5th Cell Talk About Developing Scribblenauts

Vooks managed to grab an interview with Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell in which they talk about various aspects and challenges they faced in developing the game.

Vooks: Where did you draw the line at what would be included in the game? Obviously swear words and trademarks are out, but where does it just get ridiculous?

JMT: I think we paused once while going through a list of chemical formulas, but then just continued on. Chlorinated Diphenyl Oxide anyone? We put everything in, miniscule or not, and while I’m sure there are a few obscure words we missed, we never passed on a word that fit the nothing vulgar / copyrighted / trademarked / proper noun criteria.

Head inside for the rest.

Vooks: How much of a nightmare was it to play-test a game with a seemingly unlimited number of possible items and interactions creatable by the player?

JMT: Testing was a challenge, but because the game revolves around systems, we tested the systems more so then the individual objects. If the system functioned, then theoretically the objects contained within the systems should work fine. This wasn’t always the case, but we ran into fewer problems then we initially expected. Most of the issues had to do with several special case objects that didn’t quite fit into a specific high level system.

Vooks: We loved Lock’s Quest and Drawn to Life. Can we expect any Easter eggs or subtle references that will be familiar to fans of previous 5th Cell games?

JMT: Both titles are near and dear to us! Unfortunately, due to the different publishers there isn’t any cross franchise material or references to our previous games in Scribblenauts. That said, there are plenty of Easter Eggs that relate to 5TH Cell in the title. The credits are pretty funny!

Read the rest of this at at Vooks

While we’re on the Scribblenauts sunject you may be interested to see some of the games features:

* Play the entire game in a sandbox style right on the title screen.
* Innovative side scrolling action where objects spelled out to solve spatial puzzles become real and combinable in-game and can be reused.
* Thousands of in-game items available in game, but which must be acquired wirelessly from different hot spots, making this the new standard in mobile gaming.
* 220 levels of single player, pick-up and play fun.
* Share levels you create with the level editor via Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection.