Shoutie

[Rexer]

I PLAYED SPORE!!

Yesterday at Spore Community Day, web site owners and representatives were given four hours to play Spore in a conference room. MaxisCactus thought that four hours was plenty of time for us to play the game and get to know it. Bless her adorable heart, she has no idea. Later, during the Q&A with developers, I wished I was playing Spore. At the hotel lobby while sitting around talking with all my new friends at the other Spore sites, I wished I was playing spore. on the airplane back to Alabama, I wanted to be playing Spore. Instead of sitting her now and posting in the forums, I wish I were playing Spore. That is in no way a review of the game, just my impressions from having played it.

There is a TRUCKLOAD of new Spore information to talk about. I have only a few minutes before my Sims-style energy indicator pegs red, and I crash because I have not slept since Friday Morning, now over 28 hours ago. So I am going to get about a four-hour nap, then come back to SIMphoni and post more information. But before I do sleep, I wanted to get some of the most important questions answered that people at SIMphoni have been asking.

First, get an impression of what an enormous project this is. Although I do not have statistics to support this, I imagine that the release of Spore 2 weeks from now will be the most ambitious initial release of any game in history. It is being release simultaneously on the PC and the Mac (How many games really deliver on doing that?!), and in 22 languages. All at the same time in the initial release.

Some questions and answers coming up:

Some questions and some answers as best that I can supply them:

Several questions hav ebeen asked of me along these lines: If a player wishes to develop a domestic society in an online multiplayer environment, what tools are available to protect him from harassment by militant players determined to destroy every planet they encounter? Expressed another way (by Nick), I'd like to know if Maxis is planning to make sure 100% that Spore's online play is moderated so people can't just be having phallic stuff everywhere like it is on Youtube. I know they said they would, but I've heard that line before. and Oppie asked, You've just worked your way trough the Cell Phase, and you're about to walk about on your home planet. Suddenly, you hear another creature in the distance. You walk toward the sound, and as you approach the mysterious being, you see... yet another variation on the 'blob with two legs' theme. You explore another planet, and yet again you find yet another slightly different race of 'pieces of male anatomy' *cough*. That's when the subject of Quality Control comes up. Will it be put in the hands ofthe players? Will the game filter out creatures that aren't up to certain standards?

These are all different versions of the same question (the first was my own way of wording it.) The simple answer is, the Sporepedia is the tool you can use to control the characters you encounter. Not absolutely everything everybody creates will be in your copy of the game. First, the Sporepedia has algorithms that evaluate creatures for quality and characterize them by (I think) complexity, carnivore/herbivore/omnivore, quality, etc. It also selects some to become "Epic Creatures", which are super-sized versions of creature that are immensely powerful and can appear in your game. More about that later. Second, as a player you can browse the Sporepedia and select creatures made by other users to specifically come into your copy of Spore. Also, you can subscribe to users whose content you are familiar with and are of a quality that you find appealing, so that all creatures made by that player will have a higher chance of showing up in your games. You can also block players whose content you do not like. And, you can report offensive material. After all these tools have been given priority in selecting creatures to bring in, if your game requires more creatures, only then will it resort to random selection beyond your control. If you want to control content in your game play for quality or for appropriateness (and the games your children play), the thing to do is to spend some time at the Sporepedia looking at creatures and their attributes. Select several. I believe that even the random auto-selection keys upon the types of creatures you have selected. The Sporepedia is a very powerful tool, not only to see what others have done, but also to customize your own gameplay.

The topic of creatures representing genetalia and other inappropriate creatures, Maxis' experience with the Sims Body Shop showed, and I am paraphrasing here, that it happens a lot in the beginning, and then players get it out of their system. After a lot of initial filtering and banning, players settle down into making truly creative content that plays well in the game. The phallic-symbol creatures are like a dirty joke that, once you have heard it, it isn't funny anymore, and the community as a whole moves on to more constructive gameplay.

