rogelio11 (52)
Last Login:
2007-01-25 02:44:04
|
 Spore
Does anyone knows or hear a new video game called Spore? Will Wright is the maker of the game. I have a Game Trailer of Spore in my files. I also have pictures and a Blog About Spore.
Here is the Spore Wiki. What Is Spore?
Spore is a computer and video game under development by Maxis, and designed by Will Wright. It simulates the complete history and future of life. Its concept, scope, and development philosophy (broad use of procedural generation) have drawn wide attention.
Spore is, at first glance, a "teleological evolution" game or god game: the player molds and guides a species across many generations, growing it from a single-celled organism into a more complex animal, until the species becomes intelligent. At this point the player begins molding and guiding this species' society, progressing towards a spacefaring civilization. Spore's main innovation is the use of procedural generation for many of the components of the game, providing vast scope and open-endedness. Wright said "I didn't want to make players feel like Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins. I wanted them to be like George Lucas or J.R.R. Tolkien."[2]
The game was already in development in 2000 around the time that The Sims Online was starting development.[1] The game was first revealed and demonstrated to the public during a speech on procedural generation at the 2005 Game Developers Conference (GDC).
On October 8, 2006, the game, its development, and its developer were featured in an article by Steven Berlin Johnson in the Sunday New York Times magazine; the article was entitled "The Long Zoom". [3]
Phases
Spore will be a simulation that "ranges from the cellular level to the galactic level". It will consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. In his Game Developers Conference speech, Will Wright likened the style of game-play of each phase to an existing game:
Tide Pool Phase, similar to Pac-Man
Creature Phase, Diablo
Tribal Phase, Populous
City Phase, SimCity
Civilization Phase, Risk and Civilization
Space Phase (a.k.a. UFO stage or Invasion), with some elements reminiscent of Destroy All Humans!, and later, sandbox gameplay.
Each phase of the game determines the starting point of the next phase. In the Game Developers Conference presentation, the creature that Will Wright was presenting during the creature phase was based on his earlier cell creature (in having three legs, a tail, eyes and mouth in roughly the same positions) that he had evolved through gameplay. He also mentioned that how each phase is played develops the creature's personality, referring to whether the creatures would be logical or emotional, peaceful or violent, among other attributes.
[edit] Tide pool phase
The Tide Pool stage is the first stage of the game.The Tide Pool Phase is sometimes referred to as the microbial stage or the Cell stage and is the starting point of the game. The player guides a simple micro-organism (microbe) around in a 2D environment, eating other, weaker cells. There are at least three other types of cells, two of which can eat the player's microbe to begin with. Once the microbe has eaten several cells, it lays an egg which, when clicked, opens the creature editor which allows the player to modify the appearance, shape, and abilities of the microbe. This includes adding offensive abilities. For example, in Will Wright's 2005 demo, he added a small spike which allows the player's microbe to attack the organisms which would previously eat the player's microbe. Each time the player's microbe progresses to the next generation, it grows larger. Once the microbe grows to a certain size, the player leaves the 2D world of the microscopic and enters the creature phase.
[edit] Creature phase
The creature phase brings more factors into account, as shown by the user interface.While the tide pool phase introduces the player to the game and its editor, the creature phase plays a big part in terms of what the player's creatures will look like in the later phases. It is similar to the tide pool phase, but there are several important differences. The most obvious one is that it is a 3D environment. There will be other creatures inhabiting the world and most, if not all, of them will have been created by other players. If there is a lack of predators in the ecosystem and weak herbivores are everywhere, the game will automatically download a new race of predators that another player has created and load them into the current player's world to balance the ecosystem.
The creature phase begins under water. The appearance of the player's creature is based on the microbe the player created in the tide pool phase. The basic goal is the same: Hunt food to earn DNA points, reproduce, and avoid being eaten by predators. Unlike the asexual reproduction in the tide pool phase, the player must now locate a mate. Once the player's creature has laid an egg, it does not hatch straight away; scavengers will attempt to steal the eggs and the player must defend them. Before the egg hatches, the player will have the opportunity to 'evolve' their creature further into the next generation, which can be done using DNA points (body parts require DNA points). When the egg hatches, the player becomes a baby version of the creature that spawned it. Aesthetically, this version of the creature will be smaller and have a voice of a higher pitch. It will also be somewhat weaker than adult creatures until it grows. Once the player's creature evolves in the creature phase, the fins may (optionally) be replaced by legs and feet, provided the player has collected sufficient DNA points, which allows the creature to move onto land. Will Wright has stated that you can build any type of creature; the possibilities are endless.
