Video Games

Will Wright, creator of The Sims, has been demonstrating his newest project behind closed doors at E3. It’s beyond anything you can imagine, allow us to explain…

Where next for Will Wright (Sim City, The Sims)? After creating the most popular simulation games known to mankind, he’s decided to venture beyond planet earth and into the stars but before all that, Spore invites you to create your own species and evolve to become a civilisation of sorts capable of reaching the Space Age.

Huddled before a screen the size of a wall, a small crowd of journalists, retailers and marketeers were entertained by Wright as though a class of small children. There were giggles and outbursts of appreciative laughter as the secrets of Spore gradually unfolded before our eyes.

Spore is managed from a series of Editors that allow you to create new additions to the game, quickly and easily, as though you were an artist at Pixar but in a fraction of the time. The first available Editor is the Creature Editor, starting with a plain lump with a vertebrae you can change its shape and size by dragging it around on the outside or changing the length and curve of the vertebrae within. This takes seconds, as does the process of dragging suitable arms, legs, eyes, and mouth etc from a selection at the left-hand side of the screen. The kind of mouth will dictate whether your creature is a carnivore or herbivore for example, its voice could make it sound fearsome or ridiculous.

Once the basic, monotone creature is built you can add texture to it – fur, scales, stripes, dappled skin, there appeared to be limitless possibilities. Again, all very easily achieved and truly looking like something you might see in a Pixar (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars) movie.

Having named his creation a Screeble, Wright moved on to show how this thing might survive in the wild by exiting the Creature Editor and entering the Creature Game. Its first task was to find some food. As a carnivore this entailed finding animals small enough to overcome, however a group of tiny pig-like beings demonstrated how some species will work together as a group to protect themselves from aggressors.

Success in the field gives you evolution points to develop your creation, Will made his comedic Screeble appear slightly more intimidating by darkening its hue, exchanging the eyes for more piercing peepholes and overall making it larger.

Next we were treated to a preview of the mating ritual used by Spore’s creatures to increase their number. Love hearts bloomed over a crowd of Screebles, and soon after a couple of them, rubbed against each other in a way that could make you blush. The resultant eggs needed to be protected from scavengers.

Although you have already created your species as a full-grown entity, when babies emerge there is a whole new challenge. Important life skills are learned from the beginning, and social traits can be nurtured to have them hunt/play as a group. As with real life, babies learn from their parents’ actions. If you’re dumb and walk into danger with no sense of smarts, they will do too.

From these simple beginnings Spore begins adding Editors for you to create e.g. huts for a basic civilisation through Buildings, Cities, and Vehicle Editors as your world progresses.

With his city of Screebles in place, Wright moved on to demonstrate how they would enter the Space Age. A UFO can be designed from scratch or chosen from a menu. However you choose to come by one, at its maiden voyage the cities celebrate with fireworks. Kind of cute and marking a huge turning point, because from here your aim is to seek out new worlds to make habitable.

From here on Spore gets incredibly whacky though still within reach of most people to manage as a game. The UFO’s abduction ray is used to haul creatures from your planet to take to the next, like Noah’s Ark. Not every planet is immediately suitable – some resemble earth in its volcanic state for example. However these can be adapted using such tools as Ice Meteors that create oceans upon impact. Such powerful devices can also be used to wipe out civilisations that you don’t particularly like.

Assuming that you find a place not unlike your home planet, the idea is to beam down your native livestock and see how they fare with the locals. In the case of our demonstration with Will Wright, the silly little Screeble was eaten alive!

Space exploration is encouraged by having every planet in the Spore universe hiding some benefit. What appeared to be a barren moon, for example, had a small alien artifact to beam onboard the UFO – although what it was, and how it would affect the game wasn’t revealed. Although the locals of the first planet we visited proved hostile, there is every chance that they might also worship you as a god if they are less advanced. But if you upset them by zapping civilians with a heat ray, the planet leaders will proclaim war on you and your kind, resulting in intergalactic warfare… announced but not pursued during Will Wright’s demonstration.

Spore is simply amazing, entertaining and clearly a lot of fun. The best part is that you can share your creations, every animal, building, vehicle and whatever else, with other players. Everything you create is logged as a Trading Card of sorts, with a statistical breakdown of its properties. These can be collected, so if you admire the work of one particular player, you can let the game now so that these will be added to your stack each time that player tries something new.

Spore is a mind-boggling project, sharing its fascination of endless experimentation combined with our basic desire for world, and ultimately universal domination. Whether it will hold the same appeal as the urban theme projects created by Will Wright only time will tell. We love it.