I have some videos of these questions being asked and answered by Maxisians (Maxisites? Maxists?) far better than I have explained them here, but that is a good start toward understanding how it works. I will parse and post those videos in the thread later this weekend.



What is the "food web"? (Will Wright mentioned it)

I didn't hear the food web specifically mentioned, and Will was not there to ask personally. However, from playing the game and having watched the Apple Store video, I think Will also described it well when he said that the Creature phase is like a first-person-shooter game, except in this case it's a first-person-eater. You eat to stay healthy or to restore your health after suffering battle damage. If you are an omnivore, other creatures are potential food for you. This is also true in the cellular phase, there are plants to eat if you are an herbivore, and animals if you're a carnivore. Being a carnivore necessarily requires being more militant and combatant, since eating other animals requires killing them, which in turn requires evolving anatomical weapons. Being a herbivore generally means eating plant spores in the cell stages and avoiding the larger carnivores. In the creature stage it means eating fruit and leaves and charming the other creatures into liking you. You'll still need some defensive weapons If you're a herbivore, since carnivores will attack you .

You select whether to be an herbivore, a carnivore, or an omnivore by which mouth you choose, as we already learned in the Creature Creator. In the Creature stage, you can either extinct other creatures by visiting their nests and killing all the individuals and any eggs, or you can charm them by mimicking their songs. Certain anatomical features increase your overall ability to charm other creatures. It was asked in the Q&A session which is the easiest and quickest path to advancement: Carnivore? Herbivore? Charm or Militancy? The developers were reluctant to reveal tips that are better learned through playing the game, but they did say that, somewhat counter-intuitively, being an omnivore is harder.



Can you continue to alter (evolve) your creature after the creature phase?

No. In the creature phase is where you develop your creature, anatomically. Later you can add accessories and tools (hats, mustaches, etc.) But it is in the difficult creature phase where the species develops its anatomy in the struggle to survive and graduate to the Tribal stage. I did not spend much time really designing my creature yesterday, because time was limited. With some of you, your work in the Creature Creator (now called the Creature Editor in the game) is a place where you may want to spend hours designing not only your creatures anatomical feature for functionality, but also for aesthetic appeal. I found that the creatures I developed in the Cell and Creature stages were not remotely similar to those I would create in the Creature Creator alone when I am going for aesthetics rather than function. However, given unlimited time to design and edit your creatures, most of us will create

The editors do change once you leave the Creature stage into the Tribal, Civilization, and Space sages, however. You leave editing your creature and you go into developing buildings and vehicles and other items. I did not get into those areas; time was limited and I spent a significant amount of time in the Cell and Creature stages. More of the developers at Maxis said that the Tribal stage is their favorite than any other stage, but each stage had some devotees who prefer it over all the others.

Spore is really not one game, but five distinct games. Each game is played completely differently from the others and each if fun in its own right. And, completing each allows you to graduate to the next stage. However, you do not have to graduate; after you have earned the right to go to the next level, you may continue playing indefinitely if you choose to do so.



Will the game be mod-able?

The initial reaction is that it will not. But this is not because Maxis intentionally wants it to be non-mod-able, but rather because there is not much in the game to mod. Custom content by users is already built in as an integral part of what the game is all about: creatures, buildings, vehicles, planets, etc., created by players will be shared with the community by way of the Sporepedia. So, in a way, the Sporepedia is Maxis' way of incorporating player-created content into the very essence of Spore. However, Maxis has learned never to underestimate the creativity and abilities of the modding community, and they acknowledge that people will probably figure out things and come up with ways of enhancing and improving the game beyond what they themselves thought of when they were building it. And let me tell you, they (at Maxis) are some amazingly creative people!

Will there be expansion packs?

I am going to say yes, but that is only a guess from discussing it with the developers. The explanation for this is that at some point they had to plant a stake in the ground and say, "this is Spore. This is what we will release." That happened when the game went gold last week. But every working day, the developers create more and cooler stuff. During the demo Carroll mentioned that the version she was playing with for the demo was a newer version than the one that went gold just last week. New things have been added already. That question I probably related to this question:



Will there be flying creatures or swimming (underwater) creatures?

