5th Cell had five people research words for six months for Scribblenauts
In Scribblenauts, you can manifest basically anything. Whether it's a skateboarding god fighting Cthulhu, or hilarious internet memes involving cats, it seems like this game has endless potential. We're anxiously anticipating the game's arrival, with a gigantic notebook full of ideas that we can't wait to try out. As confident as we are that we'll be able to best the game, it's tough when developer 5th Cell admits to G4 that it had five people reading just about everything for six months. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and Wikipedias are just a few of the sources these folks scoured for juicy words to add to the game's enormous lexicon. Check out the video past the break, where 5th Cell's Jeremiah Slaczka and Matt Cox detail how much work went into building this game's robust vocabulary.












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Longhorn of Myon [PSN: MariusElijah] @ Jun 16th 2009 6:43PM
Tmac your time to shine
Jason Statham (Aka Vegeta) @ Jun 16th 2009 6:48PM
You do realize that by calling him out, you have effectively made yourself look worse in comparison right?
Longhorn of Myon [PSN: MariusElijah] @ Jun 16th 2009 6:51PM
eh it was a joke
On topic:
This is the first time I see this game and I see what Joystiq is getting at
Jason Statham (Aka Vegeta) @ Jun 16th 2009 6:58PM
I'm just saying, if he hasn't done anything yet, there's really no reason to call him out.
Longhorn of Myon [PSN: MariusElijah] @ Jun 16th 2009 7:00PM
look at the last post, then you will see
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 16th 2009 7:11PM
Why would I say anything when I'm not even looking at....wait a minute I'm typing this so that means..DAMN YOU MARIUS.
WREturns @ Jun 16th 2009 7:33PM
Tmac, how are you here? I thought you were "playing Burnout with friends". Which part did you lie about, the Burnout and the playing thereof or the friends?
SoshiKitai @ Jun 16th 2009 7:53PM
He's doing both. He's JUST THAT GOOD.
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 16th 2009 7:58PM
I am actually doing both, you can log on to ps3 and see for yourself WRE.
It was just getting too crazy in that other article and I couldn't respond to 10 different people every minute and play burnout at the same time.
Sly [PSN SniperChameleon] @ Jun 16th 2009 10:29PM
he _WAS_ playing burnout...
giantenemycrab @ Jun 16th 2009 11:55PM
why even acknowledge him? That's exactly what trolls want: infamy.
Shagittarius @ Jun 16th 2009 6:45PM
Theres this feature on the Snow White dvd where it guesses what your thinking of after asking you some questions...you guys should really check it out...seems like it would be right up your alley.
JXCgunrunna @ Jun 16th 2009 6:58PM
There is this controller on the wii that watches where ur hand is moving and can tell the movements it can make, much like that thing that sony is at least a year away from getting out... I think you would be really interested in it.
JXCgunrunna @ Jun 16th 2009 7:01PM
Hold up I just realized that was a horrible comparison, scriblenaughts is a new idea and the thing sony is doing is already in at least 50,000,000 peoples houses. My mistake
/mocking tone
Longhorn of Myon [PSN: MariusElijah] @ Jun 16th 2009 7:04PM
There is this camera on the PS3 that watches where you are moving and can tell the movements you make, much like that thing that MS is at least a year away from getting out... I think you would be really interested in it.
JXCgunrunna @ Jun 16th 2009 7:10PM
@longhorn
I dont really like that Natel because the lack of controller. I love FPS and adventure games and i just dont see any good uses for the motion capture as far as character movement. I have no problem swinging my arm but i would rather not have to walk around through a game the size of oblivion or fallout or fable or farcry. I like motion controls in general IF they are implemented well like in madworld.
None of us know what sonys controller will have but if it has at least one analog stick, ill stick to shoots on the wii with worse graphics before trying to play on the 360 by pointing with my finger or buying a plastic gun
Fun DMC @ Jun 16th 2009 7:16PM
Shaggi's hardly a Sony fanboy. He mocks EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING, not just the Wii.
With that said, what warranted the comparison? you just come off as a fanboy.
JXCgunrunna @ Jun 16th 2009 7:23PM
shag used to be to sony what franando was for nintendo. they have both mellowed out/have lives outside of joystiq flamewars and usually have thoughtout opinions in the recent months tho.
Meh @ Jun 17th 2009 3:27PM
"I dont really like that Natel because the lack of controller."
You can hold the controller when you're using Natal, duh. It was even in the promo video.
