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.
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.
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.
Here is a short video demonstration by Will Wright at the Game Developer's Conference 2006, found on YouTube.com. It is about the creation of galaxies and how life spreads throughout it. It is only 2:28 minutes long but is an interesting look at how galaxies evolve.
GameSpy published a great article on Will Wright and his vision for Spore on April 6th 2006. It is entitled Will Wright: Game Design and Extraterrestrials (PC) and written by Dave "Fargo" Kosak. It is his summary on the Will Wright's speech during 2006 Game Developer's Conference.