There are no flying creatures, though your creatures can jump and glide (larger wings allow more glide, and stronger legs allow higher jumps). The jump-and-glide is important if you are a carnivore and trying to extinct other species who can do it, otherwise you'll never catch them using only your terrestrial legs, and you'll not advance to the tribal stage. (I worry that this might force some anatomical evolution that the player may not want on certain creatures, but we will see how that goes. You may be able to avoid extincting those creatures and by waiting long enough, see them being replaced by other creatures without jump-and-glide.)

Flying and swimming creatures would only matter in the creature stage to a large degree. And, what it would do would be to change the creature stage from a land-based game to a treetop-base airborne game or an underwater first-person-eater. Those would be fun games, and it would give the player an option of three ways to get through the creature stage. However, the Cellular stage is already a type of underwater game. And if underwater creatures were allowed to graduate beyond the Creature stage, having them continue to live underwater during the Tribal, City, and Space stages would be awkward to say the least. For example, how do you have a campfire underwater? How do you travel across the galaxy in spaceships If you must live underwater?


Several questions were asked by me and others about things typically found in previous Maxis games:

· Llamas: Of course there are Llamas.

· Cheats: Yes there are cheats.

· Easter Eggs: I didn't get a straight answer about that, except that this is a Maxis game Which told me that of course there are Easter Eggs.

· Reticulating Spines? MaxisBrian (I think that's his username; his real name is Brian) told me that they can be found, but of course would not say where.

I will post more later after a nap, but that should be enough to get discussions going fornow.

Reason for edit: changed font to something readable . G

[oppie]

Good to hear that Maxis is giving us control over what creatures (and other content) are being loaded into our games. The option to 'subscribe' to certain users is great, and one of the types of quality control I've been hoping for, and the fact that this is just one of many options makes me happy.

I already knew some of the other information (like not being able to have swimming creatures), but it's still a very interesting read. Thanks for getting these answers!

[Gil]

To answer nick's question: You won't be in an online multiplayer environment, you will meet creatures made by other players, but won't meet creatures controlled by other players. Spore is a "massive singleplayer online roleplaying game"

[Nick C.T.]

Thanks for answering my question! That sounds good to me. Anyways great job Rex, can't wait for the pics.

[john]

Looks more interesting game than I had originally thought it to be. Thanks for the info, Rex.

BTW, no "moose and squirell"?

[Rexer]

I am very surprised that you all have not been asking me questions about the game! I have played the Cell and Creature stages, and I have at least seen some screenshots of the other stages and talked to the other people who played those stages. Plus, I have played around a bit at the Sporepedia, as we all have. Eveyone is commenting in the other thread about the experience of participating in the Community Day, but not about the game. Surely I haven't satisfied all your curiosity with what I posted in the first post here.

[Gil]

Is there anything you saw we haven't heard of yet? How is it to play the first stages? How long does it take to complete them. How are the controls? er.. Is it fun? and I mean, real fun, fun for weeeeeks

[Rexer]

Is there anything you saw we haven't heard of yet?

Well, there are some thing that I hadn't heard of before, like Epic Creatures. Maybe that information was alreay out there in the cp,,imotu bnefore Friday, but I had not heard of it personally. Petreak was being harrassed in the creature stage by an enormous tourtise sort of animal that was hanging out near his nest and would fight him. It was causing him no small amount of anxiety. I don't know how he defeated it (and probably would ruin your experience of learning how if did know and I told you), but he eventually prevailed.

You can return to the beach where you crawled up out of the ocean when transitioning from a cell to a creature, and you can wade into the surf and start swimming out into the ocean. And I recommend doing it. Once. You'll love it. I actually jumped in my chair, and Brian and a few other people around me looked up at me from their games.

You have heard of the "volcanos", or "geysers" before. They can do something cool for you, which you will probably learn right away.

How is it to play the first stages?

