Should've given this thread the name....... Scribblenauts

[Lunchlady Doris]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

except vulgar stuff like penises and copyrighted stuff like coca cola.

you can write down beer and you can write down gun though.

The key is that its limited to nouns and objects....... so its a more manageable 50k-60k words rather than the 300k - 1 million words in the english language

The innovation is in the database system which stores the attributes of objects and generates a videogame representation.

atm its

1) write down word
2) ??????????
3) magic
4) object appears

as I said we'll know more in the coming months

I would assume that similar words would be grouped together so a polar bear and a grizzley bear would only need a pallette swap.

That's all well and good, but for stuff like the meat on a stick with a raptor, you need to program the properties of each object, and then their relationship with the other 60k objects. No way will this be as freeform as they're trying to make out.

 

[midorigreenwood]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

yup, that will be the challenge.....

they've set out their goals in the trailer and interview..... interesting to see if they can fulfill them

like I said before, they're an up and coming developer with a good track record ie:they gained experience for their DS games by starting out with mobile phone games, now they're doing the same for their expansion to consoles with DS games.

Their first two DS games have been ambitious and innovative so I have alittle faith that they can pull it off.

 

[HBK619]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Ok, now while I might not have agreed that LBP should've been marketed like Scribblenauts, I do agree that it should've been marketed like this game.

LocoRoco 2
[YOUTUBE]3wDRkuOc284[/YOUTUBE]
Brilliant!

 

[Kerrby]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

WHAT THE **** IS THAT!!! wat!

 

[scooterb]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Midori, have you seen the new LBP advertisement?
I saw it last night during Bones. I originally thought it was a Nintendo ad until I saw some gameplay footage. If it works for Nintendo, it should work for Sony.

[youtube]pKtXXUaRQP0[/youtube]

"Of course he's not the real dog. He was hit by a caaaaaah".

 

[midorigreenwood]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

absolutely gobsmackingly awesome ad

now thats what I'm talking about!!!

"pull on the yellow thing mate"

*dogs head explodes*

from that 30 second ad it tells you

1) its a game that you can enjoy with your family ie: Murray the dad made the level and his kids are enjoying it

2) there is an emphasis on personalisation eg: photos of the kids and game representations of the family pet

3) you can blow shit up!!! the joy of experimenting in the sandbox.

Now hopefully Sony takes the hint and continues the sustained mass marketing ala Nintendo..... I've got a feeling that LBP will sell just as well in a year or twos time when the PS3 reaches a sane pricing strategy.

 

[RoosterLad]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Still not for me.

I don't play games with my family and I don't want to put photos of them on some stupid game.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Still not for me.

I don't play games with my family and I don't want to put photos of them on some stupid game.

'

Neither does Chris Chan. However, he still finds it necessary to make Sonichu levels.

Personally, I just don't like it because it looks like something that's cool to play around with for a while but gets old fast. Maybe if it was a downloadable PSN game akin to Braid for XBL I'd hold it in higher stead but even if I did own a PS3, I couldn't warrant the purchase of this game.

 

[midorigreenwood]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Still not for me.

I don't play games with my family and I don't want to put photos of them on some stupid game.

thats fair enough......its not your thing..... but the whole point is trying to sell LBP to the mass market.

The Wii has proven that the "sell all on launch week or die" strategy is shortsighted. The average joe doesn't line up outside stores to get the special limited edition gold colour box with free stickers.

Wiifit and Mario Kart are selling better at christmas than at launch 7 or 8 months ago.

Thats why Sony should be focusing on keeping LBP on the public's mind for the long term in the hopes that all is not lost when the PS3 finally becomes cheaper (I'll be first in line).

Even an unknown third party game like We Ski (Namco bandai) which launched in obscurity at the same time as Wiifit to take advantage of the balance board looked like a modest failure when it sold 60k at the US launch and was never seen again.

Namco just released a press statement that it has just broken one million in sales.

With the mass market, you need to focus on traditional forms of marketing: from word of mouth, advertising in tv, mainstream magazines, posters in the public, display presence at the store or awesome cover art.

There was some interesting annecdotal evidence at the vgchartz forums about the power of cover art.

Someone was browsing at a store looking at games and overheard two ladies discussing what games they should get their kid. They were deciding between Carnival games, Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario and Sonic Olympics. One lady piped up that the box for Carnival games said that it had 15 games included for half the price so that will keep little Johnny entertained for hours.

