know: scribblenauts is a sidescrolling nintendo ds game, that challenges the player with a simple task. reach a star. this star could be anywhere. up in a tree, inside a cave, at the bottom of the sea; you get the drift. now, how do you reach this star? by writing down words on the ds’ touchpad. that way, the player can spawn objects. so, if your star is in a tree, just write down “ladder”. a ladder will spawn and allow you to get to the star. if you feel that “ladder” is too lame of a choice, write down” beaver”. the beaver will chop the tree down. the great thing about this game is – besides the unreasonable amout of words it does recognize – that everything is processed contextually. so, if for example you write down “cat”, then write down “dog”, they both will spawn and start fighting each other.
now, why do i think this is so important?
well, some might argue that scribblenauts is true “emergent” gameplay. which i find to be a stupid euphemism for sandbox games. especially stupid, considering that all gameplay is emergent. whatever. what i consider to be so important about this game, is the word i marked in bold letters. context (ok, i know. i marked contextually!). context is what is really missing in games. what i mean by that, is that not enough information (where has the player been, what is he holding in his hand, etc.) is processed. now, i don’t know how those folks at 5th cell (the scribblenauts developer) got so much contextual information into the game (i assume by bulding endless crossreference charts) – but this is where games truely become immersive and – more importantly- funny!
1. immersion through contextual information
if you have played half-life 2 for example, you might have experienced a similar situation. doctor kleiner (or any other NPC) is holding a monologue, trying to tell you (the player), what you are supposed to do next. what normally happens is that you, as the player, will get bored soon and start jumping on the tables. the good thing about this: you’re less bored. the bad thing: nobody gives a shit. so doctor kleiner is still holding his monologue, completely oblivious to the fact that you have trashed his entire lab by now. this breaks the immersion and gives the player a feeling of losing control, since normally, the whole gameworld does in fact react to him/her.
honestly, i, as a player, don’t care too much about that aspect. since i can accept a game for what it is. especially when it is reliant on scripts. what is more important to me is the other thing i mentioned: “funny”!
2. humor in games through contextual information
this is where the fun begins. especially in scribblenauts. having the gameworld react properly to whatever the player does (and not only the things he is supposed to do!!), gives him/her the power to express him/herself in humorous ways. so, imagine yourself in doctor kleiners lab again. this time with a beaver in your hand… okay, scratch that. imagine yourself in doctor kleiners lab, trashing the place (no beaver in hand), with doc screaming from the top of his lungs. now, that could be funny (if you like destruction and screaming. i for one do!). scribblenauts is almost perfect in this regard, since the world reacts as you would expect – and then some. you have a fire, you can put it out with water. this is how most games work on a fundamental level. what makes scribblenauts better, is that i can throw a beaver into the fire. and the world will still react. (and this is where most games would fail!) the beaver might catch fire, run into a house and set it ablaze aswell. this is great, since i can do the unexpected and still get a result from that. one that might be even more rewarding than doing the expected.
so, what i basically want to say is: if games would really acknowledge all things you do ( even those that are totally ridiculous) you would be rewarded for being funny, which in effect, would make the game funnier. this to me seems like the way to go. especially if you want to make games that are humorous in nature and do not rely on cutscenes or scripts to transport their humor.
