1Up – DarkSpore preview A 2 page preview on DarkSpore which goes in-depth on how the game plays out – a must read! The main carry-over from Spore is the Creature Creator (often described as the Spore’s best feature). Said Creator serves as the underlying technology for every character in the game — whether it’s a player-controlled genetic hero or an A.I.-enemy. In fact, said Creature Creator tech allows for rapid character creation. Lead producer Thomas Vu states, “We can make guys really really fast.” Systems designer Paul Sottosanti adds, “Things that would take three weeks for another company to make — to model and animate properly from the ground up — we skip almost all of that and get a guy into the game in under a day.” One interesting effect: the genetic heroes will be hand-designed by Maxis personnel, but there will be numerous contests for users to use Spore’s Creature Creator to create enemies in the game for Maxis to include (in addition to the enemies created internally). Executive producer Thomas Perry wouldn’t finalize how many or how often these contests would happen, but at least there will be a way for players and fans to contribute to the final game. It might not be the free-for-all procedurally populated madness of Spore (so don’t expect to fight a planet of penis monsters), but this more-gated method might result in better quality. full preview at 1UP
