Spore (2008 video game)
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Template:Future game
| Spore - | |
|---|---|
| File:Sporelogo.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | Maxis - |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts - |
| Designer(s) | Will Wright - |
| Engine | + |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Nintendo DS,[1] and Mobile phones[2] - |
| Release | TBA (see below) + |
| Genre(s) | Simulation, God game (when offline) - |
| Mode(s) | Massively Single-Player |
}}
- Spore is a computer and video game under development by Maxis, and designed by Will Wright. It simulates the complete history and future of life. Its concept, scope, and development philosophy (broad use of procedural generation) have drawn wide attention.
- Spore is, at first glance, a "teleological evolution" game or god game: the player molds and guides a species across many generations, growing it from a single-celled organism into a more complex animal, until the species becomes intelligent. At this point the player begins molding and guiding this species' society, progressing towards a spacefaring civilization. Spore's main innovation portends to be Wright's use of procedural generation for many of the components of the game, providing vast scope and open-endedness. Wright said "I didn't want to make players feel like Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins. I wanted them to be like George Lucas or J.R.R. Tolkien."[3] + Spore is a multiplatform God game under development by Maxis and designed by Will Wright that allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its existence as a multicellular organism to a spacefaring sapient creature. The game has drawn wide attention for its promise to simulate this development of a species through open-ended gameplay using procedural generation.
- The game was first revealed and demonstrated to the public during a speech on procedural generation at the 2005 Game Developers Conference (GDC). It is currently being developed by Maxis and is to be published by Electronic Arts. + == Development ==
Spore was originally a working title, suggested by developer Ocean Quigley, for the game which was first referred to by the general public as Sim Everything. Even though Sim Everything was a first choice name for Wright, the title Spore stuck. Wright added it also freed him from the preconceptions another Sim title would have brought, saying "...Not putting 'Sim' in front of it was very refreshing to me. It feels like it wants to be breaking out into a completely different thing than what Sim was."[4]
- ==Release date== + === Release === - - Do not remove information from this section until a firm release date has been *officially* announced. It just makes more work for us to restore all this. Even if you believe you know the date, wait until it is officially announced before you remove information. If you have information that can be cited from another source append it to this paragraph before replacing information. Thank You! + Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson joined EA Maxis on April 2 to work on Spore.[5][6] Soon after, some video game sites theorized that this news indicated that the release of Spore might slip to 2008.[7] A projected 2008 release was revealed three weeks later at an EA conference call, corroborating the speculation that a significant amount of development was still left to be completed.[8]
+ The expected release date has been pushed further into the future in successive announcements. On May 8, 2007, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said that the release of Spore is "right on the bubble with Q4 [January–March 2008], if not, for Q1 fiscal 09 [April–June 2008]". CFO Warren Jenson stated that the game will not be included in the company's financial plan for its current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2008.[9]
- --> + On August 1, 2007, Riccitiello reaffirmed his previous statements in another conference call, saying the release "is sort of squarely targeted against March, April, May of next year", but cautioning that "intellectual properties like this and games like these are so large and so complex that we chose not to put it in our fiscal year guidance because these things are pretty hard to predict, and the outcomes can be volatile […] So our best guess right now is Q1 of next fiscal, but we're not actually providing guidance for next fiscal at this point."[10] - As of mid-2006 no official release date has been announced, though Will Wright has said in interviews with GameSpot and IGN that they were aiming for the second half of 2007. [11] Most electronic stores say the release date is June 2, 2007. [citation needed] Electronic Arts, the publisher, partially confirmed this in a conference call regarding the fiscal quarter which ended Mar 31, 2006. It was stated that Spore would not be released in the fiscal year which ends March 31, 2007.[12] Many retailers have listed specific release dates; for example EBgames.com lists the release date as June 2007.[13] Amazon.co.uk lists the release date as January 1st 2007. Play.com lists the release date as March 2nd 2007.[14] These release dates are speculative and cannot be considered true dates until EA has officially announced a ship date. As of September 10, 2006, only a PC version is confirmed, though Wright has expressed a desire to release the game on next-gen, handheld and even mobile phone formats.
- ==Phases== + Maxis VP Patrick Beuchner revealed on July 10, 2007 during a G4TV interview that the Nintendo DS and mobile phone versions would ship the same day as the PC version.[2] - Spore will be a simulation that "ranges from the cellular level to the galactic level". It will consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. In his Game Developers Conference speech, Will Wright likened the style of game-play of each phase to an existing game:
- # Tide pool phase, similar to Pac-Man + - # Creature phase, Diablo - # Tribal phase, Populous - # City phase, SimCity - # Civilization phase, Risk and Civilization - # Space phase (a.k.a. UFO stage or Invasion), with some elements reminiscent of Destroy All Humans!, and later, sandbox gameplay.
