The phases of Spore
The big challenge was to make the phases of Spore stand out and make an incredible experience. I think they have done this, but it is clearly some improvements that could make the game a lot better. The challenge with making Spore is that you need five different games, meaning you need to use five times the resources of a normal game. Spore clearly haven’t reached up to the big games if you look at one phase alone, like the civilization phase. If you are really into realtime strategy, you have a lot of games that do this better than spore. Many phases lack the depth of a full game, and it seems like the early phases are just a journey you have to take to reach the space age.

And I think this is what makes Spore great. The individual phases don’t have the depth, but if you put them together, and follow your little creature from the tidal pool all the way up to the space age, you have a journey other games can’t match.

We have written about all the phases, if you are interested in what these phases involve:

• Cell Phase
• Creature Phase
• Tribal Phase
• Civilization Phase
• Space Phase

Spore is not suited for hardcore gamers?
This is a statement I would make about Spore. It is not a hardcore game, just like The Sims wasn’t a hardcore game. A RTS-fan will not get the depth (s)he wants in the tribal or civilization phase, and hardcore gamers will have no problem completing the first four phases without problems every time. But a novice gamer (noob is you want) that doesn’t have these expectations about RTS, RPG and so on will enjoy the journey and not worry about story line (is there any in The Sims?).  It think Spore will be a great introduction to unexperienced gamers to the joy of games, just like The Sims did it a few years ago.

Evolution or creationism?
I would argue that Spore is not evolution, but creationism. Your spore creature doesn’t evolve in any natural fashion. Instead there is a creator (you) who decide how the creature should “evolve”. Thinking of Spore as a simulator for evolution should stop. Spore is an arcade creationism simulator.

I will provde more thoughts later, but feel free to share your thougts. If you have much to say, you can also be a guest poster on the blog if you want.

SporeVote
If you go to SporeVote.com, you can vote on Spore creatures made by the Spore Creature Creator by celebrities. Quite a few interesting creatures and persons here, like Kevin Rose from Revision 3, Elijah Woods from Lords of the Rings, Masi Oka from Heroes and David Arquette (movies). Check out the creatures they have made, and vote for your favorite. My favorite is Michelle Pesce’s “Eleanor Rigby”.

Questions answered at Total Spore
The Total Spore guys got an interview with Maxis about Spore, and asked quite a few interesting questions about Spore. Read the full interview here. There will be no Spore 2. Spore will be looked at as a platform, and hopefully not turn into an explansion-machine like the Sims franchise.

Spore will be released in Europe September 5. and in North Americe September 7. If you still haven’t decided if this is the game for you, I recommend checking out the Spore Creature Creator. I’m quite sure you will make up your mind after playing a bit with that.

The first prototype is called ParticleMan and simulates gravity and attraction of particles in a cloud. Together with particles, you can place gravity wells and particle guns to make black holes or a star system. If you have a bit of time free, and don’t have to make another creature with the Spore Creature Creator, you should definitly check out ParticleMan. You can download it here, and read more about it here.

There will also be a collector’s edition of Spore, called Galactic Edition, which will include some DVDs about Spore, a large handbook and a poster.

For large eyebrows you should use the Hearbear ears. A less complex tip is to use a reference if you are trying to copy a real creature, like a picture or something.

Check out all the tips here, and check also out the tutorials they’ve added for build mode, paint mode and test drive.

I can’t imagine how happy the developers are for this. It means enormous amounts of custom content for all of us to enjoy when we start playing around with the full games. In addition to the creatures, which is of course important, there will be cars and space ships. I can’t start to imagine all the creativity that will flow with this game. The example I’ve posted here is a creature influenced by Bender from Futurama. Have fun with Spore. You can find all creatures shared on Sporepedia.

I’ve made a few creatures now, which is a lot of fun. You can make them dance, run, walk, breed, be happy or sad and so on, and the creatures are impressively lifelike. I tried a few quite twisted creatures, and they all came out great.

One creature I’m sure many of you will be making is dragons, and that is what you see on the picture. My first dragon called “Epic Dragoon”. Lame, I know, but hey, it’s the first day of playing around with it. I’ve not focused much on the stats we see in the creator, but I will come back with more information as soon as I’ve played around with it more or found more information.

Have fun with the Spore Creature Creator, which you can buy or download here.