Max and the Magic Marker is a revolutionary interactive game created by an independent design company called Press Play. Players manipulate the environment with their own drawings in order to assist the main character, Max, throughout his adventures. This game has not yet been released to the public on WiiWare, but already it snagged two awards: “Best Game Design” at the European Innovative Game Awards and “Best Overall” at the Unity Awards, not bad for an indie company with only 11 developers working on the game.

The game uses a classic 2D platform and Max’s imagination serves as the basis of the story line. Players navigate through a wacky version of Max’s neighborhood and an orange magic marker is the only tool used to solve an array of challenges. If Max cannot jump to reach a ledge, players can draw a basic line that translates to a bridge he can easily cross.  If a boulder needs to be pushed, players can draw a line to act as a lever. If Max needs to jump really high, players can draw a small triangle with a line over it to act as a see-saw. Of course a see-saw alone won’t propel Max up, players also need to draw a rock high above that will drop on the other side, launching Max into the air. All of these objects can be drawn in during the game-play, or the game could be paused in order to draw the objects uninterrupted.

Drawings can also be used to defeat enemies. The enemies in this game are Max’s imaginary friends called Gobos who have been turned evil (and purple) by a purple monster. The purple Gobos will make you lose a turn if you so much as touch them. Besides avoidance, players can kill these monsters by dropping heavy ink objects on them, or they can draw barriers to avoid them. It is also dynamic because of its use of physics. The more ink used, the heavier the object is and the game grows more challenging because the marker runs out of ink. Players are limited to smaller and lighter objects and have to make due with what they have.

I had a lot of fun playing this game. The concept itself was what really interested me. Throughout the levels players have complete freedom with what they could draw to complete a challenge. Sometimes I drew basic lines to get from point A to point B, other times I was able to draw more complex models. The  rating for this game will probably be E for everyone, but people of all ages really will have a blast with this game. I have been keeping up with their blog about Max and the Magic Marker: http://maxandthemagicmarker.com/, and it has been fun getting a behind the scenes look at the inspiration and the creation of this game.