- Each phase of the game determines the starting point of the next phase. In the Game Developers Conference presentation, the creature that Will Wright was presenting during the creature phase was based on his earlier cell creature (in having three legs, a tail, eyes and mouth in roughly the same positions) that he had evolved through gameplay. He also mentioned that how each phase is played develops the creature's personality, referring to whether the creatures would be logical or emotional, peaceful or violent, among other attributes. + === Platforms ===
+ Microsoft Windows[15], Nintendo DS[16] and mobile phone[2] versions of the game have been confirmed. Additionally, Wright has expressed the desire to release the game on other platforms, such as seventh generation consoles, the PlayStation Portable and the Apple Macintosh.[17] In a IGN interview, Wright stated, "Well, actually we are going to go on all platforms, but we will come out on PC first. We will even come out on cell phones and stuff."[18] + In a Videogamesblogger.com interview, Wright said that the game will take different forms on the different consoles. As for the Wii, Wright also said that it offers a lot of creative opportunities so the Wii may receive a different game.[19]
- ===Tide pool phase=== + Beuchner stated in the aforementioned interview that the DS and mobile phone versions will focus on one phase of the game.[2]
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- The tide pool phase is the starting point of the game. The player guides a simple micro-organism (microbe) around in a 2D environment, eating other, weaker cells. There are at least three other types of cells, two of which can eat the player's microbe to begin with. Once the microbe has eaten several cells, it lays an egg which, when clicked, opens the creature editor which allows the player to modify the appearance, shape, and abilities of the microbe. This includes adding offensive abilities. For example, in Will Wright's 2006 demo, he added a small spike which allows the player's microbe to attack the organisms which would previously eat the player's microbe. Each time the player's microbe progresses to the next generation, it grows larger. Once the microbe grows to a certain size, the player leaves the 2D world of the microscopic and enters the creature phase.
- The tide pool phase is sometimes referred to as the microbial stage or the cellular stage. + ==Gameplay==
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+
- ===Creature phase=== + Spore will be a simulation that "ranges from the molecular phase to the galactic phase."[20] It will consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. Will Wright also mentioned that he wanted the player to be able to spend as much or as little time as they wanted in each stage. If one person likes the creature stage, the game will not force them to move on until they are ready.
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- While the tide pool phase introduces the player to the game and its editor, the creature phase plays a big part in terms of what the player's creatures will look like in the later phases. It is similar to the tide pool phase, but there are several important differences. The most obvious one is that it is a 3D environment. There will be other creatures inhabiting the world and most, if not all, of them will have been created by other players. If there is a lack of predators in the ecosystem and weak herbivores are everywhere, the game will automatically download a new race of predators that another player has created and load them into the current player's world.
- When you first start you are a slug coming out of primordial "sludge". The basic goal is the same as the tide pool one: Hunt food to earn DNA points and avoid being eaten by predators. Unlike the asexual reproduction in the tide pool phase, the player must now locate a mate. Once the player's creature has laid an egg, it does not hatch straight away; scavengers will attempt to steal the eggs and the player must defend them. Before the egg hatches, the player will have the opportunity to 'evolve' their creature further into the next generation. When the egg hatches, the player becomes a baby version of the creature that spawned it. Aesthetically, this version of the creature will be smaller and have a voice of a higher pitch. It will also be somewhat weaker than adult creatures until it grows. You may eventually use DNA points to get legs, weapons, arms, tails, etc... + In his original Game Developers Conference speech, Wright likened the style of gameplay of each of the six phases to an existing game. During the annual Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences DICE Summit on February 7, 2007, a slide was displayed (see image, right) which lists a total of eight phases. The 2007 TED seminar in March 2007 displayed only five phases.[21]
- The ultimate goal of the creature phase is to increase the creature's brain capabilities. Once they have increased sufficiently, the player's creature becomes sapient and the player progresses to the tribal phase. + The games and films with which Wright associated the various phases are:
- ===Tribal phase=== + # Pac-Man for the cellular phase - After the player evolves their species brain capacity far enough they enter the tribal phase. At this stage physical development is ceased, but the player is given a hut and several of the creatures designed in earlier phases.[22] The player may give tools such as weapons, musical instruments, and other technologies. The creatures' behaviour and collective personality is affected by what tools the player decides to give them. At this point, contact with other tribes can take place, should the player choose to (whether contact is cooperative or hostile). Once the tribe's hut has been upgraded to a high enough level, the player will progress to the city phase. + # Diablo for the creature phase
+ # Populous for the tribal phase + # SimCity, Risk, and Civilization for the civilization phase + # SimEarth, Destroy All Humans!, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey for the space phase, with elements of sandbox gameplay. [23] DICE 2007 referred to it as similar to Master of Orion.
- ===City phase=== + Each phase of the game determines the starting point of the next phase. In the Game Developers Conference presentation, the creature that Will Wright was "guiding" through the creature phase was based on his earlier cell creature. It had three legs, a tail, eyes and a mouth in roughly the same position. He had evolved this creature through gameplay of the prior phases. - In his GDC presentation Will Wright described this stage as "a simplified version of SimCity". The player's tribal camp has grown to a city, which must be cared for. Players can use a building editor to change the appearance of the buildings in their city. As in the creature phase, the game will attempt to detect what style of content the player prefers, download similar content created by other players and add it to the buy menu. Although no clear goals for this phase have been revealed, it appears that once a player develops a large enough city the game will advance further.
- ===Civilization phase=== + He mentioned that the creatures' personality, whether it be logical or emotional, peaceful or violent, etc, is also affected by this gameplay.