Damian @ Jun 16th 2009 6:47PM
This is DS GOTY for sure.
thesimplicity @ Jun 16th 2009 7:58PM
GOTY, I don't think the DS limitation is necessary.
Jason Statham (Aka Vegeta) @ Jun 16th 2009 6:49PM
"t's tough when developer 5th Cell admits to G4 that it had five people reading just about everything for six months"
Jeez that's pretty ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome.
religiousjedi @ Jun 16th 2009 10:02PM
Respect Points +1000000000
In any case, this game is perking up my interest quite a lot now...
ArchiGamer @ Jun 16th 2009 6:52PM
Every time I hear about this game, it just gets better and better.
ThatPCgameryouhate @ Jun 16th 2009 7:00PM
HOW IS THIS GAME EVEN POSSIBLE?
I'm afraid it will be too deep, and the space-time continuum will just explode upon its release.
Really though, I'm amazed this isn't a console release, I wonder how big the game is, and how they go it to "program itself".
Kattleox @ Jun 16th 2009 8:54PM
You had just better not type in "skynet".
PedoJokerBear (aka Deeznuts) @ Jun 16th 2009 9:21PM
if i type in Armageddon will the game implode? or will it just be bruce willis committing a last act of bravery?
RossGough @ Jun 17th 2009 8:58AM
hahahahahaha.
fantastic PedoJokerBear, fantastic.
Ghen @ Jun 17th 2009 9:42AM
I just want to use "Black Hole" on every level.
Get rid of that whale? no problem!
Chop down the tree? Well, sorta!
Manly Mcbeefington (Mr. ESC) @ Jun 16th 2009 7:05PM
Just curious what happens when I type supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?
Kindrik @ Jun 16th 2009 7:36PM
I'm willing to bet you'd reach a character input limit before you got the chance to write all of that in.
Maximun2k10 @ Jun 16th 2009 7:09PM
Amazing download material... ;)
harusame @ Jun 16th 2009 7:10PM
No genitals? :(
Johnathan @ Jun 16th 2009 7:23PM
Sucks. Would have been the best bludgeon ever
CubeGuy @ Jun 16th 2009 7:16PM
I'm wondering how big the asset library is for this game. As far as I can recall, the largest DS game so far has been 256MB.
Kindrik @ Jun 16th 2009 7:37PM
256 MB is the max any DS card can hold. When I think about how they were able to fit the entire game on that makes my head explode.
Kevin949 @ Jun 16th 2009 8:41PM
last I heard it was 512mb.
Kenofthedead @ Jun 16th 2009 9:12PM
I thought Archaic Sealed Heat was 2 gigabytes.
CubeGuy @ Jun 16th 2009 10:33PM
Bytes? Are you sure that isn't two gigabits?
sam @ Jun 17th 2009 7:19AM
Wikipedia says 2 gigabits = 256MB.
If you figure that most implemented words might have a small DS-sized graphical sprite and a data block categorising it as what type of behaviour it should have, you can fit one hell of a lot of those into 256MB.
I wonder if the hype's swinging too far on this game now - before E3, nobody believed it could work at all, then thanks to the E3 demos, now we know it works... but it still can't actually do *magic*... or can it... :) I definitely plan to get it, just trying to keep my expectations reasonable.
Meh @ Jun 17th 2009 3:30PM
"256 MB is the max any DS card can hold." Even 4GB is /possible/, but higher capacity -> higher production costs. Most publishers give developers limits.
Eh @ Jun 16th 2009 7:17PM
Can you beat every level by writing "Gandalf"?
DBuck_Eye @ Jun 16th 2009 10:43PM
You can kill God by writing "Death"
WREturns @ Jun 16th 2009 7:17PM
I am so excited for this game that I went down to GameStop and reserved it today. I don't normally reserve stuff, I just want to show my support for inventive ideas like this.
WREturns @ Jun 16th 2009 7:29PM
I wonder what would happen in Scribblenauts if you typed "your mom"...
Rob @ Jun 16th 2009 8:24PM
The head of the teams mom appears.
CH3BURASHKA @ Jun 16th 2009 7:23PM
That sounds crazy, but awesome crazy.
Vegnagun bwf @ Jun 16th 2009 7:26PM
I want Scribblenauts.
Old Professor Zertoss @ Jun 16th 2009 7:29PM
Can I type in "whale biologist" and have one appear to critique my whale rescue with brutal honesty?
WREturns @ Jun 16th 2009 7:30PM
I don't think so, but I think you can type in "liberal dipshit" for the desired effect.