Spore: All you need to know! SPORE POST PART 1 Overview of stages: Cell: Often compared to the original Pac-Man in it's basic method of functioning. Actually described by Will Wright as "...a very analogue-fluid version of Pac-Man..." at the 2005 Game Developer's Conference (GDC). What happens is the player starts out with a basis for a creature then begins consuming certain other bacteria or life within the area to increase in size. Once a certain size is reached the player can add parts to the creature to change it's abilities and what it can eat. This section has been described by Alex Hutchinson as "...sort of like a main tutorial for the game..." It is unclear as of yet whether or not this phase will have a direct impact on the rest of the game concerning your creature. Creature: This phase is once your creature becomes large enough in the cell phase and develops to the point of further expansion of it's possible area by a massive expanse. It is unclear as to whether or not the creature will still be able to take place underwater as recent suspicions dictate. This phase allows you to truly begin customizing and creating your creature. You take direct control of one member of your species who you "are" for the duration of the creature phase. At this point in the game, DNA points become essential to upgrading your creature, or simply changing what it looks like. DNA points are earned from killing other creatures as well as "...various other means..." which have not been revealed or elaborated on as of late. DNA points are the currency of Spore in how they are spent to upgrade your creature. An average estimate as of late shows that one creature killed equals to approximately 100 DNA points. The cost of the parts varies and therefor cannot be a fixed amount so I cannot tell you how much everything costs. Each time you enter the editor and change something about your creature it goes to the next generation of the creature in which the improvements, or changes, you applied are in position. You begin each generation as a baby rather than a full grown adult of the species. This encourages the social aspect in how you must then hunt as a pack in order to do any significant damage. Whenever you gain DNA points, a circle around a brain icon fills. Once it fills approximately four times you can move on to the next phase. Tribal: The creature's appearance and abilities are now set and cannot be changed now as you have moved on from the creature phase. At this point the game goes from being "...a first person eater..." to an RTS in a sense. It has been described as a simplified version of an RTS in that it does not require the skill of a player who is a master at, say, starcraft in order to do well in the phase as the developers are looking to make the game fun and amusing as well as accessible. Now, rather than upgrading your creature you begin upgrading your camp. This is done by small things such as purchasing a camp fire or a spear rack to major things such as upgrading your hut in which your creatures live. Upgrading your hut allows for a larger population and therefor more advanced technology. Once the hut has been upgraded to the appropriate level, you proceed to the next phase of the game. City: The city phase is a more advanced version of tribal in how your population is now larger, your city is now far more complex than your hut and tribal area was and the things you purchase for your city are far different from those in tribal. Little is known about this phase except that the main goal is to maintain the happiness and civil order of your creatures in order to increase the prosperity of your city. Once a certain level is reached the game proceeds to the next phase of the game. Continued in next post.
Re: SPORE POST PART 1 (cont) Civ: This phase entails the struggle of your species to take over the planet you now call home. This can be done in various ways; militarily, diplomatically and culturally. The three ways are quite self-explanatory. Militarily, you conquer the cities which are not under your control. Diplomatically, you make trade and negotiations with the people of other cities in order to achieve peace. Culturally is seldom known as to how you will conquer the planet. At this point in the game you gain access to vehicles as well as, obviously, the vehicle editor. Vehicles are incredibly important as without them the entire game would take much longer at this point for anyone attempting military dominance in how it would mean a slow and arduous battle for cities rather than a quick, decisive battle due to one nation’s superior armoury. Land, air, sea and cultural vehicles can be constructed. The vehicle editor works much the same way as the creature editor. Space: This phase of the game is the main focus of the game in how it is the largest and most comprehensive of the six phases. It is the phase in which you, as a player, have taken over your home planet entirely, via any means necessary, and have decided to begin reaching for the stars. You construct a UFO and embark on finding other life in the galaxy. This is much simpler than you might think as the sliders when the cursor is over a planet tell you what type of life or environment are there. Various tools can be used from the UFO, from weaponry to monoliths. Weaponry comes in many “flavors”, from standard rays which incinerate creatures and other life forms to pulse beans which do the same but also have an impact and explosion crater. There is also what is known as Sporepedia in the sense of a card deck in how all the facts you have discovered about planets and life forms and other things in space are all stored in a database to be easily accessed. Here's a list of sites concerning Spore if you've never heard of it or just want some new info or to see the stuff again. All in one thread! SPORE POST PART 2 Main Site: www.spore.com Information: http://pc.ign.com/articles/617/617441p1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(game) http://www.sporewiki.com/Main_Page http://www.skattertech.com/2006/04/simulation-gaming-06-style/ Videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-262774490184348066 http://uk.media.pc.ign.com/media/735/735340/vids_1.html http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1734727723734486891 Creature Models: http://totalspore.com/images/gallery/may06/creature7.jpg http://www.sg.hu/kep/2005_05/spore1.jpg http://www.joystiq.com/media/2006/03/spore_globe.jpg http://z.about.com/d/compsimgames/1/7/z/G/1/E3-Creature-A.jpg http://www.joystiq.com/media/2006/05/robinwilliamscreature.jpg http://z.about.com/d/compsimgames/1/7/y/G/1/E3_-Creature_I.jpg http://www.spore.com/images/creatures/creature_1.jpg I'll try to add more in time.
