De Blob

How an educational demo expanded its canvas, in an attempt to take on Mario

- ALICIA HADDICK

Picture this: you’re running the Information Centre for a city in the Netherlands. You’ve recently been tasked with promoting a large-scale regenerative construction project that would involve completely rebuilding the city’s train station and surrounding areas over the course of 15 years. How would you do it? In Utrecht, circa 2006, the answer was: assign a small group of university students to make an educational game.

That game was The Blob, which tasked players with controlling a smiling blob as it rolled around the city of Utrecht, painting buildings and collecting hidden objects as they learned about the urban rejuvenation project. As an educational tool, the game was designed to be played for just a few minutes, with little more than a single map to paint and a few hidden collectibles to find. Still, there was clearly something appealing about the core concept of transforming a monochrome cityscape into a colourful paradise.

The Blob’s potential was recognised outside of the edugame scene, and it landed Internet Game Of The Year in the 2006 Edge Awards. The game also caught the eye of THQ, at the time looking to expand beyond its reputation for licensed output. Having just added Destroy All Humans and Company Of Heroes to its portfolio, the publisher was eager for a family-friendly series that could capitalise on the opportunity demonstrated by Wii’s success. In Utrecht, it seemed to find the answer it was looking for.