[CTZ here! The image Matthew used was horrid. Here’s something better. You’re welcome.]
I’ll let you in on a little industry secret: games go through a lot of different creative processes and things change a lot when they do. Some extreme examples would be thedifferent look ofBorderlandsfrom launch to release or the perpetually delayed but finally releasedToo Human. The creative process usually leads devs to bigger and better things as they design. Such was the caseScribblenauts, whichit turns out was originally calledWordplay. Would you like some cardboard to chew on with that blandness?
“We had a lot of different names beforeScribblenauts,” explained Jeremiah Slaczka, Creative Director of the game. “The original name was Wordplay, which is really lame and not fun and very generic…We’ve always gone through a lot of names before we kinda settle on a final name…
“Scribblenautswas also actually a temp name, which is kind of funny that it actually stuck,” he continued. “Because in the beginning, we were just like, well we need something, we always need something for a pitch and what’s the project name. So we were like, ‘Well, this is quirky and interesting, but maybe not completely what we want to go for.’ But it just stuck. It made sense. And it wasn’t generic at all.”
All I know is that all the rooster hats in the world couldn’t makeWordplaya good name for any game except a collection of word games bundled for the DS. Thank goodnessScribblenautsstuck, because it’s one of the best game names in ages. I bet a post about the most interesting game names ever would be great forthe forums(if it doesn’t already exist). We do have them, you know.