The cell stage has all the best characteristics of a really good 1980's arcade game. By that I mean it is fun to play, the rules are reasonably simple, it's in 2-D, and it is one of those simple addictive games that you just want to keep playing for hours on end. It's rather like how simple web-based games come along every now and again, and they are so addictive that they just hook you in. The simplicity is a big part of its appeal. But if it's like an 80's arcade game, it's one that found a time machine and has 21st-century sophistication. You can seim in all directions, the graphics are in-freaking-credible, you can acquire additional powers the longer you play. If you eat a creature that has a genetic innovation you don't have, like say, thorny spikes to ward off predators, then you can acquire that for yourself the next time you mutate. You mutate by simply clidking on the button to edit your little ameobe guy. The game is swimming around and eating without getting eaten. Pac-Man all grown up into a far more sophisticated game.

The creature stage was referred to by Will as a "first-person-eater". You have legs, and you are exploring the land mass you crawled from the sea up onto when you evolved out of the sea. You don't mutate as such, you mate with another creature of your own species. There are about a half-dozen of you, but you only control one at any one time. If you die, there is no penalty, you simply hatch a new specimen and now you're that one. This is the stage where you begin to encounter other people's creatures, and some are very inventive, so be prepared. Mating is how you enter the creature editor (the in-game equivalent of the creature creator). When you're finished mating, you hatch from an egg and there is an adult one-of-you standing beside the next prepared to teach you how to survive in the world. If you added any body parts with new capabilities (for example, spitting, striking, singing, roaring, etc.), the adult will do that behavior and wait for you to mimic it. You do so by clicking the control on the screen for that action. Now that you have shown Mommy you are ready, you grow up all at once and you're ready to go exploring. Btw, the music when you're going into the mating screen is priceless.

How long does it take to complete them.

Once you have done the cell phase a couple of times and you know the drill, you can "get through it" in about 10 minutes if you just want to do it and move on. But you should spend a little more time in cell for two reasons: 1) it's fun to play, as I said, it's addictive. and 2) you'll earn more DNA points more easily. The cell stage is easier because you're just swimming around in the primordial soup eating stuff and all you have to do is try to stay away from the ones that want to eat you (which will happen sometimes- you'll get eaten, don't worry about it.) the more DNA points you earn, the more complex you can make your creature in the next stage. It's easier to earn that needed DNA in Cell than in Creature, because you can come out of Cell with a higher DNA score, which means you can start the Creature stage with a more complex creature, more limbs, more anatomical weapons, multiple mouths, etc.

It took me around an hour to get through the Creature stage. Not bad considering it was my first time and I had some hard lessons to learn. I encounted a couple of seemingly insurmountable challenges, for example the other creatures learned to fight in pairs before I did. I could defeat and eat any one of any other creatures, but when they started ganing up on me I was dying a lot. Also, I encountered a creature that could jump and glide, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not engage one in battle. Try going outside and catching a bird in your hands, then imagine how hard it would be to make birds extinct using that method. So, after about an hour I finally came to a point where I could move into the tribal stage, but it was only after a lot of struggling to get to that point. Once you have done it and you know some of the techniques, you'll be more experience and be able to do it faster, but then the game will put other obstacles in your way that I don't know about yet. Like the epic creature that harrassed Petreak.

The thing is, as with the Cell stage, when you graduate, it does not mean you have to go to the next level. It just means you have earned the right to advance. But if you enjoy playing that stage with that creature, you can stay there as long as you like, encountering a seemingly infinite number of new creatures.

Oh, and Spore has soemthing in the Creature stage that we never really got to our satisfaction in SimCity 4 no matter how many times we asked for it: Weather effects. The rainstorms are very realistic, and you'll get either volcanic eruptions or meteor showers, I never decided which one they are, but they will freak you out the first time. I am sure that are 10 time more stuff on both of those stages that I didn't see, but will when I play again.

How are the controls?