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- After the city phase comes the civilization phase. In this phase players focus on relations between their civilization and other civilizations on their home planet, whether peaceful or war-torn. + During the 2007 TED conference seminar, Wright revealed that all phases could be accelerated to any time dilation, even having eons pass by in moments during the experimentation of a planet's biosphere.[21]
- The 'Civilization Phase' is where a player is expected to start seeing the results of his influence on the budding species. Players can still access the building editor and buy new buildings, and once players reach this point they are allowed to zoom out further for the first time, and view the entire planet from space. Once the player zooms out past a certain point, the realistically detailed features of the planet become more stylized. For example, the cities of the planet change from a properly-scaled view with all individual buildings visible to a more stylized, cartoon-like depiction. As in the tribal stage, players can meet other creatures of the same species in other cities to attempt either diplomacy, for opening trade routes and eventually forming an alliance, or for the purpose of attacking them. At this point, a vehicle editor is opened, allowing the player to construct land vehicles, aircraft, boats, and submarines. + ===Start of life===
+ The game opens with a comet plummeting onto a chosen planet, which hints at the concept of panspermia. The comet ostensibly supplies the complex molecules (ie. proteins) from which life will develop.[21][24]
- The goal in this phase is to gain control of the entire planet, and it is left for the player to decide whether to conquer by warfare or diplomatic means. Once players have gained enough credits in this phase they unlock the UFO and the UFO editor, and can proceed into the Space Phase. + ===Cellular phase===
+
+ The cellular phase is sometimes referred to as the microbial phase or the tide pool phase. The player guides simple microbes around in a 2D environment where the microbes must deal with fluid dynamics, being eaten, and weaker microbes. There are many different types of cells, many of which can damage and/or eat the player's microbe. Once the player's microbe has eaten several cells, it forms an egg which, when clicked, opens the creature editor which allows the player to modify the appearance, shape, and abilities of the microbe. The player can then add various offensive, defensive, and/or mobility abilities, spending "DNA points".
- ===Space phase=== + As the microbe gets larger, objects that are in the background move to the foreground, resulting in Will's microbe being eaten by a much more massive microbe which had previously been swimming in the background. The surface land becomes more and more prominent, and the option to move to land eventually appears, allowing the creature to crawl onto land to begin the creature phase. Legs are not a prerequisite to moving to land; if the creature lacks legs, it will move slug-like on the land, which implies there will be a direct correlation between the cellular and creature phases.[25] The microbe resembles a strange insect with cartoonish, human-like eyes, which were used "to make it cute," according to Wright during the 2007 TED seminar.[21]
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- After the civilization phase, the space phase, or 'sandbox phase', begins. At this stage the player controls a vehicle (known as the UFO) capable of traveling throughout their local star system (and after obtaining better engines, other star systems within the galaxy) and visiting other planets. This ability presents the player with multiple options: + The main units of "currency" are DNA points.
- *The player may terraform and colonize uninhabitable planets with special tools that are purchased with credits (water tool, volcano tool, etc.) + ===Creature phase===
- *The player may travel between star systems and make contact with other civilizations on distant worlds, most of which are created by other players. Interactions revealed so far include impressing civilizations with fireworks, attacking them with weapons, or trying to establish a language with the civilization (the latter occurs through music, a homage to Close Encounters of the Third Kind). These civilizations may react violently to the player or worship them, depending on that civilization's behavior. +
- *The player may abduct creatures (familiar or unfamiliar) and transport them to other planets (whether they are inhabitable or not). - *The player may place a "monolith" (a la 2001: A Space Odyssey) on a planet, triggering evolution of intelligent life, then come back later to see what has evolved. - *The player may use a weapon to completely destroy a planet (similar to the capabilities of the Death Star from the Star Wars saga).
- The Space Phase is sometimes referred to as 'sandbox' mode, since the player has near complete control of anything and everything. Rather than presenting the player with a finite goal, as earlier phases do, the Space Phase gives the player freedom to accomplish any variety of tasks they wish to perform. Planetary zoos, alliances with other races and interstellar warfare have all been mentioned, and are all believed to be possible in-game. Every race will have a 'personality' that will change how a player interacts with them. (At GDC, Wright has mentioned that the races of Star Trek have influenced these "personalities"). + While the tide pool phase introduces the player to the game and its editor, the creature phase plays a big part in terms of what the player's creatures will look like in the later phases. It is similar to the tide pool phase, but there are several important differences. The most obvious one is that it is a 3D environment. There will be other creatures inhabiting the world and most, if not all, of them will have been created by other players. If there is a lack of predators in the ecosystem and weak herbivores are everywhere, the game will automatically download a new race of predators that another player has created and load them into the current player's world to balance the ecosystem. The game will also download creatures in relation to how strong the player's creature is. If the player creates a bigger, tougher creature, the predators that are downloaded will likewise be stronger than average predators. Creatures' characteristics are categorized with a 5 star rating system in six areas: Speed, Stealth, Defense, Social, Cuteness, and Attack.
