Comments on: Games For 2008: Spore

By: Spore and Dead Space At SCI-FI London | Rock, Paper, Shotgun: We Never Leave A Bear Behind

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:08:18 +0000

[...] interesting part for us, however, is that Mass Effect, Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, Spore, Boom Blox (Spielberg’s Wii thing), and Dead Space will be playable at the event. Man, [...]

By: Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Still Hoping For That Post-Apocalyptic Robot Versus Monkey Immersive Sim » Blog Archive » Will Wright Versus The Spacemen

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:01:01 +0000

[...] Spore: even after all those troubling delays, it’s still quite possibly the most exciting game of the coming year. When we hear that Will Wright is even demonstrating it to the spaceheads at Nasa, it becomes yet more exciting. Here’s a from-the-hip recording of his presentation, which focuses on the planetary exploration and colonisation aspect of the impending evolve ‘em up: [...]

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:02:22 +0000

Eight phases? When were there eight phases?
Cell, Water Creature, Land Creature, Tribal, City, Civ, Solar System, Galactic?? If that’s the case, I’ll tell you why some were dropped: City and Civ were combined because they’re basically the same thing anyway, and I’m betting having creatures underwater (and their resulting civs) was too hard to implement.
I, too, Have been losing that ZING! that I originally had when I first saw the GDC ’05 vid. But, every time I watch a video, it comes back. Can’t wait to play this game, though I have to.

By: jbrandt

jbrandt — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:32:52 +0000

i once peed next to neil gaiman.

By: Essell

Essell — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:38:24 +0000

“Eek, I just get bad Black & White-esque feelings about this game; a nice idea in search of a game. I do hope I’m wrong.” – Paul Maloney

Like all of Will Wright’s stuff, it’s not a game, it’s a toy. A stupidly interesting, massive toy.

By: Saul

Saul — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:33:31 +0000

Are cartoony graphics still controversial after TF2?

From the trailer, this has extreme potential, but it’s certainly going to require some work to make it actually fun. Good news that they seem to be refining the concept somewhat, as ‘a game that is everything’ is never going to work as a, well… game.

By: Butler`

Butler` — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:02:50 +0000

“I’m still not convinced Wright can make the lightning strike twice. I don’t know why I think that, but I don’t think it’s going to have the same impact as The Sims did.”

Naturally so. The Sims, although successful on so many levels, will mainly be remembered for its commercial success. It has widespread, mainstream appeal and basically kick started the whole ‘user created content’ fad.

Will Spore have that same kind of appeal? Forgive my generalisation, but will 10-15 y/o girls be attracted to making alien organisms as much as real people?

By: Hypocee

Hypocee — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:37:40 +0000

Yeah, cautious optimism here too; I have every expectation of success and I’ll probably be buying it even if it comes out as a flawed tech demo, but there are a few obstacles – mainly that some of the generative stuff, inevitably, is getting bypassed a bit. Admittedly, mostly in games that aren’t themselves released yet – I’m thinking in particular of Subversion‘s city generator, whatever it’s for, and Infinity:TQFE‘s heartstopping solar system zooms.

On the plus side, I’m happy that some more ‘game’ is being inserted in the early stages; this seems like a game wherein we’ll start from the beginning multiple times, and it would be a shame if it was an MMO-tastic grind to build up your creatures.

There is a mild Irony Alert in effect, as a game based around a small team generating art through algorithms based on user input had, at last report, a staff of seventy artists beavering away. Still, providing the thing actually sees release next year I think that’ll be achievement enough.

Questions:
Comparison screenshots: One place to start with the old style might be the Last E3 demo. As far as I can see, there’s a bit of cel shading and they made the eyes wiggly and bigger by default. Not much difference. I’m not crazy about the change, but it’s no dealbreaker.

Build length: At last report, cell-to-space could be done in a couple hours if you so desired.

By: Kast

Kast — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:51:18 +0000

I think ‘cautious optimism’ is called for here. That trailer is very exciting, however. The biggest question is what’s keeping Spore unreleased?

By: Garth

Garth — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:33:45 +0000

“Eek, I just get bad Black & White-esque feelings about this game; a nice idea in search of a game. I do hope I’m wrong.”

I have the exact same feeling. I’m terrified of how much I may hate this game.

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:48:41 +0000

Hmm. I’m trying to think what the three cut stages were. I definately remember there originally being an underwater bit to smooth over transition between amoeba and land monstrosity, but the other two? Hmmm. Hmmmmmm.

As for “relentless barrage of Spore expansions” – that depends whether it appeals to teenagers, houswives, octogenarians and the like in the same way that the Sims did. Does. Whatever.

By: Zeno, Internetographer

Zeno, Internetographer — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:39:15 +0000

How long until a relentless barrage of Spore expansion packs?