[:plant:] Spore some sugar on me

Since I'm not sure what this is going to be released to I started it here.

Has anyone heard about this game? I just recently saw a video about it and I must say it looks really promising. The fact alot of things are calculated and done on the fly is pretty impressive.

The video I mean would be this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...559198&q=spore

The site for it is here: http://spore.ea.com/

I think that little flash intro pretty much sums up what the game is. I love that I can create any kind of life I want. That the life evolves and progresses based on the choices I make. Then how the whole world and the personalities and ways the life acts is all made up on the spot based on what I have done.

I already have lots of ideas I would love to try out in this game. The life I would create. It would also be interesting to see how my lifeforms interact with other players creations.

Like, a big cat with 5 legs and tentacles. :D that feeds on mutated dogs even. And when I can get into space I would make a dog planet. Then make my new cat overlords blow the planet into dust. <3

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Spore is set to be released for the Windows PC platform.

Wright's Spore is the only game thus far to approach procedural generation (basically "on-the-fly" content generation) on a large scale level. It's very, very exciting and I, personally, can't wait for this game to be released.

There's been many games that have employed a similar "unique-to-every-player" technique, like Diablo, but no such games have been truly that. They've simply been driven on a linear basis with triggers to initiate the variance between each time the game is played through; one could easily duplicate a series of the quests they take on in Diablo. If I'm understanding how Spore's worlds are generated correctly, I suspect it would be very difficult to do the exact same things everytime you start a new game.

Suffice it to say, it's a rather interesting looking game.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I want to know more information before I commit myself into buying Spore, but from the stuff I heard about so far, it looks like it's going to be a hit. Besides, it's from Will Wright. I love the SimCity and Sims series.

What is best thing about Spore? I think it's the fact that you can visit other worlds and see creatures that other people made. It's like a multiplayer game but in singleplayer.

How ya doing, buddy?

Here's the full version of that video, it's about an hour long and includes extra commentary and such at the start: http://meyermike.com/sporevid/GDC-Spore.avi
It's about 360 megs.

But yes, this game looks just bizzare. I really don't know what to make of it, but I do want to try it out to see what it's like. The concept is pretty unique, and the features sound very fun (especially the previously mentioned "massively singleplayer online" mode). I really hope it's executed well, because it's a game type that can really have some pretty interesting gameplay.

Oh, and it should be mentioned that these videos are from the Game Developers Conference 2005, so they're rather old.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I think I just read in EGM or on IGN that they may port it to...a handheld. The DS, I think. When 900 years old you reach, think as well, you will not, hmm?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Basically, a next-generation E.V.O., it looks like it'll be amusing to play for a couple of hours, but, like pretty much all of his games it seems like I'll get bored fairly quick.

Still, it looks interesting. I like how the planet looks when zoomed out into space. The "clay" look is awesome.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

If the execution is as good as the concept, I'll be all over this game. Will Wright has a pretty good track record of knowing what he's doing. Nevertheless, I'm going to wait for some user reviews before taking a look at it.

I wonder what they'll do to filter online users from the inevitible penis monsters and KKK men? There's a quote I heard attributed to Richard Garriott: "If you give players the ability to create their own content, the very first thing they'll do is spell 'fuck'." People are both vulgar and uncreative, so some sort of peer review is going to be necessary before they just let you psot your creations willy nilly.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Monkey King

I wonder what they'll do to filter online users from the inevitible penis monsters and KKK men? There's a quote I heard attributed to Richard Garriott: "If you give players the ability to create their own content, the very first thing they'll do is spell 'fuck'." People are both vulgar and uncreative, so some sort of peer review is going to be necessary before they just let you psot your creations willy nilly.

I don't know if those kind of people are the kind you would want to visit, you know? Just like I don't let just anyone visit me in Animal Crossing: Wild World, I guess, just friends that I know won't immediately start chopping down all my trees.

Anyway this looks really exciting. Conceptually, it reminds me strongly of Sim Life (which, all things considered, makes perfect sense really).

Similarly to that game, the graphics don't exactly wow me. But I think it'll be a lot of fun hopefully, and it's definitely one of those games that made me upgrade my PC, along with Oblivion and Supreme Commander.

I don't know about converting this to the DS. I suppose the interface would work (point and click, right?), but it doesn't seem to me like the DS can really handle the game's point. Just seems like a ridiculous rumour to me, to be honest... But who knows!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Monkey King

I wonder what they'll do to filter online users from the inevitible penis monsters and KKK men?

4chan's /v/ voiced the same, uh, "concern".

Originally Posted by 4chan

I just thought of something. Are there going to be moderators for content?

Let's say your entire race's architecture is various obviously penis shaped buildings. That architecture is going to be beamed to thousands of other computers across the globe, just waiting to be stumbled upon.

And seriously, what 4channer isn't going to make a humanoid creature with a huge, prehensile penis topped with a claw? Won't that be fun to stumble upon.

4chan Never fails to amuse.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Regarding offensive races, I don't doubt that there will be some sort of mechanism for moderating what races are in and what are out. They would be silly to just let ANYTHING in to everyone's games.

I'm very excited about Spore, mostly for the awesome technologies it introduces. Almost everything in that game is procedural; procedural textures, procedural animation, everything. Holy shit, basically. It just blows my mind that it can figure out from the skeletal structure how something should walk. And they said archeology would never be useful

One question, though: Does anyone know if there will be a Mac version? All of Wright's previous games under Maxis, and The Sims, have been released for Mac, so, here's hoping Mr. Wright doesn't forsake us Mac users.