- It has also been mentioned that the Space Phase works on two axes: a horizontal axis (the ability to interact with many planets in a variety of different ways) and a vertical axis (the ability to revisit different phases of gameplay). + In the IGN "Evolution" video, the creatures had names such as "Oddy", "Mephistopheles" and so forth. This seems to indicate that individual creatures are nameable.[26]
- As is traditional with most of Will Wright's games, the game never presents the player with an absolute ending and the Space Phase continues for as long as the player wishes. + In Wright's 2005 demonstration, the creature with which he began looked remarkably similar to his earlier microbe. This led many people to believe that the creature was based upon the microbe's appearance. However, in a 2006 video from E3, narrated by a senior programmer, it was said that the player will initially begin as a slug-like animal. The narrator further stated the reason for this was to allow for more player creativity. It is unsure which method will be used in the final game however, as a new video demonstrates the essence of the cell creature emerging from a pond. The 2007 TED Presentation in March 2007 depicted a legless, slug-like creature emerging from the water, leaving a trail of slime in its wake.[21]
- ==Other elements of gameplay== + In this stage, the basic goal is the same: hunt food to earn DNA points, reproduce, and avoid being eaten by predators. Unlike the asexual reproduction in the tide pool phase, the player must now locate a mate. Once the player's creature has laid an egg, it does not hatch straight away; scavengers will attempt to steal the eggs and the player must defend them. Before the egg hatches, the player will have the opportunity to 'evolve' their creature further into the next generation, which can be done by spending DNA points to buy body parts. When the egg hatches, the player becomes a baby version of the creature that spawned it. Aesthetically, this version of the creature will be smaller, with certain features exaggerated such as the head, and have a higher pitched voice. This stage will have a profound effect on the creature's social skill evolution, as the baby will be making friends and forming its own herd (for herbivores) or pack (for carnivores). Will Wright referred to this as a simplified version of the friend-making mini-game in The Sims. - ===Editors=== + The ultimate goal of the creature phase is to increase the creature's brain capabilities slowly using DNA points. Once they have increased sufficiently, the player's creature becomes sapient and the player progresses to the tribal phase.
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_creature_editor.jpg){kind=link}
- Spore's major concept is that nearly everything is created by the players. Will Wright has stated that all the editors will be as similar as possible for easy use. There are several different editors, each one dealing with a different type of content, including your creatures' attributes (strength, speed, etc.).
- At E3 2006, Wright showcased the creature editor. It allows the player to take what looks like a lump of clay with a spine and mold it into a creature of their choosing. Once they are done molding the main form, they can then add legs, arms, feet, hands, eyes, mouths, decorative elements, and a wide array of sensory organs like antennae. Once the creature is designed to the player's satisfaction, they can paint the creature using a large number of textures, colors, and patterns. After the player feels their creature is complete, it can be tested in a small enclosed area. + The main units of currency are, as with the cellular phase, DNA points.
- There is also a building editor (city phase), a hut editor (tribal phase), a vehicle editor (civilization phase), a flora editor (from tribal to space phase), a UFO editor (civilization/space phase) and a terrain editor. Once the player has access to the UFO, it becomes possible to terraform and create entire planets. + ====Locomotion possibilities====
+ =====Flight===== + It is currently unknown whether it is possible to make flying creatures in the game. The user can put feathers[27] and wings[26] on creatures, but it is unknown whether they are functional or simply decorative. A flying creature was briefly seen in the GDC 2005 demo. In a Gadgetoff 2007 seminar demonstration, Wright made a bird-like creature with large wings; it, too, did not fly.[28] Recently it has been said that flying creatures will be possible in-game, but the cities built by them will still be planted firmly on the ground.[citation needed]
- ===Procedural generation=== + =====Swimming===== - In Spore, all creature animations are made on the fly. "The game automatically knows how to animate your creature based on how you put it together. For example, if you give your creature four equine legs, you can logically expect it to gallop around like a horse"[29] In Wright's first public demonstration of Spore, he created a tripedal creature in the creature editor. The game then determined how a lizard with three legs and a prehensile tail should walk. Other animations of the lizard including hunting, eating, swimming, dragging objects, mating and dancing, all of which were procedurally generated based on the model that the player created. Wright then revealed several pre-made creatures which moved realistically, despite their exotic design: large, insectile creatures with multiple heads and six legs, a walking bird whose massive head caused it to tilt while turning, and a dog-like creature with a set of unusually branching limbs. He also humorously demonstrated a creature that looked like a Care Bear, indicating that players could create animals similar to those found in nature or popular culture. + Similarly, the underwater phase featuring swimming creatures has not been seen since the 2005 demo, leading to fears that it may have been cut.[30] However in the July 2006 issue of PC Gamer (UK) their preview of Spore suggested that players would not only be able to create aquatic creatures, but would be able to develop them into a fully underwater civilization.[31] More recently, in the SXSW 2007 demo,[32] each phase has a mentioned text goal on the screen and the stated goal of the tide pool phase is "become large enough to move onto land," by implication omitting a creature-underwater phase (though it should be noted that it never says you must move on land, just get large enough so that moving on land is an option, probably referring to one's ability to remain in a phase until one chooses to move on). The opening Flash player cinematic of the official site does feature underwater evolution of a creature,[33] so it is possible that the underwater phase is simply a part of the larger cellular phase.
+ During the SXSW 2007 demo, Will Wright said that the underwater phase was on the verge of being cut out.
