From the news desk

Playing Spore @ Maxis Studios

Written on August 24, 2008 by Kyle

On August 22, I got to travel to Maxis Studios at Emeryville, visit other community site owners, top Spore enthusiasts, meet the developers and finally play SPORE.

One of the most awesome parts of community day was being able to play SPORE for myself. The Maxis crew let us play for about 3 hours or so (I kind of lost track of time). I was one of the lucky people who chose a Mac (<3 my apple products)… which consequently meant I was one of the only people who could log into my actual account from the start. That means that all my progress was uploaded to the Sporepedia. You can check out my account here (notice that shiny Spore icon!). This is hardly a review, think of it as a collection of thoughts I had while playing the game.

Creatures

As you can see from the lineage above, I went from the beginning and went as far as I could (about 4/5 through tribal). I actually found it a lot more fun creating my creature in limited blocks than the everything-goes area of the CC. I think one of the coolest things was coming back and seeing a comment from someone on Sporepedia saying “this creature looks like it was just out cell stage! (it was).

It’s also interesting how little non-maxis content shows up throughout the first stages of the game (no one builds simple creatures, just complex ones that show up later on in the game). Even then, the content sharing is obviously an awesome idea when you get to use it in the game. You’ll see creatures from demos, featured creatures, and even some of your own if you’ve got enough content. Nothing like walking up to a herd of CareBears that consequently bash your creature’s skull in.

So much to do

I’ve beat some console games in under 3 hours, and in spore I only went through about half the stages, rushing through on easy mode. The thing that struck me most was just how much there was to do in the game. From collecting parts, exploring, plot, and achievements, this game is going to be playable forever. And I didn’t even get to play in Space for myself (watched Caryl play for a while in our demo).

Great humor

This is probably the first game I’ve ever actually laughed at before. There’s some great cinematics, and just awesome occurrences that happen while you’re playing the game. While playing Tribal, I was cruising along a war path to the next colony, when a UFO came down and stole one of my dudes. I kind of sat there in disbelief for a minute that someone just abducted one of my people. There’s a great mix of completely unexpected events and just sillyness that goes on in the game.

There’s also tons of edge-case type events (try eating something you’re not supposed to, removing eyes on your creature, standing next to steaming piles of…) that give me that warm-fuzzy feeling I haven’t felt since clicking on my grunts in Warcraft II for hours on end to hear them get pissed off and start yelling at me.

Everything just works

Don’t ask me how the geniuses behind the procedural animation did this, but everything just works. Need a creature without arms to throw a spear? Done. How about a winged slug that needs to burn a building down? Done. It’s mind-blowing how fluid everything is. Everything works.

Excellent sound design

I’m kind of a sound design geek, but just playing the creature phase was phenomenal. It really feels like the whole world is alive. From meteor showers that give you the feeling of something bad happening, but you’re not sure what — to creating a living world of dozens of unique creatures.

1. New Vids - Electronic Arts UK Community

   August 24th, 2008

   [...] site creators were invited to Maxis to play the game LadyMpire » Spore Community Day: Game Play Playing Spore @ Maxis Studios - Total Spore __________________ View My [...]

2. Nahtanoj

   August 24th, 2008

   Nice

3. Reptave

   August 24th, 2008

   …

   Wow

4. jlp95

   August 24th, 2008

   Wow. Sounds great. But I can’t run it. :( And I’m not allowed on the forums. :(

   But anyways, your really lucky. You have a sweet creature, btw

5. DemocracyDefende

   August 24th, 2008

   Great looks good. Close encounters lol

6. J-DOG

   August 25th, 2008

   nice i always wondered if something from the space stage would appear in the earlier stages. that is awsome.

7. Mongoosse

   August 25th, 2008

   Did you see the xspore admin??

8. Kyle

   August 25th, 2008

   Yep, Gary was there. I’m gonna make a wrap-up posts soon linking to everyone that was there (some people are still gathering info & publishing videos,etc)

9. n_s

   August 26th, 2008

   Did you make any vids yourself?

   So, as a completist(at least, I am when it is a game with a certain number of goals. I also enjoy puzzle, strategy, and creative games[all of the above describes this game]), I will be enjoying this game for a long time(understatement)? Nice, and my dad said I shouldn’t be spending 90 bucks, because it was too much money. :D

10. CF

    August 27th, 2008

    Awesome “collection of thoughts” Kyle! I can’t wait the… eleven days until I can relate to your experience!

11. muchacho

    August 31st, 2008

    u guys r all nerds

    who the hell plays warcraft for more than an hour :P

12. Fez Da Stanza

    September 1st, 2008

    This sounds so cool it makes me jealous :D

    I cant wait for this game to come out (even more than before) now!

13. Dave351W

    September 18th, 2008

    I work in a fairly quiet outdoor, desolate, place. I go out into the feild with a couple other guys and we walk around and perform inspections.
    The other day, I had this odd familiar feeling as I walked into the feild with my crew… I couldnt place it… The wide open veiw, the crunching under my feet, and the quiet… We went in circles looking for anything out of place and then it hit me !!! This was just like Spore !!! I let out a little chuckle and we moved on.

    YES, THE GAME IS VERY LIFELIKE. (POSSABLY TOO MUCH SO)

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