Scrawled in Wax

Yet more reasons to be optimistic about the future (and video games)

While it’s true that, in my attempts to be ‘controversial’, I often say new technology marks a clean break from the past, that isn’t really the case. It recently occurred to me that a more accurate way of describing the digital age is simply this: modern tech takes things that we used to talk about metaphorically – networked thinking, the ever-changing book, writing things into being – and gets a step closer to making them manifest.

That seems to be the case with a yet to be released video game called Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS (here’s a trailer). On the surface it looks like a cute, straightforward 2d side-scroller, like say Super Mario Bros. The big difference, however, is that to complete tasks in the game you ‘summon’ objects to use simply by writing their names. Want a car to drive across a bridge? Write “car”. Wish you had a dinosaur to scare off that lion there? Write “dinosaur”. How many possibilities are there? The game’s designers have said it’s “in the tens of thousands“. No, they’re not messing around.

To get a sense of the emergent gameplay at work here (great term, btw), take a look at this writeup by Stephen Totilo on Kotaku. Totilo plays a level where the goal is simply to collect three undamaged flowers. Here’s how he starts out:

Attempt 1: Created bear to attack bee buzzing over first flower, so I could safely grab the flower. Bear killed bee. Bear then killed Maxwell. Level failed.

Attempt 2: Made bear; bear killed bee. Laid down bear trap. Died. Level failed.

Attempt 3: Made bear; bear killed bee. Laid down bear trap, ran away. Bear didn’t chase. Ran back over. Caught self in bear trap. Mauled by bear. Level failed.

Attempt 4: Made bear; bear killed bee; laid trap. Bear caught in trap. Bear broke free. Killed Maxwell. Level failed.

Attempt 5: Made exterminator. Exterminator fumigated bee. Exterminator did not maul Maxwell. Has Maxwell grab first flower and placed it in basket. Approached lake containing piranha and second flower. Fell in. Jumped out. Made fishing pole. Fished piranha out. On land, piranha flopped, attacked, killed Maxwell. Level failed.

It gets better:

Attempt 11: Made beekeeper. Beekeeper fled from bee (?). Made exterminator. Exterminator killed bee. Made fisherman. Fisherman cowered near piranha lake (??). Made fishing pole and gave to fisherman. Fisherman looked like he was about to fish but instead fell into lake and was eaten. (Some of the characters are kind of dumb.) Made another fisherman. Gave him pole. Couldn’t figure out how to make fisherman fish. Accidentally made Maxwell fall in lake. Piranha latched on. Death. Level failed.

Sort of incredible, right? I mean, flawed and messy and possibly frustrating, but still kinda’ amazing. I’ve talked endlessly here about the possibilities for producing one’s own stories using the creative, ‘simulative’ tools of gaming. This is exactly what I mean. Writing things into being and then manipulating them. Perfect.