We have a Spore thread

[Venkman]

I couldn't find one to necro, but Slashdot linked to a pretty good GameSpot review of the D.I.C.E. summit presentation about Spore given by Will Wright and his team.

My personal interest in Spore is not really in doing Second Life right (with a good UI, for example). Rather, I'm very curious to see whether the vaunted level of customization they want to achieve is something you can access right away (ala CoH character customization) or is locked behind countless years of grinding.

Basically, is it a game or a world? With all this talk of abilities and features, I want to see what the user experience is moment by moment. Maybe GDC? Maybe AGC?

Some stuff that stuck out:

A brief introduction by Wright revealed that creating Spore was not a simple straight line. Developing what Wright had in mind for the game called on a flood of ideas and approaches. In fact, only about 10 percent of the ideas that were seriously considered for the game will actually end up in the final version.

After a slide came up showing an X-Wing from Star Wars, Wright said that they can't ship the game with Star Trek's Enterprise in it, but they want the user to be able to build it.

"It's pretty satisfying to fly around in your X-Wing and blow up The Enterprise," said Quigley.

"You can have an interstellar war between the Care Bears and the Klingons," said Wright, to a chorus of laughter.

However, the lesson learned was that too much open-endedness can be a bad thing and that sometimes some favorite ideas have to get the axe in order to make the overall game that much better.

Last up was Hutchinson, who lead the design of Spore's overall gameplay. "We challenged one of the core rules of game design: Don't mix genres."

But that's exactly where Hutchinson sees Spore at its strongest. When gamers go from the cellular level to the creature level to the tribal level and onward to outer-space exploration, it's aimed to give gamers the feeling of the power of 10 by pulling their perspective further and further out.

[Soln]

bring it!

yeah seriously.  There's an obvious end game of species vs species (genocide?).  How long does it take to get there?  And, how does one find other players to fight?  There's no persistent "galaxy" to inhabit, right?

[Hutch]

I think you couldn't find a thread to necro because they're all over in the PC/Console forum.

Spore is technically going to be a single-player game, although you'll have access to content created by other players.

And this is still numero uno on my looking-forward-to list, so I am compelled to post in all Spore threads

[Merusk]

I'm still not convinced that this game won't suffer from too much breadth, not enough depth.   Mashing together 5-6 different game types into one isn't going to allow a lot of complex development of things.

The online component is going to give folks nightmares, too, as hobbiest 'having fun' types get devoured by min-maxers' world-destroying penises of death.

[Xerapis]

The only thing this game is going to suffer from is being played WAY too much.

Spore is the one game I'm not ashamed to cheer for loudly and proudly.

If it fails, I will be fetal in a corner in the dark for at least a month.

[Samwise]

The online component is going to give folks nightmares, too, as hobbiest 'having fun' types get devoured by min-maxers' world-destroying penises of death.

I suspect that the game will ensure that any player-controlled species, no matter how poorly evolved, can at least hold its own against any NPC species.

[Venkman]

I think you couldn't find a thread to necro because they're all over in the PC/Console forum.

Spore is technically going to be a single-player game, although you'll have access to content created by other players.

And this is still numero uno on my looking-forward-to list, so I am compelled to post in all Spore threads

I haven't really folllowed Spore too much. Will Wright or no Will Wright, any concept has to survive development and first contact with actual players. Having been burned too much, I am merely cautiously optimistic until there's something installed on my computer.

So the "single player" thing is something of a surprise, particularly in light of the PvP-esque comments they made at DICE. What's that all about? So you're playing a largely Black & White like game with SL-level of customization and can bring in the creations of others to have mock battles if that's your thing?

If so then yea, this should be moved to PC/Console. And next time I'll extend my search beyond the one sub-forum I live at :)

[Yoru]

The way it works is that your creations are uploaded to a central Spore server (opt-in, I believe), and stuff for you to encounter are also downloaded from this central server. They're seeding it with a bunch of stuff created by the in-house Spore team, but after the few months they expect it to be primarily populated by player content.

