5th-cell
December 7th, 2009 at 07:40pm
Under DS
Click to download in Santa-sizeWe thought the Scribblenauts Halloween wallpaper was a one-off, an excuse to promote the game a bit more in the period immediately following its release. But, to our delight, 5TH Cell has delivered the Christmas present we didn’t dare hope for: new Scribblenauts artwork by character designer Edison Yan. It’s a Christmas miracle! Well, okay, it may not be miraculous, but it’s really nice! We don’t even care if it is a promotional effort to remind people to put Scribblenauts on their holiday shopping lists.
There are also two new Christmas-themed screenshots in our gallery. In retrospect, it was a pretty clever idea to make a game that includes multiple holiday-themed items as part of its nature.
‘Tis the season for new Scribblenauts artwork originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, christmas, holiday, scribblenauts, warner-bros-interactive
By Mister-X
Continue Reading ‘Tis the season for new Scribblenauts artwork
November 16th, 2009 at 05:30pm
Under Wii / Nintendo
In a postmortem article for Game Developer magazine (excerpted by Gamasutra), 5th Cell co-founder Joseph Tringali offered some inside information about the development of Scribblenauts. The control scheme, one of the major complaints about the puzzle-adventure title, was something that 5th Cell wanted to fix in a couple of ways. However, the developer ran into time and budget constraints.
“We knew this was going to take a big hit from reviewers,” Tringali said, “but we could only spend a limited amount of work on it. We discussed a secondary D-pad control option midway through development only to come to the conclusion it would take a single person 3-4 weeks to integrate it. On our self-funded schedule, that route was not an option.”
Tringali said that to free up time to tweak the controls, another feature, like online connectivity, might have had to be lost. But when those decisions came up, it was already too late.
5th Cell on Scribblenauts’ control scheme, and more insights originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, joseph-tringali, scribblenauts, warner-bros-interactive, Wii / Nintendo
By Mister-X
Continue Reading 5th Cell on Scribblenauts’ control scheme, and more insights
October 30th, 2009 at 06:00pm
Under DS
If you’re planning to visit the London Dungeon this Halloween, you may get a scare of some kind, but more importantly, you can also get an exclusive Scribblenauts level. An exclusive Halloween level will be distributed in line at the Dungeon from 12 to 3pm wirelessly.
If you’re not planning to go to the London Dungeon, you can still enjoy some spooky Scribblenauts goodies in the form of this wallpaper (1024×768, 1280×1024, or 1600×1200). It’s full of creatures that we haven’t seen before, including the Candy Corn Man and whatever that adorable giant eyepatch-wearing cat is. If you know the word that summons the Candy Corn Man, please, please let us know.
Celebrate Halloween with Scribblenauts originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, halloween, london-dungeon, scribblenauts, warner-bros-interactive
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Celebrate Halloween with Scribblenauts
October 20th, 2009 at 08:30pm
Under Wii / Nintendo
In its first two weeks on the market in North America, Scribblenauts sold 194,000 units, making it the third highest-selling DS title in September, behind Mario & Luigi and Kingdom Hearts sequels. That’s 105,000 more copies than Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars moved in its first month.
We asked 5TH Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka if it met his expectations. “I didn’t have any expectations,” he told Joystiq. “I just hoped it’d do well. It’s awesome for a completely new, original 3rd party IP on DS to do so well.”
Does this strong debut mean a sequel is guaranteed? “Way too early to tell that,” Slaczka said. “We’ve only seen 2.5 weeks of sales.” He told us that Drawn to Life, which went on to break a million worldwide, only sold 40,000 copies in its first month, with one more week of sales in that month.
Scribblenauts achieves noteworthy 194K sales in September originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, npd, sales, scribblenauts, third-party, warner-bros-interactive, Wii / Nintendo
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Scribblenauts achieves noteworthy 194K sales in September
October 9th, 2009 at 07:55pm
Under Xbox 360
Well, okay, not next next. The actual next game from Scribblenauts developer 5TH Cell is Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter on DS, out October 27. In an interview with Gamasutra, 5TH Cell’s creative director Jeremiah Slaczka revealed that the game after that will be the developer’s first console game, a “pretty big” game for Xbox Live Arcade. “It’s going to be really cool,” Slaczka said. “We’re very excited about it… it’s totally not ready to be announced.” Just think of how exciting it will be when it is ready! That’s got to be … more exciting.
The full interview is really interesting stuff, going into the inspiration and early design of Scribblenauts, some discussion of emergent gameplay, and 5TH Cell’s somewhat indie-like philosophy.
5TH Cell’s next: a ‘pretty big’ XBLA game originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, Jeremiah-Slaczka, scribblenauts, xbla
By Mister-X
Continue Reading 5TH Cell’s next: a ‘pretty big’ XBLA game
September 25th, 2009 at 07:47pm
Under DS
Being a blog on the internet, we’re big believers in the power of commenters. Whether it’s the beloved “First!” or the always refreshing “Slow news day, huh?,” each and every person who enters a string of text into a comments field and hits submit has undoubtedly changed the course of history … forever.
