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Spore (2008 video game)

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Spore
Spore logo
Developer(s)Maxis
Publisher(s)EA Games
Designer(s)Will Wright
Platform(s)Windows only confirmed[1], PSP, DS, mobile phones, Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 possible.[2]
ReleaseTBA (see below)
Genre(s)Simulation
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]

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.

Release date

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.[4] 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.[5] Many retailers have listed specific release dates; for example EBgames.com lists the release date as June 2007.[6] Amazon.co.uk lists the release date as January 1st 2007. Play.com lists the release date as March 2nd 2007.[7] 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

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:

  1. Tide pool phase, similar to Pac-Man
  2. Creature phase, Diablo
  3. Tribal phase, Populous
  4. City phase, SimCity
  5. Civilization phase, Risk and Civilization
  6. 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.

Tide pool phase

File:Sporescreen.jpg
The tide pool stage is the first stage of the game.

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 a currently unknown objective is achieved, 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.

Creature phase

File:Spore video game screeble screen.jpg
The creature phase brings more factors into account, as shown by the user interface.

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 currently playing player's world.

The creature phase begins under water. The appearance of the player's creature is based on the microbe the player created in the tide pool phase. The basic goal is the same: 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. Once the player's creature evolves in the creature phase, the fins may (optionally) be replaced by legs and feet, provided the player has collected a sufficient amount of DNA points, which allows the creature to move onto land.

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.

Tribal 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.[8] 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.

City phase

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

File:Spore video game civ phase screen.jpg
The civilization phase has the player developing many cities such as this.

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.

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.

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.

Space phase

File:Spore video game space phase screen.jpg
The space phase opens up the whole galaxy to the player.

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 player may terraform and colonize uninhabitable planets with special tools that are purchased with credits (water tool, volcano tool, etc.)
  • 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").

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).

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.

Other elements of gameplay

Editors

File:Spore(videogame) creature editor.jpg
After molding their creature's body to the desired shape, players can add parts like eyes, hands, and feet to it.

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 (ie;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 amount of textures, colors, and patterns. After the player feels their creature is complete, it can be tested in a small enclosed area.

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.

Procedural generation

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"[9] 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.

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".

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".[10] He maintains a website[1] with demonstration of procedural planet generation and a simulation of dynamic atmospheric scattering.

Wright noted that he hired a handful of demoscene programmers and artists because of their familiarity with procedural generation.

"Massively single-player"

Wright calls the game a "massively single-player online game"[citation needed]. 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.

Development

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[11] and Spore: Preproduction Through Prototyping[12]. A video released on YouTube [13] 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.

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".

The game has currently been in development for five years and cost thirty million US dollars [citation needed].

Influenced by demoscene

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.

Technologies

Main article: Interactive skeleton-driven simulation

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.

Awards

At E3 2005, the game won the following Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best Original Game, Best PC Game, and Best Simulation Game.[14] 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

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.[15]

References

  1. ^ Exeprime (September 8 2006). "Spore Refuses To Invade Nintendo Wii (At Least For Now)". playfuls.com. Retrieved 2006-09-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Kent, Steven (2006-05-11). "Breakfast with Will Wright". GameSpy. Retrieved 2006-06-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month=, |curly=, |accessyear=, and |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ 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)
  4. ^ "Spore Q&A - The Creator Speaks". Gamespot. August 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-10.
  5. ^ "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)
  6. ^ "Spore". EBgames.com. GameStop. Retrieved 2006-06-12. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month=, |curly=, |accessyear=, and |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ ""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)
  8. ^ Gaming Steve tribal phase information
  9. ^ 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)
  10. ^ Sean O'Neil. "Resume". Retrieved 2006-06-19.
  11. ^ GDC 2006 Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore
  12. ^ GDC 2006 Spore: Preproduction Through Prototyping
  13. ^ YouTube E3 2006 video footage
  14. ^ "2005 Winners". gamecriticsawards.com. Retrieved 2006-06-19.
  15. ^ Your Own Spore Figurine, For A Fee?

Demonstration videos

Selected fan sites


Template:SimUniverse

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