Spore! (Will Wright's next big thing)

[Michael Chui]

So, is anyone else gnawing at their fingertips in anticipation?

Honestly. Talk about Game of the Century. (Or Sandbox of the Century.) And we're only 5-6 years into it. I recently discovered a clip of Robin Williams messing with the creature editor on Google Video; a quick search should find it.

What a vision!

[Gert-Jan]

I saw some of the early E3 footage where Will plays around with the game, showing the different stages. When is it due to be released?

[Alvin]

Can't wait honestly, looks incredibly massive.

[Michael Chui]

I'm guessing it'll be released around June 2007. Pretty sure it's sometime in 2007. That's all the speculation that's occurred.

@Alvin: Massively single-player! Revolutionary model.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Michael Chui

I'm guessing it'll be released around June 2007. Pretty sure it's sometime in 2007. That's all the speculation that's occurred.

@Alvin: Massively single-player! Revolutionary model.

Isn't there a multi-player feature of some sort? Sort of MMORPG where players get to share worlds?

[Michael Chui]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Isn't there a multi-player feature of some sort? Sort of MMORPG where players get to share worlds?

It's not a multiplayer feature; the idea is that your creations are shared with other players, but the computer runs your creations when that happens. So it's always single-player, but your stuff gets shared with other people.

[Zach]

I'm definitely going to get it...looks so awesome..

[Keith]

Just to clarify re: the multiplayer, it doesn't occur in realtime, but what happens is your generated content (creatures, building types, planets etc.) gets automatically distributed to other clients over the internet. So when I've built up my planet and go spacefaring, I could (eg.) discover the planet and civilisation that Michael created. But if I blow the planet up it doesn't affect Michael's game.

P.S. to Michael; Yes, I'm clearly failing at this whole 'avoiding the forums' thing.

[Michael Chui]

*somehow didn't see this post until now*

I like how you're failing to avoid the forums. I like the direction of your thinking.

[Dilman]

I can't wait! I love The Sims, and this is supposed to be better.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Not too long ago a friend of mine gave me a link to a 20 minute demo video for (the game) Spore. Before I watched the video I knew a little bit about Spore, but other then that, I still had little idea about what the game was about exactly and what you did in it.

Well, suffice to say that after watching the 20 minute demo I had a much more of an idea in regards to what Spore was about etc., and I would encourage you to check out the video if you are at all interested in Spore, or if you are interested in good, well designed games in general. Below I will include a link to the video, some links to some Spore-related websites that I found that you can go to for more info, and a few bits of info about the game.


Demo Video
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Click here to watch the 20 minute Spore demo video presentation that was shown at E3 2006. (Opens in a new window. There is no need to download the video, you just have to wait for it to load and you can watch it in your browser window.)


Links to Various Websites for Information about Spore
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• XSpore.com - Information, Screenshots, Videos, Trailers, Game News, Community, Wiki, Articles, Interviews, FAQ
  
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• SporeWiki - the knowledge base dedicated to Spore - the computer simulation video game developed by Will Wright.
  
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• Spore.com - Official website. As of now (22/October/2006) it doesn't have much information, but it does have a rather informative Macromedia Flash intro movie that gives you a pretty good idea of what the game is about. You can also sign up for the official Spore newsletter there.
  
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• GameSpot - Will Wright Interview - Spore designer Will Wright discusses his game's many possibilities, those handheld and console rumours, and letting computers do all the work for you.
  
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• GameSpot: Spore - Release date information, news and previews, trailers, game play footage, screen shots, and more.

Miscellaneous Information and Interesting Quotes Related to Spore
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Spore is really on another level from everything else. The high concept looks like it’s starting to gel into a cohesive experience. There are 6 different phases of the game, each one of increasing scale. Each phase has it’s own editor. If I remember right, the 6 phases are cellular, creature, tribal, city, civilization, and space. The transitions between these modes are looking seamless and great, especially the transition of zooming out from the surface of a planet to seeing the whole planet and rotating it around, and the transition of flying around in space and landing on a planet and going to the surface view.

Spore showed off an even better looking creature editor than ever this year, and a new twist on the “sporepedia” that’s basically a pokemon-style catalog of which creatures/buildings/whatever you’ve seen so far. You can click on any item in there (such as a creature) to see a trading card of that thing. They said you can print out the card and maybe play a trading card game based on the creatures (wow, I’d love to design that for them, hehe). Also, every item is labeled with the name of the person who made it. When you make a creature, it gets uploaded to Maxis’s master database and other players can see that same creature (or building or whatever) in their world. You can also see how other creations by a creator you like, and you can see how many other players have seen or used your creations.

Spore is an amazing thing both technically and conceptually. It’s a game that can only exist when the following 3 things collide: 1) the extremely unusual intelligence of a game designer who looks mostly outside the game industry for inspiration (go Will Wright!), 2) a team of great, solid people to support him and and believe in him because of past success (Sim City, The Sims), and 3) the infinite resources of EA, both in terms of money and in the power to contact any expert in any field that Will needs to talk to. A Magnum Opus game like Spore might a one-time event in our lifetimes.

- David Sirlin
Sirlin.net — Your source of shocking insights on game design

Spore Multiplayer - Asyncronous Sharing

Spore will feature a unique multiplayer setup described by Will Wright as Asyncronous Sharing. When players create new creatures, cities, etc., the content that they create will be uploaded to a master central server. This server will streamline player creations to individual users in different ways. For example, when a player's new creature reaches the stage in evolution where it can walk onto land, he will find himself part of a world full of other players' creatures. The game will inhabit the world with other creatures in a way specifically designed to provide balance. For example, if the environment could use more "aggressive" creatures, the central server will provide the end user's planet with specific creatures (created by other players) that meet this criteria. Additionally, when you are at the stage of evolution where you can cruise through space with a UFO, your client will gather data about other users' planets in order to populate galaxies to explore. When you visit one of these planets, the game itself will control the creatures that inhabit the planet but will do so in a way that reflects the personality of the player who created the creatures; your personality will be monitored by the game so that the AI will match your play style. This multiplayer setup is the best of both worlds: you can interact with the creations of other players while not having to worry about being bullied around by "grievers".

Spore Multiplayer: Asyncronous Sharing

[Alvin]

Misc: My country name is often abbreviated as 'S'pore', so I get seeing it whenever I look at Spore