Skylanders Imaginators: the game that lets kids create their own heroes
The latest in the role-playing platform series took its cues from fan art sent in by children
One of the perks that goes overlooked when making children’s games is the fan mail. Developers get piles of missives from kids. Some have ideas scrawled on ruled paper. Others have pictures drawn in crayon. The idea for the latest Skylanders entry came out of children’s enthusiastic responses.
“Ever since the beginning we got fan art,” says Paul Yan, associate creative director at Toys For Bob, the studio behind the series. “We received hundreds and hundreds of pieces of fan art.”
A lot of the drawings featured Skylanders’ popular characters, but many had the children’s own ideas for new heroes. Those who grew up with video games know the feeling. In the 8-bit days, players created their own Mega Man villains. Others drew their own Super Mario Brothers levels on graph paper.
With this creativity jamming their mailbox, Toys For Bob decided to focus on this when it came to their latest game, Skylanders Imaginators, to be released in October for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U.
For the first time, players will be able to create their own heroes who are called Imaginators. They do it through a new toy called the Imagination crystal, which is tied to the eight elements of that universe. Players put the crystal on the portal, it glows alive, and their very own hero pops out in the video game.
In Skylanders Imaginators, the creation process starts off with players picking from one of 10 battle classes. This determines how the hero will fight. If they pick a ninja, they’ll be quick. If they choose a smasher, they’ll beat foes with heavy weapons but be a bit slower. Although they’ll be able to pick the fighting style, the type of Imagination crystal will determine the elemental affinity.
From there, players can choose the body parts such as the head, body, arms and legs. They can make their hero themed like a crab or mix and match it with robot hands and Spyro dragon horns. They can switch around the colour scheme. The possibilities are nearly limitless.