This morning I opened my email to discover a new twitter follower @scribblenaut. Apparently this guy, whoever he/she is, is spending a lot of time looking for stories and discussions about our game, and posting links to them on twitter. Awesome! Gotta love fan-driven buzz for the game.
He managed to post a few links to discussions about Scribblenauts that I hadn’t seen yet. One is an audio podcast from livemint.com (who says the game has been in beta since last year, not sure where they got that idea), and a webcast from one of the co-hosts of X-Play on G4.
Also, a number of fans have embraced our quirky art style and have begun recreating all their favorite characters in Scribble-form. Follow this link to check out (among others) Scribbley versions of Chuck Norris, Conan O’Brien, and Optimus Prime.
A little over a week behind, but I wanted to congratulate Sean and Casey on the birth of Lucy Annabelle. She’s a beautiful baby which you can see for yourself by checking out her website, or you can even follow her on twitter. Yes, she has both. It appears she’ll be computing circles around her daddy in no time.
In a society with such a dismal view of fatherhood, I’m so very grateful for my Dad. The first word that comes to mind when I think of him is impartation. For 27 years, my Dad has been constantly imparting to me from his life. It’s evident to anyone who knows us that I am his son.
He has always encouraged me, and I know my life is blessed because I’ve honored him. And the one thing I’m most thankful for, he has helped me to understand how to have a strong relationship with my Heavenly Father.
I hope all you Dad’s have a great fathers day. You’re my hero.
With the newfound buzz surrounding Scribblenauts I’ve garnered a number of internet stalkers. They are welcome to follow my online presence, and I’ve never really tried to keep myself a secret.
This was just posted earlier today on tinycartridge.com. They scrounged up a video and some photos from around the office. They mistook my friend Jeff for me, but in their defense, Jeff is wearing what I like to call the Darth Vader bonnet, so you can’t see his face.
Scribblenauts just won E3 Game of the Show from GameSpot too! To win from both IGN and GameSpot is ridiculous. They almost never agree on anything. This seriously has to be making the record books or something. Absolutely out-of-control! We also won best puzzle game, and best DS game, as if that isn’t obvious having taken Game of the Show.
Scribblenauts is simply one of the most original games we’ve ever seen. Whereas most games offer a limited number of options at any given time, the only restriction in Scribblenauts seems to be the limits of your imagination.
The final winners are in for the overall category on IGN. We won the following awards in this category:
Best Puzzle Game
Special Achievement for Innovation
Best Handheld
Overall Game of Show
It’s hard to imagine that Scribblenauts has caught so much attention. This little idea that we started working on last year, that even I was pretty skeptical about, is now a highly anticipated game. IGN’s Overall Game of Show award is probably the single best award a game can win before it’s even out on the market. Clearly we have a gem on our hands.
To tally it up, we won 9 total E3 awards from IGN, every award we were nominated for. On top of that, Scribblenauts has won Overall Game of the Show from GameSpy, and multiple awards for best DS or handheld game of the show. Many publications are yet to announce winners. We won IGN Overall Game of Show against blockbuster, multi-million dollar budget titles for XBox 360 and Playstation 3. This is huge recognition for our humble, yet ambitious, little game. But I don’t have time to celebrate yet, I need to get back to work.
IGN announced the winners of their E3 awards for the Nintendo DS today. Scribblenauts won 5 awards, including one that didn’t even exist! The awards were:
The fun isn’t over yet though. IGN has yet to announce the awards for the overall category which includes all game systems. Among those awards Scribblenauts has been nominated for Best Puzzle Game, Special Achievement for Innovation, Best Handheld Game, and Overall Game of the Show. It’s odd too see Scribblenauts stand alone on the list for Overall Game of the Show amongst next generation highly polished 3D titles. We should be seeing all the final results later on this week.
G4tv.com just posted X-Play’s Best of E3 2009 list. Scribblenauts won Best Original Game and Best Handheld Game beating out Gran Tursimo Portable and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Let’s keep ‘em coming!
This article frustrated me when I saw it today on IGN. Regarding the Chrono Trigger games, Shinji Hashimoto (VP of Square-Enix) said the franchise hasn’t sold well enough to justify developing new titles. When told fans are anxious to see more games, he said:
“That’s not what the sales tell me! … If people want a sequel, they should buy more!”
There are two games in the series, and they’re both over 9 years old! The reason sales aren’t high is because you’ve sold us the same game three times! Chrono Trigger was a simply amazing game. It’s either my number one or number two spot for my favorite game of all time, but I’m sorry, I’m not going to buy it again. I’ve already bought it twice (SNES and Playstation). I’ve also bought Chrono Cross twice (I lost my first copy).
If Square-Enix keeps thinking like this, I have a feeling that Final Fantasy will become like the next Madden that just keeps getting rehashed every year, and frankly, it’s already pretty close to that. You’re making videogames people! I know it’s about money to you, but it’s about fun to your fans. Why should we buy Chrono Trigger again?
Sorry for all these post about Scribblenauts, but it’s kind of what I do for a living. Furthermore, it has certainly been occupying most of my time these last few weeks. You won’t have to put up with it for much longer.
To date, I consider this to be the best quote about our game.
Everyone’s saying Scribblenauts, so I’m tempted to start being too cool for Scribblenauts now. But seriously, I want to play that game’s title screen for a year. – J.C. Fletcher (joystiq.com)
Scribblenauts really shined at E3, and the internet is buzzing with impressions from people who were at the show. Here are a few quotes I’ve taken from some news and blog sites around the web.
It’s pretty telling when a game’s opening menu is fun enough to literally cause people to giggle with excitement. – gamespy.com
A truly unique game is rare to find these days … Scribblenauts from Warner Bros. Interactive and developer 5TH Cell is one such game. – gamezone.com
Get ready to declare your game of the show after the break. – joystiq.com
Scribblenauts is the real deal. – 1UP.com
Scribblenauts is a blast. You’ll find yourself going from just trying to solve the puzzles all the way to trying to think of the zaniest solution out there. – kombo.com
Scribblenauts. This game is awesome. – nintendorks.com
We’re really excited to see the game being received so well. It’s crazy seeing people experience a game where their imagination is the only limiting factor on their gameplay experience. Ok, back to work so we can actually ship this game someday.
Nintendo held their annual press conference at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) earlier this morning. As usual, there was no shortage of boring announcements and marketing jibber jabber. Not surprisingly, they announced another peripheral that tops the charts for being useless. The “vitality sensor” more or less checks your blood pressure, because we all want our video games to feel more like a trip to the doctors office.
Notwithstanding, they announced a few games for the Wii that piqued my interest (Mario and Metroid franchises). I wouldn’t bother watching the whole press conference, but if you like Nintendo, check out the trailers that debuted below.