- There has not been much direct information released regarding the technology Spore uses to procedurally generate its creatures and worlds. Wright mentioned in an interview given at E3 2006 that the information necessary to generate an entire creature would be only a couple of kilobytes, according to Wright, who presented the following analogy: "think of it as sharing the DNA template of a creature while the game, like a womb, builds the 'phenotypes' of the animal, which represent a few megabytes of texturing, animation, etc". + ===Tribal phase===
+
+ After the player's species evolves its brain capacity far enough, it enters the tribal phase. At this stage physical development ceases (as does the player's direct control over an individual creature), but the player is given a hut and several of the creatures designed in earlier phases.[34] At this point the game is similar to an RTS in that the player can order the tribe members to move, attack, etc. The player may give these creatures tools such as weapons, musical instruments, and campfires, purchased with accumulated DNA points (as seen in screenshots of the tribal phase.) The creatures' behaviors and personalities are affected by what tools the player decides to give them. At this point, tribe-to-tribe contact can take place, should the player choose to (whether that contact be diplomatic or violent). Once the tribe reaches 20 members, the player will progress to the civilization phase. Players can also clothe their creatures, for example you could give the hunters hats and the fishers vests.
- Chris Hecker, who currently works on Spore (including its early prototypes), gave a presentation at GDC 2005 and Futureplay entitled "Why you should have paid attention in multivariable calculus", in which he describes the mathematics of an implicit surface and various methods to apply texture projections to such surfaces. Sean O'Neil worked as a consultant for Maxis "to assist with R&D development involving dynamic generation and rendering of a fractal-based world".[35] He maintains a website[1] with demonstration of procedural planet generation and a simulation of dynamic atmospheric scattering. + The July 10, 2007 IGN "Evolution" video featured a battle between two tribes of the same species, but with variations in their skin colourations.[26]
- Wright noted that he hired a handful of demoscene programmers and artists because of their familiarity with procedural generation. + The main unit of currency is Food.
- ==="Massively single-player"=== + ===Civilization phase===
+
+ Originally, the city phase was to follow the tribal phase, but it was merged into the civilization phase as "a simplified version of SimCity." The player's tribal camp has grown to a city, which must be cared for. Players can use a building editor to change the appearance of the buildings in their city. As in the tribal phase, the game will attempt to detect what style of content the player prefers, download similar content created by other players and add it to the buy menu. Players will also be able to make relations between their civilization and other civilizations on their home planet, whether peaceful or war-torn. + Once players reach this point they are allowed to zoom out further for the first time, and view the entire planet from space. Once the player zooms out past a certain point, the realistically detailed features of the planet become more stylized. For example, the cities of the planet change from a properly-scaled view with all individual buildings visible to a more stylized cartoon-like depiction for clarity. As in the tribal stage, players can meet other creatures of the rival species in other cities to attempt either diplomacy, for opening trade routes and eventually forming an alliance, or for the purpose of attacking them. At this point, a vehicle editor is opened, allowing the player to construct a large variety of land vehicles, aircraft, boats, and submarines.
- Wright calls the game a "massively single-player online game"[36]. Simultaneous multiplayer gaming is not a feature of Spore. The creatures, vehicles, and buildings the player can create will be uploaded automatically to a central database (or a peer-to-peer system), catalogued and rated for quality (based on how many users have downloaded the object or creature in question), and then re-distributed to populate other players' games. The data transmitted will be very small — only a couple of kilobytes per item transmitted, according to Wright. + The goal in this phase is to gain control of the entire planet, and it is left for the player to decide whether to conquer by warfare or diplomatic means. Once players have gained enough credits in this phase, they unlock the UFO and the UFO editor, and can proceed into the space phase.
- ==Development== + The main units of currency are Simoleons.
- Following several years of development, Spore was first introduced to the public on March 11 2005 in Wright's lecture about "procedural content generation" at the Game Developers Conference. It was officially unveiled two months later at E3 2005, the industry's annual trade show. GDC 2006 featured two Spore related talks, Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore[37] and Spore: Preproduction Through Prototyping[38]. A video released on YouTube [39] shows "unedited footage of Spore that will be going to TV networks covering E3 [2006]", and includes an overhauled creature editor, a first look at the texturing tools, as well as glimpses at other aspects of the game. Will Wright has said that the game was also influenced by many TV shows, movies, and toys, such as Lego and Star Wars. + ===Space phase===
+
- Will Wright originally intended to call the game Sim Everything, but needed a codename to use during the development process. Over time, however, the team came to prefer the name Spore, as it suited the game very well. He went on to state in an interview that "not putting 'Sim' in front of it" was "very refreshing". + After the civilization phase, the space phase begins. During the 2007 DICE Summit, it was revealed that the space phase was divided into two separate phases: terraform and galactic, denoted by the advancement of the race the player controls; terraforming represents a limited form of power to slowly change planets within one's own system, whilst the galactic phase represents a more God-like power upon the acquisition of the interstellar space drive: being able to travel outside of one's solar system. This categorical division of the space phase is no longer shown; the separate phases may just be a virtual differentiation to indicate the type of play rather than nominal categories. This ability presents the player with multiple options.
- The game has currently been in development for five years and has cost thirty million US dollars [citation needed]. + The player may terraform and colonize uninhabitable planets with special tools that are purchased with credits (water tool, volcano tool, etc.) The ultimate power in that area would be a technology which Wright dubbed the Genesis device, named after the device in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, both of which have the same purpose: transform a dead world into a planet capable of sustaining life in a matter of minutes. During the 2007 TED conference, Wright showed off the planetary effects the UFO can have, such as pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to increase the amount of greenhouse gases, which over time caused the oceans initially to rise and flood coastal cities, then eventually evaporate and transform the world into an arid desert planet, followed by a molten rock in space similar to Venus. Wright semi-jokingly called it "a sequel to An Inconvenient Truth."[21] The player may cause icy comets to crash into a planet to create water, or force volcanoes to erupt to increase atmosphere. Players may also colonize hostile worlds or deep under the ocean once they gain the ability to create bubbled cities, similar in function to self-sustaining arcologies. Once the world around them becomes habitable, the city loses the bubble.
