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DS Daily: Blank canvas

Animal Crossing

engages players by giving them tools to do whatever they feel like, a large part of which is designing clothing, wallpaper, flags, and even dialogue to personalize their towns. Mario Kart DS has customizable emblems. And then there's Drawn to Life, which looks like the ultimate example of the in-game drawing tool, with the whole game designed around player-created characters and items.

What is it that is so captivating about putting your own work into a game? We were really amused by the Drawn to Life demo, specifically because we got to watch our creations move while we were still creating them. But why are our crude scratchings often so much more interesting to us than professionally-designed art? Or is it just us?