Supposedly they have some fitness-matching algorithms that will load in things that are both appropriate for you to encounter without being too hard or too easy (although in several demos Will has had to have his creature run away from some giant fanged monstrosity, so there's probably a pretty wide range being considered).

Further, it's been stated that you can have some sort of friends list, and their content will be given priority over random people's stuff. Precisely what level of control you get is unknown. I would be unsurprised if it had options to only use content created by yourself/friends/Maxis.

Oh, and moved to PC/C, because it certainly does belong here.

[Morat20]

I haven't really folllowed Spore too much. Will Wright or no Will Wright, any concept has to survive development and first contact with actual players. Having been burned too much, I am merely cautiously optimistic until there's something installed on my computer.

So the "single player" thing is something of a surprise, particularly in light of the PvP-esque comments they made at DICE. What's that all about? So you're playing a largely Black & White like game with SL-level of customization and can bring in the creations of others to have mock battles if that's your thing?

If so then yea, this should be moved to PC/Console. And next time I'll extend my search beyond the one sub-forum I live at :)

First, it's original title was to be "Sim Everything" -- so it's not any form of multiplayer game. There is no multiplay mode. It's entirely single player. (Spore is a much better name, though).

You've more or less hit in terms of gameplay. As you play the game, your "world" is populated with either the creatures shipped with the game (tons and tons) or from creatures snagged off of the Spore servers -- which will also take your creatures at various levels of development.

As an example: You finally make it out of the sea and onto the land. The Spore Engine has to populate the land portion of the game with prey and predators -- a good variety. It will grab those off the Spore servers, downloading other Spore player's creatures at roughly the right difficulty to populate your ecosystem. Or when you get into space -- you'll find other civilizations, lifted entirely from other Spore players end-game civilizations.

Customization starts with the "Creature" -- from single-celled to sentiance. Then vehicles and buildings, and finally terraforming. The game is very, very, very sandboxy. The "multiplay" consists entirely of the fact that your creatures -- and all the buildings, vehicles, and motivations, etc -- can be packed very tiny and shared among other Spore players. (There's supposed to be some sort of rating system to prevent Legions of Penis People from populating your world...)

Massively single-player. Not an MMORPG in any way, shape, or form. It's also the first game I've been seriously anticipating in a LONG time.

[Venkman]

Thanks Yoru and Morat. I think this might be the first game that, to me, actually matches the "massively singleplayer" moniker. Makes perfect sense now.

It's massive in the sense that the world is built by other players. It's not in the sense that those other players can't screw you in realtime. That seems a great compromise to capture the widest possible offering. EA has learned quite a bit from Sims vs TSO. Good stuff.

It being a singleplayer game, I care much less now about how much customization is locked behind a grind, because there probably won't be much of one. Interested still in the sort of game mechanic they plan to put between player and customization UI, but this route gives them a lot more latitude to tweak that.

Which console? Xbox 360 would be the easy guess given how XBLA works and some similarities to Viva Pinata.

[stray]

Lol...Second Life.

It's just a Will Wright game. You should know what to expect.

[Morat20]

It being a singleplayer game, I care much less now about how much customization is locked behind a grind, because there probably won't be much of one. Interested still in the sort of game mechanic they plan to put between player and customization UI, but this route gives them a lot more latitude to tweak that.

Basically, it works like this (at least in single-cell and creature mode -- not sure how it changes in tribe and Civ-versions):

You = Single-celled amoeba. You run around (Pac-man style) in a 2-D world. You eat food, avoid getting eaten. You eat enough, you "reproduce" and can modify your structure (perhaps add a spear-like node that lets you puncture and eat other food sources, or defend from other predators). You can save up for bigger break throughs, or work gradually -- supposedly modification is huge and very intuitive.

