Scribblenauts (video game)

This article is about the video game. For the video game series, see Scribblenauts.
Scribblenauts
Cover art for Nintendo DS
Developer(s)5th Cell
Publisher(s)Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Director(s)Jeremiah Slaczka
Producer(s)Joshua Billeaudeau
Kirsten Gavoni
Designer(s)Matt Cox
Programmer(s)Marius Fahlbusch
Artist(s)Edison Yan
Composer(s)David J. Franco
SeriesScribblenauts
Platform(s)Nintendo DS
Release
  • NA: September 15, 2009[2]
  • AU: September 30, 2009[1]
Genre(s)Emergent, puzzle, action platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Scribblenauts is an emergent puzzle action video game developed by 5th Cell and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in 2009 in all regions except Japan, and in 2011 in Japan as Flash Puzzle: Maxwell's Mysterious Notebook[a] by Konami.[5] It is the third Nintendo DS video game made by 5th Cell, the first two being Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. The objective of Scribblenauts, as implied by its catchphrase "Write Anything, Solve Everything", is to complete puzzles to collect "Starites", helped by the player's ability to summon any object (from a database of tens of thousands) by writing its name on the touchscreen. The game is considered by its developers to help promote emergent gameplay by challenging the player to solve its puzzles within certain limitations or through multiple solutions.

Jeremiah Slaczka, creator and director of Scribblenauts, envisioned the game as a combination of solving life situation puzzles alongside Mad Libs. His vision was brought to realization through the "Objectnaut" engine created by 5th Cell's technical director, Marius Fahlbusch. Objectnaut allowed for a data driven approach, and a significant portion of the development time was spent researching nouns and their properties, and categorizing them into the Objectnaut database. This, along with the simple art designs of 5th Cell's Edison Yan, allowed for the team to easily add new words to the database without expending much effort to program new behavior.

Scribblenauts was first shown in a playable form at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, and became a sleeper hit, winning several "Best of Show" awards,[6][7] being the first portable console title to win such praise. Reviewers believed that 5th Cell delivered on their promise to allow nearly any possible object to be created for use in Scribblenauts, but also lamented that the choice of controls in the game hampered their full enjoyment of the title. The success of the title has led to a number of sequels including Super Scribblenauts, Scribblenauts Remix, and Scribblenauts Unlimited. The series has sold over 13 million copies.[8]

  1. ^ "Scribblenauts". GameSpy. 2009. Archived from the original on 2020-08-12. Retrieved 2015-01-25.
  2. ^ Molina, Brett (2009-07-22). "Release dates galore: 'Scribblenauts', 'Uncharted 2' and more". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2014-07-29. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  3. ^ Purchase, Robert (2009-08-28). "Scribblenauts UK date changed". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
  4. ^ KONAMI公式 (21 December 2010). "ヒラメキパズル マックスウェルの不思議なノート（DS）PV". Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2016 – via YouTube.
  5. ^ Plunkett, Luke (2010-12-29). "When A Game About English Words Is Released In Japanese". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2018-11-01. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
  6. ^ "GameSpy's Best of E3 2009 Awards". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  7. ^ Totilo, Stephen (15 June 2009). "Portable Game Beats Console Games For… The First Time Ever?". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  8. ^ Hall, Charlie (8 October 2015). "Scribblenauts team launching crowdfunding, investment campaign through Fig". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 10 October 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.


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