A few weeks ago I went to Electronic Arts’ New York game demo. Overall it was a disappointing affair for a Wii gamer. In cases where games where coming out for multiple platforms, they showed the games on something other than the Wii (even the new Harry Potter game, whose wand work seems most appropriate for the Wii remote). The place was also too crowded with press, making it difficult to actually squeeze into a demo booth, and some games were missing, with just a sign up saying where the game was supposed to be demoed. The one item that I found particularly interesting, a puzzle game called Create coming out for the Wii and other platforms this fall, was shown under embargo, which is why I haven’t even bothered mentioning Electronic Arts this year until now.
Now the embargo’s listed, so I’ll tell you what I can recall of the game.
The PR flack began by explaining how you could customize Create’s title screen. He was adding clouds and animated airplanes and all sorts of stuff, which was rather impressive from a technological standpoint. He was very enamored of this, and I had to insist that he get to the actual game part. I’m not sure if he spent so much time on the title screen because it is considered a major component of the game or because it’s just a nice way of displaying Create’s capabilities.
At first I was worried that the entire game was just sticking stuff on screen. Fortunately there’s more. Once we got past the title screen, the game looked more like the Incredible Machine games, which involved placing bowling balls, rockets and mice on platforms to create elaborate Rube Goldberg-style systems to perform simple tasks. While The Incredible Machine generally was about limitations, offering just a few items that had to be placed in ingenious ways, Create often just gives players lots of devices and challenges them to create the most convoluted set-up they can manage. There are also places that follow the Incredible Machine system of limited choice.
The trailer on the Create website seems to emphasize the concept of creating over the concept of puzzle solving, and it looks like the title screen may not be the only place where players can just do what they want for no other reason than to goof around with the software.
It’s hard to know how this is going to turn out based on what I saw, but if the game doesn’t lose the gameplay amidst the “creativity” then it could be a lot of fun. EA has promised the press a more complete demo before the game launches in November; I’ll be curious to see what this is like when it has been developed further, and when I get a chance to play it myself.