Once you get complex enough, you go to Three-D water world or move onto land (Creature mode) -- same idea, except it's a bit more Diablo-esque. (Run around, eating food, defending youself, that sort of thing). You lay eggs, have to defend the eggs -- survival and reproduction earns you access to the editor to "evolve" your creature. You save up enough, you can unlock the Big Brain O'Sapience and move to the tribal mode -- RTS-style.

In that mode, I think you unlock new tools or such -- and once it's complex enough, you move to city mode (Populus style). Your editors design buildings and vehicles. You take over the world or get complex enough, you get the UFO -- Galaxy-Mode. Once there, you get access to all the editors and can play in the big sandbox.

Meet other civilizations, terraform planets, collect creatures and drop them someplace to fight it out and evolve, colonize the universe, etc.....

The idea is to start off simple and gradually get complex -- Pacman -> Diablo-> RTS -> Populous -> Sim-Galaxy. The "tutorial" for the sandbox (Galaxy mode) is the entire game. You learn all the editors and how to use them.

[bhodi]

I'll play it if I can create either a borg-like entity or grey goo.

[Morat20]

Oh -- forgot to add. Supposedly the way you play your Creature in Creature and Tribal mode influences them throughout the game. You can make social creatures, militant and violent creatures, etc. Pragmatically, it's used to determine internal "bonuses" and trigger archtypal playstyles for others encountering your creatures.

[Sky]

Spore is the only game in a loooong time to make me a gooey fanboi. I have to make myself not check sites for any spore updates. I don't want to know anything more until it's done. The early tech demos were amazing. Amazing like I haven't seen in a lot of games, ever. The first time he pulls back from a close third person view, pulling away from the planet as you see the atmosphere's thin shell, the rotating planets around the sun, back to the full galaxy view and starts doing SETI-style searching...wow.

I hope the gameplay can live up to the promise of the early demos, but at the very least it should be a fun and wacky game.

If Molyneux or someone like that were making it, I'd be scared. But I still trust Will to deliver a great game.

There was also a cool thing in one presentation: the way you design your units gives them attributes. Make something with armor plated hide, good defenses but slow, automagically. When you leave the editor, a 'card' is created like an M:tG card. They actually hope to make a game based just on that. And everything is procedurally generated from a few kiloytes of information, so it's very net-friendly, lots of streaming in the background (and room for a lot of stuff on the shipping medium). So these cards for your critters and tanks and whatnot form your Spore-o-pedia reference guide, too. I'm going to shut up now.

[WayAbvPar]

This is THE game that will make me upgrade to a new PC, Vista bullshit DRM or not.

[Morat20]

This is THE game that will make me upgrade to a new PC, Vista bullshit DRM or not.

If this game is half as good as it's potential -- fuck, if it's 10% as good as it's potential -- it'll be worth a new machine. With anyone but Wil doing it, I'd say it didn't have a chance in hell of even coming close to the hype. With Wil? I'm cautiously optimistic that it'll make 25 to 50% of what it "could be". If for no other reason than it appears he's actually got the time and budget he wanted.

And even if it sucks, I might buy it. I'll reward daring and falling short over Generic Clone XXXX anytime.

[Yoru]

Basically, it works like this (at least in single-cell and creature mode -- not sure how it changes in tribe and Civ-versions):

(stuff)

Nitpick. From what I recall of the articles and demos, there's an interstitial phase between getting the UFO and getting the FTL drive that lets you go to other star systems, where you learn about the UFO tools and such by colonizing/terraforming/modifying the other planets in your home system.

But yes, my personal plan is to build a new PC about 1-2 months before Spore comes out, but it looks like it will run in "okay" mode on my current 2-year-old box.

[Sky]

It's a leading reason I'm building a new pc, too. Hopefully it'll run good given my resolution limitation of 720p. Parts should be in today and tomorrow!

[CmdrSlack]

Grr.  Lack of a solid release date makes saving for a new machine tough.  I have no idea whether to expect a the cash to build a caddy or a kia.

[Morat20]

Grr.  Lack of a solid release date makes saving for a new machine tough.  I have no idea whether to expect a the cash to build a caddy or a kia.