- ===Influenced by demoscene=== + The player may travel between star systems and make contact with other civilizations on distant worlds, most of which are created by other players. The player finds other sapient species by running the mouse over other star systems and their individual planets to try to pick up radio static or noise that can indicate intelligent life. When the UFO visits that world, communication with that species includes a Close Encounters of the Third Kind-styled musical mini-game. They may impress the beings with fireworks, attack them with weapons, or try to establish a language with the civilization. These civilizations may react violently to the player or worship them, depending on that civilization's behavior and the race's personality. On a grander scale, the player could try to conquer the galaxy by different means, such as beginning an interstellar war, diplomatically creating an interstellar union and so forth. As a show of great force, the player may even use a weapon to completely destroy a planet (similar to the capabilities of the Death Star from the Star Wars saga), which will sometimes bring retribution from that species and its allies. - Will Wright names the demoscene as a major influence on Spore,[3] which is largely based on procedural content generation developed by many demoscene veterans.
- He expressed admiration for the demoscene because of the things they can do. He showed pictures from demoparties like Assembly demo party to great applause at the GDC '05. + During exploration of other worlds, the player may scan content and add the information to a database designed like a trading card series called the Sporepedia.[40] The player may also abduct creatures (familiar or unfamiliar, sapient or animal) and transport them to other planets. Players can do this to test a planet's inhabitants to see if they are friendly or not, or to merely test a planet's habitability. Conversely, the player may beam down his/her creature to interact directly with an alien species instead of through the UFO. The player may interbreed different species genetically, or place a "monolith" (in the style of 2001: A Space Odyssey) on a planet, triggering evolution of intelligent life, then come back later to see what has evolved. On lifeless worlds, the player may also find strange "artifacts" with unknown purposes to be used later on, possibly adding tools for the UFO.
- ==Technologies== +
-
+ The Space Phase is sometimes referred to as sandbox mode, since the player has near complete control of anything and everything. Rather than presenting the player with a finite goal, as earlier phases do, the Space Phase gives the player freedom to accomplish any variety of tasks they wish to perform. Planetary zoos, alliances with other races and interstellar warfare have all been mentioned, and are all believed to be possible in-game. Every race will have a 'personality' that will change how a player interacts with them. (At GDC, Wright has mentioned that the races of Star Trek have influenced these "personalities"). User-created races uploaded to the player's machine will behave as that user played them; that is, if a user played a race pacifistically, that user's race would behave in the same manner to the player. Conversely, if the user played that race as a hostile species, it would be very difficult for the player to negotiate with that species.
- Some of the advanced animation technologies used in Spore are described in the research and papers published by Steve Capell (and others), who made his Ph.D dissertation on Interactive Character Animation Using Dynamic Elastic Simulation[2] and is now employed at EA. The papers were submitted and presented to SIGGRAPH. Specific papers which cover the animation techniques are: Physically Based Rigging for Deformable Characters [3](SIGGRAPH 2005), Interactive Skeleton-Driven Dynamic Deformations [4](SIGGRAPH 2002) and A Multiresolution Framework for Dynamic Deformations [5](SIGGRAPH 2002) - all part of the Deformable Objects and Characters projects[6] with example videos. Other elements of the animation synthesizing techniques are presented in the Motion Libraries for Character Animation projects[7] at the University of Washington and contain more videos.
- The video[8] of the skeletal editor in the project offers insight into the theory behind the animation technique. + It has also been mentioned that the Space Phase works on two axes: a horizontal axis (the ability to interact with many planets in a variety of different ways) and a vertical axis (the ability to revisit different phases of gameplay).
- ==Awards== + In the E3 2006 demo, Will Wright explained that there would be over half a million different stars, each one having its own planets, more than anyone could visit in a lifetime. As is traditional with most of Will Wright's games, the game never presents the player with an absolute ending and the Space Phase continues for as long as the player wishes. The exploration remains fresh from uploaded content and on-the-fly procedural generation by the software. During the 2007 TED Conference seminar, Wright used accelerated time dilation during the Milky Way view to show the dynamics of the entire galaxy, as supernovas exploded in brilliant points of light, and the galactic arms slowly turned. He pointed out the nebulae, which the game features in real-life separate categories of planetary nebulae and reflection nebulae, each of which perform their actual functions in space. He also brought the UFO close to a black hole, keeping a cautionary distance from the structure.[21] - At E3 2005, the game won the following Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best Original Game, Best PC Game, and Best Simulation Game.[41] At the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo SPORE was awarded the following Game Critics Awards: Most Creative Game, Best PC Game and Best Simulation.