The ultimate goal of the creature phase is to increase the creature's brain capabilities slowly using DNA points. Once they have increased sufficiently, the player's creature becomes sapient and the player progresses to the tribal phase.
[edit] Tribal phase
The Tribal Phase allows you to control a tribe of your creatures.After the player's species evolves its brain capacity far enough, they enter the tribal phase. At this stage physical development ceases, but the player is given a hut and several of the creatures designed in earlier phases.[9] The player may give tools such as weapons, musical instruments, and other technologies. The creatures' behavior and collective personality is affected by what tools the player decides to give them. At this point, contact with other tribes can take place, should the player choose to (whether contact is cooperative or hostile). Once the tribe's hut has been upgraded to a high enough level, the player will progress to the city phase.
[edit] City phase
In his GDC presentation Will Wright described this stage as "a simplified version of SimCity". The player's tribal camp has grown to a city, which must be cared for. Players can use a building editor to change the appearance of the buildings in their city. As in the creature phase, the game will attempt to detect what style of content the player prefers, download similar content created by other players and add it to the buy menu. Although no clear goals for this phase have been revealed, it appears that once a player develops a large enough city, and spreads out across the globe, the game will advance further.
[edit] Civilization phase
The city and civilization phases have the player developing many cities such as this.After the city phase comes the civilization phase. In this phase players focus on relations between their civilization and other civilizations on their home planet, whether peaceful or war-torn.
The 'Civilization Phase' is where a player is expected to start seeing the results of their influence on the budding species. Players can still access the building editor and buy new buildings, and once players reach this point they are allowed to zoom out further for the first time, and view the entire planet from space. Once the player zooms out past a certain point, the realistically detailed features of the planet become more stylized. For example, the cities of the planet change from a properly-scaled view with all individual buildings visible to a more stylized, cartoon-like depiction. This is all so that the user can see important landmarks, such as cities and vehicles, even from far away. As in the tribal stage, players can meet other creatures of the same species in other cities to attempt either diplomacy, for opening trade routes and eventually forming an alliance, or for the purpose of attacking them. At this point, a vehicle editor is opened, allowing the player to construct a large variety of land vehicles, aircraft, boats, and submarines.
The goal in this phase is to gain control of the entire planet, and it is left for the player to decide whether to conquer by warfare or diplomatic means. Once players have gained enough credits in this phase they unlock the UFO and the UFO editor, and can proceed into the Space Phase.
[edit] Space phase
The space phase opens up the whole galaxy to the player.After the civilization phase, the space phase, or 'sandbox phase', begins. At this stage the player controls a vehicle (known as the UFO) capable of traveling throughout their local star system (and after obtaining better engines, other star systems within the galaxy) and visiting other planets. This ability presents the player with multiple options:
The player may terraform and colonize uninhabitable planets with special tools that are purchased with credits (water tool, volcano tool, etc.)
The player may travel between star systems and make contact with other civilizations on distant worlds, most of which are created by other players. Interactions revealed so far include impressing civilizations with fireworks, attacking them with weapons, or trying to establish a language with the civilization. These civilizations may react violently to the player or worship them, depending on that civilization's behavior and the race's personality.
The player can run the mouse over other star systems and their individual planets to try to pick up radio static or noise that can indicate intelligent life.
The player may abduct creatures (familiar or unfamiliar) and transport them to other planets. Players can do this to test a planets inhabitants to see if they are friendly or not, or to merely test a planet, whether it be habitable or not.
The player may place a "monolith" (à la 2001: A Space Odyssey) on a planet, triggering evolution of intelligent life, then come back later to see what has evolved.
The player may use a weapon to completely destroy a planet (similar to the capabilities of the Death Star from the Star Wars saga).
The player may scan content and add the information to a database designed like a card game.
The player may also find strange objects with unknown purposes to be used later on, possible adding tools for the UFO.
The Space Phase is sometimes referred to as 'sandbox' mode, since the player has near complete control of anything and everything. Rather than presenting the player with a finite goal, as earlier phases do, the Space Phase gives the player freedom to accomplish any variety of tasks they wish to perform. Planetary zoos, alliances with other races and interstellar warfare have all been mentioned, and are all believed to be possible in-game. Every race will have a 'personality' that will change how a player interacts with them. (At GDC, Wright has mentioned that the races of Star Trek have influenced these "personalities").
It has also been mentioned that the Space Phase works on two axes: a horizontal axis (the ability to interact with many planets in a variety of different ways) and a vertical axis (the ability to revisit different phases of gameplay).
As is traditional with most of Will Wright's games, the game never presents the player with an absolute ending and the Space Phase continues for as long as the player wishes.
|
