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5th Cell planning four games for 2012, including Hybrid
While talking to 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka about the new iOS game Run Roo Run, I couldn't help but check in regarding the developer's delayed XBLA shooter Hybrid. "Hybrid is coming along great," Slaczka told me. "The game has been heavily refined since we gave the first hands-on at GDC last year. All the same core concepts are there, but there's a lot of new surprises we want to show off. We'll be revealing a lot very soon actually." Slaczka said that Hybrid is one of four new games 5th Cell expects to release this year. "Run Roo Run will be our first and Hybrid may or may not be our next, we'll see." Slaczka remained adamant that Hybrid would make a 2012 release. "We may be using Source Engine," he said, "but that doesn't mean we adhere to Valve Time."
5th Cell introduces Run Roo Run, its new weekly iOS platformer
How do you follow a game like Scribblenauts, in which you can make and do almost anything? For developer 5th Cell, the answer is to make a game in which you can only do one thing: jump. Run Roo Run for iPhone and iPad, coming this Thursday, is a "micro-platformer" about a kangaroo crossing the suspiciously dangerous landscape of Australia in search of her joey. We've got the first media, along with details from 5th Cell.%Gallery-143773%
How 5th Cell follows Naughty Dog's lead with Hybrid
"Expect the unexpected" may be a cliche all but robbed of meaning by overuse, but it's also a pretty helpful way of understanding the path of Scribblenauts developer 5th Cell. Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka explained why the studio's choice of Hybrid, a team-based shooter, isn't such an odd one for the up-to-now kid-friendly studio. Now that we have a slightly better understanding of Hybrid's persistent, ongoing, massively multiplayer war, we're starting to get where he's coming from. 5th Cell has been a two-project studio since it developed Scribblenauts alongside Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter for the DS, and Slaczka said the studio is still growing. "Right now our studio is at sixty people and still expanding with three full projects in development. We've learned a lot as a studio since the original Scribblenauts and I'm very proud of how our studio has matured in our development," he told Joystiq. "I think working on multiple projects simultaneously has really helped us to expand our talent base; we've always got the right person for the right job, which is indispensible for us as we are offered the opportunity to evaluate new platforms."%Gallery-115142%
Go deep into Super Scribblenauts with 5th Cell's Jeremiah Slaczka
Looking for deep level Super Scribblenauts gameplay ideas but tired of all those crazy walkthroughs? 5th Cell creative lead Jeremiah Slaczka's got you covered, recently starring in a video on just that subject. Grab your thesaurus, your DS, and a notepad -- things are about to get crazy.
Super Scribblenauts preview: Maxwell's house
From what we've seen, it seems safe to say that if you liked Scribblenauts, you'll love the sequel. It's got a refined and updated version of the original's wordplay, along with plenty of fun extras like a level editor with deep scripting capability, and a "merit" achievements system that keeps the gameplay moving even after you've beaten the 100-plus levels the first time. But what if you didn't like Scribblenauts? What if, like me, you were charmed by the premise, but were overwhelmed by the execution, by the option to create anything in order to solve a series of often nebulous puzzles? %Gallery-99780%
Super Scribblenauts features a reprogrammed Maxwell
Upon playing Super Scribblenauts, it becomes readily apparent why you'd want to use the D-pad to manipulate the game's hero, Maxwell. So why wasn't that an option in the first game? Joystiq asked 5TH Cell Creative Director Jeremiah Slaczka, and were told that the original touch-screen input didn't draw any complaints -- at least not from casual players. "We haven't gotten any emails from casual users," he told us this week, "that are like, 'Hey, I don't like the controls.' It's the hardcore users that are like, 'I play Mario all of the time, and I'm a hardcore gamer, and I'm used to these kinds of controls, and what's what I want." Though controlling Maxwell directly with the D-pad may seem an obvious choice, it wasn't the first time around. "Maxwell's actually an AI," Slaczka said. "So it wasn't just like throw the D-pad controls in." Maxwell was programmed to respond to the rest of the game's systems rather than just follow button directions, and so it didn't occur to the developers to control him directly. "You'd have to overwrite all of the code that we'd built up for him. So in the second one, we basically did that." The team "stripped out" all of the behaviors and responses that had been coded, and created the option for "one-to-one player control." For his own part, Slaczka says he doesn't care which option players use, but he'll stick with the stylus. "This isn't a platforming game," he said. "This is a puzzle game. Unfortunately, it has a platforming-type feel to it. So we said for the second one, that's fine, we'll address it, we'll give you both. And we actually fixed up the stylus controls, too, so Maxwell doesn't run away as you tap -- when you let go he stops. So we made it way better."