The horrified Nintendork couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer...... he tried telling the ladies that Carnival games was a full of shit minigame collection but he ended up looking like a psychopathic stalker and inadvertently solidified their purchasing decision

With word of mouth, this is an explanation of how an unknown game with no advertising at all to speak off can somehow sell nearly three million copies.

 

[caMoGFC]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Personally, I just don't like it because it looks like something that's cool to play around with for a while but gets old fast. Maybe if it was a downloadable PSN game akin to Braid for XBL I'd hold it in higher stead but even if I did own a PS3, I couldn't warrant the purchase of this game.

**shakes head in disbelief....**

please don't tell me you actually meant the rubbish that you just typed there........please....

i mean.... certain games just don't tickle peoples fancy and this is clearly one of those games.
and that's 100% fine as everybody is entitled to an opinion.

but to say if it was a downloadable title you'd hold it in higher stead is just ridiculous....
if any game was 15 bucks or thereabouts u'd hold it in higher stead....(i'm assuming braids mspoint equivalent is around the 15 dollar mark and i will buy it because of that price point when it comes to ps3)

this game has a fully fleshed out single player with 70??odd levels in it....with incredible graphics and an amazing sountrack..
the game literally has hundreds if not thousands of new levels released DAILY many of which are better than what was in the single player (which is no easy feat as the single player was excellently constructed in itself.)
with a rating system which makes it incredibly easy to find the better levels as it tends to sift out the average levels and keep the good to amazing ones at the fore.

i mean u don't have to like the game even if you've never played it but try to remember that this wasn't the highest rated exclusive of 2008 for no reason...

 

[Borgsta]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

OK I have seen gay little ads for LBP all over the shop and have never had any idea WTF the game is about and as such just said 'well that sucks'

Now I have finally seen something that makes it look interesting. The game simply isn't my cup of tea but at least I know something about the bloody thing and would definitly look at getting it for a teenager if I were a parent of a teen.

The marketing for the original game in this thread is fantastic. The policeman chasing the donut is hilarious. What other games on the DS have they done?

 

[danzan22]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

So in 5 minutes after you have drawn all the things you can think of there will be nothing left to do and you would become immediately bored with it, sounds like a waste of money.

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Can't wait to jump my sack up and down around pictures of my kids, so much fun. I can pull on a yellow thing and all.

 

[midorigreenwood]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

So in 5 minutes after you have drawn all the things you can think of there will be nothing left to do and you would become immediately bored with it, sounds like a waste of money.

you're missing the point..... its a puzzle platformer/adventure game..... there will obviously be a multitude of levels to solve and mess around in.

 

[midorigreenwood]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

What other games on the DS have they done?

Their first game was a unique platformer called Drawn to Life. The hook of the game was that you could use the DS to draw the artifacts in the game eg: your main character, the houses in a village, animals that populate the levels etc.

It was kinda kiddie but it broke the million sales mark which is pretty awesome for an independent 3rd party developer on the DS.


Their second and most recent game was a more hardcore tower defense rts game called Lock's quest.

really addictive and the story was surprisingly intricate but the publisher THQ really dropped the ball in the marketing department.....

wouldn't have even known that the game came to Aust if I didn't see it in a Big W broshure.

 

[HBK619]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

I'll take this as the 'Scribblenauts' Official thread.

So here's an IGN Preview of Scribblenauts.

Source: http://au.ds.ign.com/articles/100/1003029p1.html

SCRIBBLENAUTS IGN PREVIEW
A farmer waits on a farm without a flock and it's your task to conjure some livestock. A couple of minutes and one particularly mischievous player later and the farm is playing host to an epic duel between God and Death, while a small boy tries to strap a jet-pack to a T-Rex. It's just another day in Scribblenauts for its eternally cheerful protagonist Maxwell.

This year's E3 was remarkable for a multitude of reasons – the debut of new and exciting technology in the shape of Microsoft and Sony's new attempts at motion control; reveals of top triple A titles like God of War III, The Last Guardian and an all-new Metroid; and the return of some of the show's trademark glitz meant that 2009's event is sure to be one that has a hold on the memory. Against such a bustling backdrop, the most amazing story of the show was forged by the most unlikely of sources - Scribblenauts, a DS title from the relatively diminutive developers 5th Cell, was recognised by IGN as the game of the show.