- ==Expanded Universe== + The main units of currency are, as with the civilization phase, Simoleons. - EA has plans to expand Spore's features even further. There are plans for the creation of a type of Spore collectible card game based on the creatures, buildings, vehicles, and planets that have been created by the players. There are also indications of plans for the creation of customized creature figurines; some of those who designed their own creatures at E3 2006 later received 3D printed models of the creatures they created.[42]
- ==References== + ==Elements of gameplay==
-
- ^ "Spore, My Sims confirmed for DS". GameSpot AU. 2007-02-01. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d "Maxis VP Patrick Beuchner Talks SPORE". G4. 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) Cite error: The named reference "e32007" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ a b "Will Wright and Spore" (video). Google Video. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=,|curly=,|accessyear=, and|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Wright Hopes to Spore Another Hit". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
- ^ Thorsen, Tor (2007-04-18). "Civilization IV designer Spore-s new gig". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Johnson, Soren (2007-04-19). "Designer-Notes: The 7-Year Switch..." Retrieved 2007-07-23.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Haris, Bill (2007-04-18). "Dubious Quality: Soren Johnson Leaves Firaxis". Dubious Quality. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Sliwinski, Alexander (2007-05-08). "No Spore until Q2 2008 ... no, seriously". Joystiq. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Electronic Arts F4Q07 (Qtr End 3/31/07) Earnings Call Transcript". 2007-05-08. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Electronic Arts F1Q08 (Qtr End 6/30/08) Earnings Call Transcript". 2007-08-01. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Spore Q&A - The Creator Speaks". Gamespot. August 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
- ^ "Electronic Arts Inc. F4Q06 (Qtr ended Mar 31, 2006) Earnings Conference Call Transcript (ERTS)". Seeking Alpha. 2006-05-03. Retrieved 2006-06-12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=,|curly=,|accessyear=, and|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Spore". EBgames.com. GameStop. Retrieved 2006-06-12.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=,|curly=,|accessyear=, and|coauthors=(help) - ^ ""Spore product page"". Play.com store. Play.com. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=,|curly=,|accessyear=, and|coauthors=(help) - ^ "EA: Spore is PC only ... for now". Joystiq.com. 9 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Spore Coming to DS". Next-Gen.biz. 1 February 2007.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "IGN Interview with Wright".
- ^ "Breakfast with Will Wright (GameSpy)".
- ^ "Spore coming to Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 says game creator Will Wright".
- ^ DICE 2007 Summit speech
- ^ a b c d e f g "2007 TED video of Spore". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ Gaming Steve tribal phase information
- ^ "Will Wright and Spore" (video). Game Developers Conference. Google Video. 2005. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
- ^ "New Yorker 2012: Stories of the Near Future Convention". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ Game Informer, July 2007 issue
- ^ a b c "IGN Spore Video". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ "Featherump developer made creature". Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- ^ "YouTube Gadgetoff video". Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ Kasavin, Greg (2006-05-10). "E3 06: Spore Creature Editor Hands-On". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-06-19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Underwater Creatures - Cut or not?". Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- ^ PC Gamer UK, July 2006, issue 163, page 31
- ^ "Video of Spore presentation SXSW2007" (Flash). Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Spore site flash animation". Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- ^ "Gaming Steve tribal phase information". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ Sean O'Neil. "Resume". Retrieved 2006-06-19.
- ^ "Robbin Williams Plays Spore". Retrieved 2006-09-15.
- ^ GDC 2006 Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore
- ^ GDC 2006 Spore: Preproduction Through Prototyping
- ^ YouTube E3 2006 video footage
- ^ "SporeWiki Sporepedia page". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ "2005 Winners". gamecriticsawards.com. Retrieved 2006-06-19.
- ^ Your Own Spore Figurine, For A Fee?
- ---- + Spore's major concept is that nearly everything is created by the players. Will Wright has stated that in addition to being simple, all the editors will be as similar as possible to each other so that content creation skills are easily transferable from one editor to the next. There are several different editors, each one dealing with a different type of content.
- * Wright, Will (2004). "Evolve! Will Wright's Grand Unified Theory". Wired magazine. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
- * Kosak, Dave (March 14 2005). "Will Wright Presents Spore... and a New Way to Think About Games". GameSpy. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * Davis, Galen (March 11 2005). "Will Wright Wows GDC with new Sim". GameSpot. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * Parish, Jeremy (March 11 2005). "Spore PC Preview". 1UP. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * Hopkins, Don (March 11 2005). "The Future of Content (GDC demo review)". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * Glicker, Steve (2005-06-09). "Interview with Will Wright and the Spore development team". Gaming Steve. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * Terdiman, Daniel (May 20 2005). "Wright Hopes to Spore Another Hit". Wired magazine. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * Waugh, Eric-Jon (March 29 2006). "Spore: Pre-Production Through Prototyping". Gamasutra. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * Wright, Will (April 2006). "Dream Machines". Wired. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- * King, Tayfun (May 2006). "User-generated future for gaming". BBC News. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
- ==External links== + In concept, the editors start simply in the cellular phase and move to higher levels of complexity acting as tutorials for progressive levels of gameplay. For example; the tide pool editor as demonstrated so far has a small set of choices (three sensory, three movement, and three attack options) and a two-dimensional structure compared to the E3 2006 creature editor demo which, for sensory alone, had nine options of four tiers each for a total of 36 options as well as three-dimensional structure. Editors move from a spine or body model in the early editors to presumably more free-form editors for the civilization phase. Planet-molding is perhaps the most ambitious, free-form and least detailed editing option; whether or not it will involve a true editor or an array of tools available to the "UFO" is unknown.