Mega64, the comedic troupe with a taste for video games, has finally realized this and, in combination with the item-spawning gameplay of Scribblenauts, has created something that will change the internet forever. We’d go into more detail, but then we’d be taking away from the surprise. So, head past the break and see what’s in store for the future of the intertron.
Continue reading Mega64 uses Scribblenauts technology to change the internet forever
Mega64 uses Scribblenauts technology to change the internet forever originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, comedy, mega64, scribblenauts, video
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Mega64 uses Scribblenauts technology to change the internet forever
September 19th, 2009 at 06:30pm
Under DS
The Facebook page for 5TH Cell’s Scribblenauts is teasing … something. “Get your rooster hats ready!” a message posted on the game’s “Wall” reads. “We have a very special announcement coming very soon…” We have no idea what’s being announced, or even when, but it seems really early for a sequel announcement. Maybe another platform? Or maybe something outside the game, like a contest. In any case, if you like Scribblenauts, 5TH Cell is going to tell us all something that will probably be delightful.
Speaking of delightful, the pictured object is “Game of the Year” as rendered by the game. That’s just adorable.
[Thanks, Josh!]
Scribblenauts Facebook page teases ’special announcement’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, facebook, scribblenauts, teaser, warner-bros-interactive
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Scribblenauts Facebook page teases ’special announcement’
September 16th, 2009 at 11:30pm
Under DS
Reader Zachary spotted a rather unfortunate term in Scribblenauts entirely by accident: “sambo,” which summons … a watermelon. We thought there was no way 5TH Cell would intentionally hide racist, or even racially charged, imagery in its game, so we contacted creative director Jeremiah Slaczka to figure out what happened.
It turns out that like Zachary’s discovery, the item was an unfortunate accident. Slaczka explained to Joystiq that “sambo” is used in the game as an alternate term for “fig leaf gourd,” an ingredient in the Ecuadorian dish fanesca. “Sambo” is the local term for the gourd. As for the watermelon-like appearance? “We reuse art,” he said. “Fig leaf gourd looks a lot like a watermelon. It’s just an alternative name in a giant list of tens of thousands of names.”
Slaczka noted, offering evidence to the contrary of calls of racism, that many of the human characters in the game, including the fireman, winemaker, and dancer, manifest as black, as does “Brandon,” the in-game representation of a 5TH Cell “wordsmith” (one of the employees tasked with finding words for the database), who is of course black in real life. He also mentioned Isaiah, a major character in the developer’s last game Lock’s Quest.
We must admit, a random, potentially slightly embarrassing art/word pairing in the game seems a lot more likely to us than endemic racism expressed through antiquated epithets. Slaczka told us he didn’t even know “sambo” (the slur, not the gourd) until tonight.
5TH Cell: Scribblenauts’ scandalous-looking ’sambo’ item is a misunderstanding originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, scribblenauts, warner-bros-interactive
By Mister-X
Continue Reading 5TH Cell: Scribblenauts’ scandalous-looking ’sambo’ item is a misunderstanding
September 15th, 2009 at 09:13pm
Under DS
Of all the criticisms that could fairly be leveled against Scribblenauts, the fact that it only recognizes 22,802 words is not among them. 5TH Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Fast Company that the leaked word list was not comprehensive, though he said it much more colorfully than we did:
“That was leaked by a hacker who does not know anything,” Slaczka said. “It’s more than that.” Slaczka also revealed the last word to be added to the game’s database: “Low Rider.” Presumably this was added at the insistence of his friends, all of whom love a low rider.
[Via VG247]
5th Cell: Leaked Scribblenauts word list is incomplete originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, hacking, scribblenauts, warner-bros-interactive
By Mister-X
Continue Reading 5th Cell: Leaked Scribblenauts word list is incomplete
September 15th, 2009 at 01:31pm
Under DS
There’s this part I love in the movie Ratatouille where a critic says, “The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends.” It’s something I always try to keep in mind and it’s moved me to first, before we do anything else, celebrate what a staggering accomplishment Scribblenauts is.
It’s a game where you solve simple puzzles with almost any object you can dream up (as long as it’s not libations, licensed or lascivious) and every item acts the way you’d expect: bears chase honey and dogs chase cats. It’s a game where you can spend hours just messing around to see what creatures can beat God in a fight (zombies: no; vampires: yes). As a technical achievement and as a toy, it’s really brilliant. Scribblenauts is a thing of wonder.
Continue reading Review: Scribblenauts
Review: Scribblenauts originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 5th-cell, fifth-cell, scribblenauts, warner-bros-interactive
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Review: Scribblenauts