5TH Cell's next game uses the Source engine
Jeremiah Slaczka, creative director and CEO of Super Scribblenauts developer 5TH Cell, dropped a tantalizing hint about the company's next project in a statement to Joystiq. "We're not ready to reveal our next original game just yet, but I can say we're using the Source Engine for it," Slaczka told us. Slaczka wouldn't confirm or deny whether this is the XBLA project mentioned last year. But if it's using Valve's FPS-friendly Source engine, it's unlikely to be a DS game -- and it's unlikely to be Scribblenauts. As for when we can expect to learn more about this mystery project: "Hopefully we'll have something to show people in a few months."
Scribblenauts on Wii up to fans
If your major issue with Scribblenauts was that typing was too easy, you may be interested to hear that 5TH Cell isn't ruling out a Wii version. Echoing previous statements about the developer's openness toward additional platforms, creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine that a Wii version of the vocabuladventure is possible. All you need to do is ask for it (and buy the upcoming DS sequel)! "I think a Wii version could happen," Slaczka said. "It's all about the fans - if the fans speak up and continue to buy and play the second one like they did the first one, I don't see why we couldn't make a case for a Wii version." The DS sequel -- which is still unnamed -- will be released this fall.
5TH Cell's next: a 'pretty big' XBLA game
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.
Scribblenauts dev 5TH Cell looking to consoles
Originally a mobile developer, 5TH Cell rose to prominence on the strength of its DS games Drawn to Life, Lock's Quest and current media obsession Scribblenauts. In an interview with GameSpot, creative director Jeremiah Slaczka said that the company is now looking to start making games for bigger boxes, following the release of Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter."This is our big last hurrah for DS games," Slaczka said. "That's it for original stuff. We're now going to move on to consoles in the next year. We might still do DS; I'm not saying we're not going to [develop DS games]. But our focus is definitely going to be on console." Slaczka did not offer any details of console projects.Slaczka also indicated that Scribblenauts could see more installments -- but not an outsourced Spongebob edition: "We're definitely keeping it in-house for a while," Slaczka told GameSpot. "I really like Scribblenauts and think there's a lot of potential there, so we'll see what happens."
Interview: Scribblenauts creative director Jeremiah Slaczka
During E3, word of mouth changed 5TH Cell's Scribblenauts from a promising DS oddity to one of the most highly anticipated upcoming games on any system. Following this sudden and drastic rise in interest level, we spoke once again to creative director Jeremiah Slaczka, whom we last interviewed when the procedural adventure game was first revealed. Just how well has the world reacted to Scribblenauts' public debut? And who at 5TH Cell is a zombie? Read on!
IGN and 5th Cell boss construct Lock's Quest interview
5th Cell co-founder and creative director Jeremiah Slaczka has taken time out from working on Lock's Quest to chat to IGN's Matt Bozon about the forthcoming construction/Tower Defense game. In the resulting interview, there's plenty of discussion about 5th Cell's commitment to innovative games (something we can totally believe, considering 5th Cell created Drawn to Life), and also some concrete details passed on. Slaczka reveals that Lock's Quest's story mode should last for around 20 hours, and also clarifies the game's multiplayer for us: apparently, there'll be no Wi-Fi play, but wireless local play for two players, in the form of a Vs. mode. On an unrelated-to-Lock's-Quest note, Slaczka also appears fairly keen to distance 5th Cell from THQ's licensed Drawn to Life spin-off, Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition. "With SpongeBob for example, that's our IP, but we didn't make it," he points out. "That's cool that THQ wants to move in that direction, and that's fine, but that's not something we're interested in personally." %Gallery-19901%