Given the creator, the "within the year" release date, and the stylistic way the game is being done -- I expect even my two year old computer will run it just fine. It's not really looking like it's going to require all the shinies in the world to run.

[Samwise]

I'm building my new computer now (using Morphiend's parts list) and figure it should handle Spore just fine.  If not, I'll add another video card.

[Sky]

OMG USE MAH LIST!!one!

 

[CmdrSlack]

Grr.  Lack of a solid release date makes saving for a new machine tough.  I have no idea whether to expect a the cash to build a caddy or a kia.

Given the creator, the "within the year" release date, and the stylistic way the game is being done -- I expect even my two year old computer will run it just fine. It's not really looking like it's going to require all the shinies in the world to run.

Shhh.  I'm posting plausible deniability for my benefit in case ye olde wife debates our "need" for a new machine.  My circa SWG-launch budget buy computer thanks you.

[Morfiend]

I'm building my new computer now (using Morphiend's parts list) and figure it should handle Spore just fine.  If not, I'll add another video card.

If that machine doesnt, Spore has some MAJOR problems (or is delayed until 2012+)

[Venkman]

Can I get a copy of that parts list, and a price? I bought my computer in April 2002. While a great deal of maintenance and a few upgrades have kept it working pretty well (plus a specific focus on MMOs, where the smart ones go the lcd-approach), it's time for a new one.

[Samwise]

I'm building my new computer now (using Morphiend's parts list) and figure it should handle Spore just fine.  If not, I'll add another video card.

If that machine doesnt, Spore has some MAJOR problems (or is delayed until 2012+)

That's pretty much my thought.  I expected my GeForce 3 to be able to handle Doom 3 just fine (because that's what they were running the early demos on, supposedly), and that didn't work out too well, but that's only because Doom 3 didn't actually get released until several years after that.

Darniaq, you definitely need to get out of the MMO board more often.     Here's the list.  It ran me about $2k after adding a Barracuda HD and a copy of XP Pro (since I'm going to be keeping my "old" PC operational and giving it to the GF as a giant step up from her PIII) but doesn't include peripherals like mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.

[Yoru]

New Popular Science interview. Includes photos.

Mmm, planetary rings...

[Sky]

Can I get a copy of that parts list, and a price? I bought my computer in April 2002. While a great deal of maintenance and a few upgrades have kept it working pretty well (plus a specific focus on MMOs, where the smart ones go the lcd-approach), it's time for a new one.

Mine, $2500: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=9025.msg266406#msg266406

Morph's, $1700: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=9025.msg258608#msg258608

[Venkman]

Thanks!

[Yegolev]

The in-progress XP4 project : http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pCb3jLr8uzxACsWVnK_v7Mw

It changes over time as prices change and money is found in the sofa, so the final config will probably change.

[Yoru]

Will Wright's Spore keynote from SXSW.

[Samwise]

Will Wright's Spore keynote from SXSW.

Splendid.

[Samwise]

Spore is the version of the Sims for science and sci-fi geeks. It's a niche game.

I don't think Spore is going to be a "niche game" any more than Legos are a niche toy.  I think it's going to have tremendous appeal to people who see games as toys and aren't afraid to play with toys.  /me waves.

People who think games are Serious Business and aren't worth the time if they don't have a narrative probably won't like Spore.  But you know what?  Those people are a much narrower niche than people who play games just because they're fun.

I won't deny that Spore is a niche game because ANYTHING is "niche" for sufficiently large values of niche.  All games appeal to some particular subset of sentient entities that you can label a "niche".  Including wild successes like The Sims and WoW.  I just hate seeing the term used dismissively.

[Lt.Dan]

I find it surprising that people (in this jaded community) are getting excited about a game that hasn't been released/demo'd/seen.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Spore be a great game because the concepts and gampeplay have fantastic potential.  But, there's still a lot that could go wrong - *cough* grindy shit to unlock the next gameplay style *cough*.