- +
+ At E3 2006, Wright showcased the creature editor. It allows the player to take what looks like a lump of clay with a spine and mold it into a creature of their choosing. Once they are done molding the main form, they can then add legs, arms, feet, hands, eyes, mouths, decorative elements, and a wide array of sensory organs like antennae. Many of these parts affect the creature's final abilities (speed, strength, diet, etc.), while some parts are purely decorative. Once the creature is designed to the player's satisfaction, they can paint the creature using a large number of textures, overlays, colors, and patterns. After the player feels their creature is complete, it can be tested in a small enclosed area, showing how it would move around, fight, interact, etc. There is also the hut editor (tribal phase), the building and vehicle editor (civilization phase), the flora editor (from tribal to space phase), the UFO editor (civilization/space phase) and the terrain editor, and all work from the same basic software. + In the "2012: Stories from the Near Future," the Creature Editor was shown to have been altered so that the hands and feet were already attached to the limbs. There are also some curiously bat wing-shaped appendages added to the editor. At the 2007 TED conference, Wright created a bizarre one-eyed creature with two mouths on its forelimbs and a mace-like clubbed tail.[1] + + In the IGN Evolution video, one screenshot of the Creature Editor showed the limbs and hands without claws or fingernails. It is not known if these are now part of a separate category of parts or a function that can be turned on and off. Interestingly enough, one of the category markers is a hand. However, the hands and feet are already attached to the limbs. It is unknown what this category contains. + + === Procedural generation ===
+
+ Spore extensively uses procedural generation, rather than individual objects. Wright mentioned in an interview given at E3 2006 that the information necessary to generate an entire creature would be only a couple of kilobytes, according to Wright, who presented the following analogy: "think of it as sharing the DNA template of a creature while the game, like a womb, builds the 'phenotypes' of the animal, which represent a few megabytes of texturing, animation, etc." + + ==="Massively single-player metaverse"===
+
+ Wright calls the game a "massively single-player online game".[2] Simultaneous multiplayer gaming is not a feature of Spore. The creatures, vehicles, and buildings the player can create will be uploaded automatically to a central database (or a peer-to-peer system), catalogued and rated for quality (based on how many users have downloaded the object or creature in question), and then re-distributed to populate other players' games. The data transmitted will be very small — only a couple of kilobytes per item transmitted, according to Wright. This was due to the aforementioned procedural generation of material. During the 2005 GDC Conference, Wright mentioned that user-created content would be "ranked" by the popularity of each item - the more popular and used the content, the higher the "default" value that content would be during the game when purchasing items and vehicles in the appropriate menus.[3] + + During Wright's Long Now Foundation seminar with Brian Eno in June 26, 2006, he mentioned that players would receive stats of how their creatures would be faring in other players' games, referring to this as the alternate realities of the Spore metaverse. The game would report to the player on how other players interacted with them (for example, how many times other players made alliances with their race or destroyed their planet). The personalities of user-created species are dependent on how the user played them.[4] + + == Music ==
+
+ The music for the game is being designed by Brian Eno, an artist famous for his work with ambient music. + + == Awards and acknowledgements ==
+
+ At E3 2005, the game won the following Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best Original Game, Best PC Game, and Best Simulation Game.[6] At E3 2006, Spore was awarded the following Game Critics Awards: Best PC Game, Best Original Game, and Best Simulation.[7] + + On 8 October, 2006 the game, its development, and its developer were featured in an article by Steven Berlin Johnson in the Sunday New York Times magazine, titled "The Long Zoom."[8] + + == Expanded universe == + EA has plans to expand Spore's features even further. There are plans for the creation of a type of Spore collectible card game based on the creatures, buildings, vehicles, and planets that have been created by the players. There are also indications of plans for the creation of customized creature figurines; some of those who designed their own creatures at E3 2006 later received 3D printed models of the creatures they created.[9] +
+
- *Official Spore website + == References ==
- *Summary of Long Now Seminar with Will Wright and Brian Eno +
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ted2007was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Robin Williams Plays Spore". Retrieved 2006-09-15.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
google-video1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Will Wright and Brian Eno Long Now Foundation Speech". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ "SporeWiki Greevil page". Retrieved 2007-07-23.
- ^ "2005 Winners". gamecriticsawards.com. Retrieved 2006-06-19.
- ^ "2006 Winners". gamecriticsawards.com. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
- ^ Steven Berlin Johnson (October 8). "The Long Zoom" (newspaper). The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 2006-10-08.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help) - ^ "Your Own Spore Figurine, For A Fee?".
- ===Demonstration videos=== + == See also == - *GDC 2005 Presentation (full) + *Development of Spore - *GDC 2005 Presentation (gameplay only) - *E3 2006 Presentation videos - *E3 2006 Gameplay Demo
- ===Selected fan sites=== + == External links == - + - *GamingSteve.com's Spore Forums - An active Spore forum + * Official Spore website - *SporeWiki.com - A wiki dedicated to all things Spore. + * Spore presentation at South by Southwest 2007 - a collection of screenshots, videos, and articles from the South by Southwest conference. - + * Spore presentation at TED
+ * Spore presentation at The New Yorker's "2012: Stories from the Near Future" series of symposiums + * Spore presentation at Long Now Foundation with Will Wright and Brian Eno, 06/26/2006 + * Sporewiki - A wiki dedicated to all topics related to Spore Template:SimUniverse Template:SimUniverse
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