During my daily hunt to see if there is any new Spore information available, this Naucean video made by Hydromancerx from Spore Planet was found on Google videos. In it, we see his Naucean species evolve from their microbe form, to their current shape, and all the ages it goes through. The morphing and pictures are very impressive!
As of today, there is still no official release date for Spore. It was announced by WiIll Wright for Fall 2006, and some sources online have said 2007. I think EA will push Spore to be released for 2006 Q4, in time for Christmas. They released The Sims Online in December 2002, and The Sims 2 on September 14th 2004. When The Sims Online came out, it wasn't all that ready. Major updates continued to come in, so much that the current version is now "New & Improved!" If they release Spore this fall, I think they will release updates as they are ready.
We also have not gotten much material to play around with. In Caryl Shaw's GDC 2006 speech, she talks about how they released a Sim editor before the Sims 2 was released as part of an open beta test. This allowed them to populate their database with different sims before it went public. We can expect the same for Spore, seeing that they need creatures in their database to populate worlds of online players. I will keep this site posted on beta tests and release dates. A lot of new information is expected to be released at this years E3.
There has been no word really as of yet what the minimum system requirements of Spore will be. Most of us can only assume, and after seeing Will Wright's joke specifications we can only hope that it will be much less. Here are the prototype front and back covers he made for his game which he had initially named SimEverything.
After some research by looking at some of the most popular games of today, I came up with the following specifications. The 3D engine of Spore may be a brand new one, but its gameplay may not be more demanding on the computer than games such as the Sims 2 or World of WarCraft. Also, having the Internet is not required but for a full Spore experience it is recommended. I have increased some specifications due to Spore being cutting edge, but not by much so that the game can continue being mainstream.
What I think the minimum system requirements should be:
Happy Easter everyone!
More photos have been found on the web of Will Wright's GDC 2006 speech. These are of much better quality and much larger than the video images that I took. I wonder why our American press hasn't released all of their own photos to us? I particularly like that game box prototype.
This article was found by Hydromancerx from Spore Planet.
I have been searching the Internet for Will Wright Q&A interviews about Spore and have found a few. I have listed them here in chronological order.
If you know of another Q&A interview about Spore feel free to comment and I will add the links to this post.
A video session of Will Wright's GDC 2006 speech has been released to the public by GDCTV. However, only the first 5 minutes of the speech are free. There is a $14.95 fee to access the download.
Here is the link to the 5 minutes preview.
And now for the link to purchase this video, which is 281.8MB in size, and lasts 1:20:55.
I have downloaded the video and taken screenshots of everything that is not Will Wright speaking. You can find all 198 pictures in my photo album. There are a few of Spore, but not many. Congratulations to Hydromancerx from Spore Planet for having some of his creatures featured! The slides are creatures 1, creatures 2, and creatures 3.
I found an article that says that Spore will also be for Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and some mobile phones. I am seriously wondering how it is going to be played on my cell phone, maybe I need to get one of those $500 phones? lol The article is called Spore coming to DS, PSP, Phones, published March 23rd 2006 by NintendoDS Advanced. The article also says that Will Wright may also be looking to have it for the XBox 360 and Nintendo Revolution as well which is very exciting news.
If you take a close look at the game pad for the Nintendo DS, there are not very many buttons to press. This leads me to believe that the gameplay will be relatively easy, making it probably more of a strategy game than anything else. There is no way it could possibly be as complex as a game such as World of WarCraft.
The GDC website doesn't have any videos of the sessions as of yet, but PowerPoint presentations are available for free and for $7.95 you can download the audio recordings from GDCRadio.
Here are the presenations and recordings that I found by the Maxis producer Caryl Shaw, and senior development director of Maxis Eric Todd. I also found the audio recording of session by Chaim Gingold, an associate game designer of Maxis, and Chris Hecker, a technology fellow of Maxis.
Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore
60-minute lecture by Caryl Shaw.
Overview: This session explores how user-created content in
other Maxis products like SIMCITY and THE SIMS 2 created a different
kind of online community and how those lessons are being applied in the
Pollinated Content System in SPORE. Specifically, the talk looks at how
to tailor the system to appeal to both users who specialize in creating
content and users who are more likely to download someone else's
creations.
Spore: Preproduction Through Prototyping
60-minute lecture by Eric Todd.
Overview: This session
explains how prototyping can be the heart of a virtuous cycle during
preproduction. The cycle is illustrated with concrete examples and
numerous prototypes from Spore's preproduction phase. Potential
pitfalls are highlighted.
Advanced Prototyping
60-minute lecture by Chaim Gingold and Chris Hecker, intro: Will Wright
Overview: Creating effective
prototypes of game designs, user interfaces, and technologies requires
a unique set of skills and knowledge, somewhat distinct from the skills
used in making a game. This lecture discusses creating these various
types of prototypes from an advanced and in-depth perspective. The talk
goes through a number of important questions and topics that should be
addressed before, during, and after the prototype is created, including
metrics for judging the effectiveness of prototypes, how to decide the
focus of a prototype, how to design, start, and build the prototype,
both from a content and a code standpoint, and how to iterate the
prototype via testing and integrating feedback. Various approaches to
these issues are compared and contrasted, with the end goal of teaching
attendees how to create successful and high quality prototypes.
Will Wright had an exlusive full-length interview with Game Developer's magazine, for April 2006. You can read the article if you are a paying member of their magazine, or you can buy and download a digital version of the magazine's magazine's issue.
Gamasutra, Game Developer's sister Internet publication, published an Internet article on April 10th for this magazine article. It is entitled Will Wright on Accessibility, Future of the Industry, and was written by Simon Carless. It is a summary on Game Developer's article, which many quotes from Will Wright himself. Spore is not mentioned in this article, and it is mostly about why his past games were successful and what strategies are needed for continued success in the gaming industry.
