Video: A few minutes with the Spore 'Creature Creator'
EA/Maxis sent me a copy of the Spore 'Creature Creator,' the first part of the upcoming game design by Wil Wright (with a little help from Soren Johnson). We're supposed to be designing creatures as part of some big competition, the winner of which gets to donate $15k to his favorite charity. I'm just warming up now with my first monsters, but I thought you'd like to see me do a little walk-through.
A note about framerates: I bumped up the settings quite a bit on my first-gen Macbook Pro. Coupled with the screencasting software capture and compression, it looks much more choppy in the video than it is when I'm actually playing it. The system requirements for Spore aren't too onerous. They've built this engine for mass market success.
Update: Here's another friendly face you may recognize from another videogame. Took me about 10 minutes to make him. There aren't a lot of feather options!
Update 2: BEHOLD TERROR PIG!
Update 3: Okay, one more: our beloved mascot thing.
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It's actually supposed to be due out next week... June 17th.
("Thought Leader," huh?)
I meant "Thought Leader" ironically I swear to god.
The creator itself seems like something fun to play with, makes me wonder about Spore itself.
Thanks for posting the clips :-) I can tell that I'm going to waste *so* much time with this. It'll hold me over nicely until Wrath of the Lich King comes out.
I don't get it. You make a monster, and then what? You have to buy their game, which isn't available yet, that will allow you to import your monster as a player?
This could be interesting for machinima applications. Just the fact that you can crank out a monster in nothing and have it walk around is pretty cool for that.
If they had a Vehicle Vendor and a Weapon Wizard and a Building Builder (ok, the illiteration gets old), then you could do some really cool stuff, machinima wise.
Neato! Ah the chocobo - a fond reminder of one of the many things I did in college instead of homework. I'm also a bit confused about this game. I'd like to know more about what you do with the creatures when they're made. Or is that it?
Also, the monkey creature sounds like LOST's smoke monster. Creepy.
Oh my GOD that terror pig is awesome.
note to greglondon: if you do a little bit of research you'll find that spore will indeed have a vehicle and building editor, as well as a space exploration/creation mechanic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_%28video_game%29
Wikipedia. It's a good thing.
This game is an 'evolution' game. This creature you create evolves over time, eventually becoming intelligent, developing technology, and exploring space.
I am really looking forward to this game.
Is the intent of releasing the creature creator to populate the world with user-submitted content once the game is available?
Meh... I wanted to see the awesome terror pig video ("no longer available")...
Eh... I swear they (youtube) said they were sorry it was no longer available, but now (half a minute later) it is.
Both of my dogs completely flipped out when they heard the terror pig squawking...
I haven't followed this Spore-thing much, just seen it mentioned here and there. Now I thought this looks pretty cool, so I read up on it on Wikipedia.
There's a troubling quote in the Wikipedia article:
"Electronic Arts confirmed on March 31, 2008 that Spore would be receiving post-release expansion packs. No other information is currently available as to what sort of content the packs will feature, but EA hinted that it will be similar to The Sims expansions."
I guess I'm not gonna get into this thing. I don't want to be tied in with this kind of manufactured, neverending needs. Besides, it won't run on linux, will it?
We need to create a free software game with all this cool procedural and evolving shit.
Press Ctrl-Shift-XRATE to open up the secret genital selection window! Proof of age required.
ridestow@8: spore will indeed have a vehicle and building editor, as well as a space exploration/creation mechanic
Cool. If they have a "people" editor module so I can create different humans, that would have everything in one place.
It looks awesome.
Do you people not do research or even a simple web search?
Basically, The full game let's your creatures roam around a planet & they essentially create their own kind of civilization.
A simple web search will fill folks in.
Am I the only one who thinks the terror pig looks and sounds a bit like the houndeye from Half-Life?
- David Stein
I have to say I liked what I saw in the older demos better. The creature options look more and more like Pixar characters. Too cute for my taste, though I am sure the game will sell better this way. Given my druthers, I'd just want to mess around with the tidepool/underwater stage.
And what happened to the procedural mating? Now the animal bounces up and down a couple of times and babies appear? It has really gotten Disneyified, hasn't it?
To the poster who described this as an evolution game: hardly. This is an intelligent(?) design game!