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Yeah, I kind of missed the point about this game (but it IS very similar to Sim Life), but now that I watched this video, I am completely sold. This is looking brilliant.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Didn't the video say that the worlds that are downloaded to you and the things you can buy are based on the worlds you create? So unless you're creating penis like buildings you're not going to get penis worlds. >.>

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Yes the game does look interesting, a bit boring though >_>

I was speaking idiomatically.

A lot of the development philosophy that man expounds on is what Nintendo have basically been practicing for years.

How ya doing, buddy?

This game sounds like a dream for those who enjoy sandbox experiences. My main concern, however, is what sort of PC you're going to need to run all this stuff. In the video he keeps mentioning that all the content is being generated progressively (actually I forget the word he uses) which means your CPU is probably going to be doing more work than it's had to do in a game since the invention of the graphics card. And I'm guessing you're going to need a lot of free space available on your hard drive for all the downloaded content.

FELIPE NO

Procedural is the word you're looking for I think, that's what Will Wright was saying on how the world/creatures are rendered.

I think it will run fine on any normal/mid range pc, seeing as they are targetting this game for the masses and it's not really something for a hardcore gamer, like some fps's are doing. From what i've seen from the video it's not really graphic heavy but most power will be needed indeed for the procedural rendering of the animations /actions of your and other's creatures, but still that will be optimised for most computers, I hope.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Echolyn, your text is near-nigh impossible to read. >_>

I've seen the extra long video, and it looks pretty spiffy. However, I'm having second thoughts about getting it now, since there is an RTS element at one point in the game. I for one totally SUCK in RTS games, and I'm afraid it'd be too frustating for me to continue playing it when I get it. Even simple RTSs are too tough for me : /

I guess I'll just stick to Sims and SimCity.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

oh cmon, a part that will take you 30 min to clear ruins it all for you? the entire game is made so everyone can play it and it's not even a rts, it's scaled down to getting simple buildings and maybe sending some things to shoot something.

no homo

Originally Posted by IGN

Now, when players create objects themselves, while their own stuff is being uploaded, other things will be downloaded to populate the environment based on the creature they've created or choices they've made. For example, after creating a creature, the game will functionally search for other creatures that can be placed in the environment to fill out a functional ecosystem with creatures of the appropriate strengths and habits.

The game will choose from the huge share of content provided by what will undoubtedly be a very large player base to fill out the necessary content. More importantly to many of us, Spore will allow anyone to add any players of the game they like, whether that's family or just some crazy dude they saw had cool stuff on a website somewhere, to a friends list. At that point, the game will pull first from content provided by friends on the list, but only up until it doesn't make sense for the game.

While functional matching is one thing, the game will also attempt to match created content aesthetically. This means players will be able to go into the catalog and pick styles that they'd like to have used and the server will accordingly choose others that roughly fit this aesthetic style and download them to the game as well.


Maxis is really hoping that this will help to sort through the thousands of pieces of crap that will undoubtedly be uploaded into the servers. While they're trying to pull the level of quality for custom creations from where it is now in games like The Sims by providing great tools, there's still going to be some people that just have no eye for quality work.

I know a bunch of people were wondering about the whole "penis architecture" aspect of the downloadable content, so it's nice that there will be filters in place based on player's choice and creature compatibility.

Apparently creature downloads are about 10K, and they hope to reduce that to 2 or 3K when all is said and done, so you won't be burning a whole lot of bandwidth just to play a single player game.

My concern right now is the kind of bugs that might spring up as a function of putting all these different gameplay types into one package. Whatever the case, I think this is a game I'll have to preorder.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

This game concept butt-raped my mind. It was awesome.

I'm definitely getting this. I'm usually a fan of more structured games, but this actually does customization WELL for a change. Highly interested.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Quote:

Posted by Skexis
Apparently creature downloads are about 10K, and they hope to reduce that to 2 or 3K when all is said and done, so you won't be burning a whole lot of bandwidth just to play a single player game.

Granted, all the heavy lifting is being done by the program itself, so you only need a small range of variables to tell the game what your critters look like. Still, if the actual data is going to be that small, they might be reining in attempts to lovingly craft penis-shaped buildings by setting a practical limit to how much "sculpting" you can do.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I rather hope that they are going to allow all kinds of sculpting. In the best case they are downplaying the filesize by using 'ideal' situations they've cooked up. This is one time that I hope the developers are trying to mislead us.

Either way, this and Supreme Commander are the only things I hope to see in action at E3.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Looks like there's a new video of spore out and about on the net. Suposedly an unedited video of what will be shown at E3. So I guess we can expect new information on Spore at E3 soon.

Link to video > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHaulHxmO4A

FELIPE NO

I want to try and make a planet of Hypnotoads!!!!

Been eagerly awaiting this game since i saw the video of it some time ago.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I am going to do my best to make a race of Spathi.

What I'm wondering about the most at this point is what choices there are in your species' personality etc. Like, if you play a cowardly creature and run from anything that is remotely dangerous in the early stages of the game, will this make your future creatures have similar AI? That aspect of the game will be something I want to know about.

Jam it back in, in the dark.