Re: SPORE POST PART 3 Q&A Q: Can I make invertebrates A: No, but you can make their skeleton so small that it appears as one Q: What is this coming out for A: Wii, Xbox 360, PS3,Nintendo DS,PSP, PC and Mobile Phones are confirmed Q: how big and how small can I make my creatures A: As big as an elephant and as small as a Hamster Q: How many things can I edit? A: In its E3 2006 video it showed 7 editors: Creature, Hut, Building, Vehicle,Flora, Terrain, and UFO. It is unknown if there will be more or if the vehicle and UFO will be one editor or if the Hut and building will be one editor Q: how many stages of the game are there? A: 6 Cell, Creature, Tribal, City, Civ, Space Q: When is it coming out A: 2007 Q: What are the system requirements? A: Will Wright said they will be a little less than The Sims 2 Q: Is there a demo A: Not right now and we dont know if there will be one Q: is this an MMO A: No,but after you finish evolving your creature, it will be uploaded to the official spore site and sent out to other players. Q: Oh so I need an Internet Connection to play? A: No! The game comes with thousands of premade creatures. Q: Couldnt someone make an innappropriate creations? A: Yes, but you can mark their creation and possibly have it taken down Q: Can i make aquatic or flying races? A: Both of these things are uncertain at the moment. Q: In the Space Stage, how many stars and galaxies will there be A:One Galaxy and 500,000stars in it. Q: How many stars will be visible at once? A: 10,000 Q: Does my creature have to eat meat? A: No. Your creature can be carnivorous, herbivorious or omnivorious, depending on the kind of mouth and teeth you give it. Q: Whoa Whoa Whoa. Wont that take like 40 gigabytes of space to hold all that? A: No. This uses Procedural Generating which can compress large files into 1 kb Q: Will there be naming of your creations? A: Yes Q: Will there be weather A: Unknown, but Will Wright said he would like to add it in Q:Will there be bionic arms and legs? A: concept art shows them with it, but it hasn't been confirmed Q: Will my creatures have personality such as warlike or cultural? A: Yes, depending on how you handle them in the Tribal Stage Q: Will there be religion A: Unknown
Re: SPORE POST PART 4 Creature Editor: The core component of the game. The creature editor allows the player to take their existing creature and, using DNA points, upgrade, alter or enhance their creature's abilities, appearance or parts. The creature editor is extremely in-depth and definitely the editor that has been shown the most for obvious reasons. The beginning of the creature editor has so far started off with a torso which you can morph to the shape you wish it to form. The spine or bone structure within the torso can be observed by scrolling the mouse over the section you wish to view. The spine itself can be manipulated and morphed. It can be elongated or shortened to fit the players desire. Once the desired shape is achieved the player can begin attaching the parts he or she wishes to have on their creature. These include a massive array of categories which are essential to the function of the creature though not all are necessary for a creature to work. Parts such as arms and legs can be added, mouth(s) are necessary in however high or low a number desired. Arms, however are not necessary for a creature to function as seen in the original video at GDC 2005 when Will Wright creates his tripod creature and does not give it arms and it still has a way to attack and eat via it's mouth and grasper on the end of it's tail. All parts are arranged in categories such as major limbs (arms and legs), end pieces (hands and feet), senses (ears, mouths, noses) and details as well as many others. Each categories' parts are divided into columns which are unlocked by achieving the appropriate brain level. This is done by acquiring enough DNA points to advance in brain level. Upon beginning the game you will only have access to the first column. By the time the player has reached the fourth brain level all the columns will be available so that there is some limitation to how good a creature you can make right off the bat. This gives an incentive to players to continue their efforts at increasing their brain level apart from simply adding all the parts they wish to have right away after grinding for points in their first generation and adding everything to themselves then having to continue playing with that exact creature for a much longer time in order to reach the highest brain level in order to advance to tribal phase. This gives the player a reward for doing the part of the game and they are then rewarded with the ability to use better parts or to access more parts in total. It is not yet known what parts aside from arms are not necessary, however one could logically assume that since missing parts would gimp one's creature that it would impair their chances of survival in the world if they did so to too many parts.
Re: Thank you. I have posted this on many different forums in order to spread the word about it and it has recieved some good feedback. Thanks for stickying it to the top Josh, that really helps me out. If you have any questions you would like answered concerning the post(s) or anything else concerning Spore please either post a reply here or send me a private message with your question. Thanks again.