The controls are pretty intuitive. YOu're going to want - no, need - a mouse with a scroll wheel. if you don't have it, get it. You can control some of the action with the keyboard, but ... no. The wheel mouse can control everything and is better suited. The actions are controled using controll buttons on the screen. You can walk around on the terrain (or swim in the soup) simply by holding the mouse cursor where you want to go. If you want to eat something else in the cell stage, hold the mouse cursor over it. If it can't swim faster than you, you'll catch up with it, and either you'll eat it, or it will turn and fight. HOldnig the mouse cursor on while in pursuit can be a challenge because it will also swim around on the screen, and the screen scrolls infinitaly in all directions to follow the action.

er.. Is it fun? and I mean, real fun, fun for weeeeeks

I wish I were playing it now. I think this will be fun for a long long time. And even after you reach the Space stage, there are additional misions and rewards that are secret and must be unlocked. Like badges or medals to earn. Any time you want to start over as a new cell creature, just go to the game's main menu and start playing on a new planet, similar to changing neirhborhoods in The Sims or a new city in your SimCity region. You can and will have several saved games on different planets. This will keep us entertained for years.

How long does it take to complete them.

(meaning, the stages)

More about that.

What I posted was based upon if you are focused on getting through the level as quickly as possible But I don't think that is the appeal of the game. The creature editor, for example, is where you design and build your creature, and it is a part of the Creature stage (or, creature game). I was trying to advance as quickly as I could in order to check out the next stage, tribal. Consequently, I rushed through every creature editor session and only gave my creature the most utilitarian anatomical tools it might need to survive and advance to tribal. I ended up with the hideous monstrosity you see in my Sporepedia profile, called SPD (For Spore Day). I wouldn't want to run across him alone in adary alley. Notice that each time you exit the creature editor, your creature is saved at Sporepedia as a separate creature, and so the game automatically tracks the evolution of your creaturs as you play the Creature stage.

But, you and I won't go through the stages that quickly. I was trying to get back out to the game as quickly as possible becasue time was limited. But at home, we will all want to spend more time in the creature editor designing species that not only are functional, but look cool as well: Humaniods, wierd bugs, Dinosaurs, My Little Ponies (well not me, but you know.) So while you are in the creature stage, you might spend all saturday afternoon just designing your creature without doing much going out and hunting/eating. We're talking hours of fun, and we can schedule our own rewards when we want them.

[Rexer]

This is the first of several video clips from the Q&A and the Spore demo.

Here, rybolton of Sporeum and Simtropolis asks about the Sporepedia.

[Rexer]

For those who haven't noticed yet, The Simphoni Podcast has published its Spore Community Day Special Episode. We promised to have it posted on Sunday, and we just barely got it posted before midnight, our time (Central time in North America). We may have missed the deadline in your time zone, but not in ours. It contains some very good information that you haven't heard before, must of it right from the developers at Maxis themselves!

The video clip in the post above is just a teaser for the full videos of the first half of the demo and the first half of the podcast, which will be posted tomorrow exclusively at Simphoni. It will even include the ability to view the entire full-quality version of the videos, if you care to take the time to download them! Sdrawkcab is working on making the videos happen. They will not be posted at YouTube or anywhere else; Simphoni is the only place anyone will be able to see them.

[Jirnsum]

Listening to the podcast now: very informative

[toroca]

For example, how do you have a campfire underwater? How do you travel across the galaxy in spaceships If you must live underwater?

I don't like those questions, Rex. First of all, who are we to make the assumption that mastering fire is the first prerequisite for civilization? Sure, it happened that way with us, but that doesn't mean it would have to. A common alternative from science fiction for both land and water dwelling species is some sort of telekinetic ability, and that's just one possible route. As for travelling in space, have you never read science fiction? Watergoing spacefaring civilzations have been included in numerous books and TV shows by now; one of my favorites were the aquatic Xindi species in Star Trek: Enterprise. I didn't like most of the series that well, but I loved the idea of whales in space, which is basically what the Xindi-aquatics were.

The questions you posed are too narrowminded, Rex, especially for a game like Spore.

[Nick C.T.]

