'De Blob', from a school project to the Wii.

'De Blob' is a very successful game made by students of the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) and Utrecht University. It was created some time ago but I heard about it on the NLGD day two weeks ago.

De Blob

The Blob-game wants to inform the citizens of Utrecht about the upcoming project to redesign and rebuild the area of the main railway station. Great thing about the Blob game is the way you move the Blob, a big ball, through the city. The graphics look detailed and nice. One of the students posted something about their study project and THQ picked it up. The game will be on the Nintendo Wii and the DS in 2008 (of course with some extra features and extended gameplay). The title will be the Dutch one: "De Blob".

Joost van Dongen, the lead programmer, describes the game as:

It is a 3D game in which the player controls a ball of paint rolling through the city. The ball can absorb coloured NPC’s to become larger and change its colour. With the paint, the player can then proceed to paint the entire city. Almost everything is paintable: buildings, trees, cars and using the paint trace even the ground. The main goal of the game is to paint all 17 landmark buildings. Hardcore fanatics can also try to collect all 50 coins that are hidden around the level.

You can download and play the game from the students for free. It is available in Dutch and English and it is a Windows game. It is very playable with a trackball or touchpad. With the mouse is a bit annoying.

I would not consider it as an edugames because the learning objectives are very thin. And even the informative elements are quite limited. But it is fun to play, you can enjoy the graphics and the easy way you can roll De Blob around town. If you are developing games as a student: you see what it can bring you so create a great edugame and share it with us and the THQs of this world.

Some info about the THQ release: