GDC 2009: Treasure World First Look

SAN FRANCISCO--There's a reason now for you to take your gaming on the go, given that Aspyr's Treasure World's main focus is for you to unlock several thousand items by exploring real-life locations. A game that revolves around collecting, customizing, and creating, Treasure World was designed to target a younger audience, but people who have any kind of obsession with collecting and creating will find that there's always room on their Nintendo DS for treasure. We had the opportunity to meet with Aspyr to see how this gem is shaping up, and though it's still incomplete, we see the potential in this unique and magical game.

There is a purpose and a story to all of this treasure hunting. First, you'll meet Starsweep, who does what its name implies. It flies around the cosmos dusting off stars with its not-so-trusty ship called Haley. Unfortunately for Starsweep, Haley has crash-landed and it needs your help. The ship runs on stardust, and that commodity can be acquired only from treasure stars. Starsweep had built a handy robot called Wishfinder, who uses a treasurescope to track down the stars needed to fuel the ship. Between you and Wishfinder, you must collect as much stardust as possible so that Starsweep can be on its way. To be less conspicuous, you can dress up Wishfinder to disguise him in a variety of animal- or human-like costumes. (You're technically doing all the work; Wishfinder just stands there and looks pretty.)

How this game works is that each time your DS enters a new Wi-Fi zone, it will automatically unlock an item for your use. You can't continuously get items from the same location, so you'll have to take your DS with you everywhere you go to unlock as many items as possible. Once you have a healthy collection of random items, you can place them in your garden, located on the touch screen. You'll collect lawn ornaments, trees, flowers, plants, candy and more to decorate your patch of land. There are themed items as well; for example, we saw a garden that looked like a theme park for kids, with a variety of candy littered over the ground. Another garden mimicked a spooky cemetery, with twisted trees and tombstones. You also collect stardust each time you reach a Wi-Fi hot spot, and with it you can purchase items from the Starsweeper to add to your growing collection.

Other than dressing up Wishfinder and coming up with your own floral arrangements, you can use specific objects to create music. There are hundreds of objects that have sounds attached to them, and all you need to do is place them on the ground, which acts as a music staff. Moving objects up and down along the ground will change the pitch, so you can place random items in a diagonal line, tap the lantern, and it will play a scale. There are preset songscapes (gardens with musical objects placed inside) that you can unlock, which will give you a blueprint for a particular song so that once you've acquired all of the items, you have a distinguishable melody all set and ready.

Everything that you pick up can be shared online or locally, through friend codes or anonymously. When you connect online, a profile of your garden will show up on Aspyr's servers, where people can look to see what you've created. If you have a songscape on display, other people can play your melody to see what it sounds like. You're highly encouraged to share because you're not losing anything when you swap items with someone.

Treasure World's adorable kid-friendly visuals and simple story are bound to attract those who enjoy a low-key game and want nothing but a virtual playground to explore. It's easy to bring your DS with you wherever you go and then check in on it to see what you've acquired. Be sure to take a look at the latest screens to see what kind of creations you can come up with. Treasure World is expected to ship in late June.