Scribblenauts Unlimited Lets You Reprogram Your Own Objects

One of Scribblenauts Unlimited’s key features (on PC and Wii U at least) is the ability to create your own objects based on the multitude of items you can summon in the game. You start with a base item, but add other objects and adjectives to it to make it something new.

When you add another object to it doesn’t have any of its default behaviors, acting strictly cosmetic until you open the scripting menu and change what it does. For instance, the representative at the hands-off event I attended created an item called the “Rainy Day,” which was simply an umbrella with a cloud layered over it at first. However, the representative added the “rainy” adjective to the cloud and the object became a portable rain shower.

The other 5th Cell-created object on display was the “Hotdogatops,” which was essentially a triceratops with ketchup bottles for horns and a giant hotdog body. While at first, it acted just like a triceratops (its base object), but the representative decided to go a bit more in-depth with customization than with the rainy day.

She opened up the scripting menu and started to change the way it acted and the way others reacted to it. Other objects would treat the creature as a hotdog, but it could also shoot hotdogs as projectiles. When it was summoned into the game, it immediately entered into a fight to the death with a giant sandworm.

As the representative scrolled through the scripting option, I saw options to change the things that an object would eat and fear. 5th Cell President Jeremiah Slaczka said that you could “apply anything to anything,” and stressed that the scripting options were based on their programming process for each object in the game.

While the creation tools are powerful, there are no puzzles in the game that require the use of the custom object creator. It’s simply a creative option for players that can be shared via Steamworks and Wii U’s online infrastructure.

Food for Thought:

1. While creation and sharing of custom objects is an important part of Scribblenauts Unlimited, it’s also the only thing that the 3DS version of the game doesn’t have.

2. 5th Cell will be doing some censorship and running a word filter for shared custom objects. However, you can have whatever terrible explicit creation you want locally.