I just woke up, so now I'm going to listen to the podcast. Great video by the way!

[Jirnsum]

LadyMpire gives a nice description of her experiences during gamplay

[Nick C.T.]

Great link. I like hearing about everyone's experience. I wonder if anyone didn't like what they saw. Yeah, like that'll happen.

[Rexer]

For example, how do you have a campfire underwater? How do you travel across the galaxy in spaceships If you must live underwater?

I don't like those questions, Rex. First of all, who are we to make the assumption that mastering fire is the first prerequisite for civilization? Sure, it happened that way with us, but that doesn't mean it would have to. A common alternative from science fiction for both land and water dwelling species is some sort of telekinetic ability, and that's just one possible route. As for travelling in space, have you never read science fiction? Watergoing spacefaring civilzations have been included in numerous books and TV shows by now; one of my favorites were the aquatic Xindi species in Star Trek: Enterprise. I didn't like most of the series that well, but I loved the idea of whales in space, which is basically what the Xindi-aquatics were.

The questions you posed are too narrowminded, Rex, especially for a game like Spore.

Those are exactly the questions that arose when Maxis held meetings about how to implement underwater and flying creatures. They didn't discount the possibility of doing it in an expansion pack, but how it would affect each of the stages is a major question. It was talked about in one of the audio clips we played in the Sepcial Podcast Episode. Someone at Maxis had a sign hanging up at his cubicle that says, "Will it work in Civ and Space?".

[toroca]

"Will it work in Civ and Space?".

And again: There's no reason it couldn't. Sure, it might not fit the mold they'd developed for Spore, but this is Maxis - known for breaking the mold!

[the Monkeys Uncl...]

Will there be flying creatures or swimming (underwater) creatures?

I would absolutely LOVE to have an underwater race with underwater cities and water vehicles that need to bring tanks of water with them to survive on land. Conversely, it would be so cool to be able to have a land based race that could colonize the oceans. Or perhaps land on a completely water planet, and be forced to build underwater. That would be incredibly cool, and add a huge new dimension to the game.

Reticulating Spines? MaxisBrian (I think that's his username; his real name is Brian) told me that they can be found, but of course would not say where.

What exactly are reticulating spines? You should have asked that question too.

You have heard of the "volcanos", or "geysers" before. They can do something cool for you, which you will probably learn right away.

Thanks for sharing all those cool little tidbits, while not actually telling them what they are!!! Speaking of hype, eh.

When you're finished mating, you hatch from an egg and there is an adult one-of-you standing beside the next prepared to teach you how to survive in the world. If you added any body parts with new capabilities (for example, spitting, striking, singing, roaring, etc.), the adult will do that behavior and wait for you to mimic it. You do so by clicking the control on the screen for that action.

Hmm. How are the controls for that type of thing? Are there buttons on the keyboard you can press to attack animals or do the actions you described, or you you have to resort to clicking on the screen for it?

Anyway, that's what I have for now. I'll watch the video and read on and maybe post more!

[Rexer]

You have heard of the "volcanos", or "geysers" before. They can do something cool for you, which you will probably learn right away.

Thanks for sharing all those cool little tidbits, while not actually telling them what they are!!! Speaking of hype, eh.

Sorry, but for some things discovery is more fun than being told something. I will just confirm that they are in the game, and you should run over the tops of them. Sort of like I am telling you to swim out to sea once for fun, but I'm not telling you why.

When you're finished mating, you hatch from an egg and there is an adult one-of-you standing beside the next prepared to teach you how to survive in the world. If you added any body parts with new capabilities (for example, spitting, striking, singing, roaring, etc.), the adult will do that behavior and wait for you to mimic it. You do so by clicking the control on the screen for that action.

Hmm. How are the controls for that type of thing? Are there buttons on the keyboard you can press to attack animals or do the actions you described, or you you have to resort to clicking on the screen for it?

Click controls on the screen. There are some keyboard hotkeys, but the game is really built to be played with the mouse as the primary UI.