Scribblenauts' concept is what earned it the accolades and it's one that's so empowering as to be literally mind-numbing. Drawing upon a lexicon that runs to the tens of thousands, it's possible to conjure almost any object to help conquer the task at hand. That's why, as the opening example testifies, it's easy to stray off the script and why it's also easy to be lost to fits of laughter as you manage to get three pandas riding on a unicycle.

"We actually still see that in the office sometimes," says Marius Fahlbusch, the game's technical developer, "throughout the entire development you see people randomly giggling behind their desks because of some funny scene." Seeing the joy go on to infect the legions of games writers at this year's E3 has proved particularly gratifying: "It's great that other people are having the same experience with the game," says Fahlbusch.

A chance to sit down with the game as it's meant to be enjoyed – on trains, buses and being passed around kitchen tables with friends fast becoming giddy with the possibilities on offer – shines some light on to the structure of Scribblenauts and how exactly such an ambitious idea is being funnelled into a game. "All credit to our creative director – we had the idea at the beginning with the writing in general, but it wasn't quite a game yet," Fahlbusch says of the game's genesis. "It was just a gimmick and a tool and at some point he made the idea with the Starites."

Ah yes, the Starites. While booting up the game presents players with an arena in which they're free to play – and, for many, the myriad pleasures to be found in experimentation will more than warrant a purchase – a more traditional structure is provided in the game's challenge mode. Here, Starites are the reward for completing puzzles, solved by conjuring up one of the thousands of objects included in the game. They start simple – catch a butterfly, clear up a park or help an old man pass his eye test – but become fiendish mindbenders towards the end of the game, with one taste we're given seeing Maxwell escape a suspended cage to rescue a floating Starite with some deft use of a Pegasus and some scissors. True to the game's ethos, each and every task can be spiced up by a little creative thinking.

Want to pluck that butterfly from the sky? You could just summon a butterfly net, but why not strap on a jetpack, shoot it down with a laser or ride atop an elephant to grab it? Points are awarded for style, as they are for players who are sparing with the amount of objects they use. There are also points on offer for replaying a level and using a different set of objects – and all of the points accrued can be traded for new avatars and backdrops in the in-game shop.

The campaign takes players through a number of themed worlds – all of which are presented in Scribblenauts' alluring hand-drawn aesthetic – but there's life beyond the single-player game. Players can create their own levels with a fully-featured editor that's near effortless to use, with a few minutes tinkering allowing for something that's the measure of 5th Cell's own efforts. Most impressive of all is how player-created levels can be shared and uploaded both online and off.

All of which makes for heartening reading for those who want to buy into the hype generated by the game at this year's E3. There's still some question marks about how well the concept ties into a compelling long-term experience but the signs are promising – a week in the company of Scribblenauts and it has lost little of its charm, our DS still being bought out to silence doubters of its quite preposterous concept.

 

[HBK619]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Probably one of, if not the best pre-order item EVER for pre-ordering Scribblenauts at EB.

Source: http://www.ebgames.com.au/ds/product.cfm?id=14998&refer=smallhero

Who else is going to get it and wear it proudly down the street?

 

[Gouldy]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

yeah because LBP was a total flop out...

 

[Gouldy]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

the dude in the E3 demo is a total douche bag.

"let's type in... invisibility cloak... maybe it has it, maybe it doesnt... 'we'll see'!"
Of course it has it douche! your not gunna type in something that the game doesnt have... because the "game has everything!". does it have Somalian short people pirates? or an haemaphrodite gorilla?

 

[Cynic]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

Probably one of, if not the best pre-order item EVER for pre-ordering Scribblenauts at EB.

Source: http://www.ebgames.com.au/ds/product.cfm?id=14998&refer=smallhero

Who else is going to get it and wear it proudly down the street?

I pre-ordered it but they didn't mention no rooster hat

 

[HBK619]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

I pre-ordered it but they didn't mention no rooster hat

Don't worry, you'll get it when you pick up the game and can walk home proudly.

 

[omit]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

going to go buy a ds just for scribblenauts ...and the hat

 

[scooterb]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

going to go buy a ds just for scribblenauts ...and the hat

I'm almost in the same boat.

It looks like the ultimate time waster.

 

[Glenno23]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

I pre ordered mine quite some time back, looks so like so much fun

Will dust off my DSI for this

 

[Gouldy]

Re: How LittleBigPlanet should have marketed their game

DS are around $400 yeah?

Thinkin bout getting the mrs one for Christmas. Saw a dog game she'd like and she would most likely like this game as well.