Spore

GeekGirl

Obliviot
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/595/595975p1.html

Worth the 5 page read.

"Bacteria to Galactic God"

"What's unique about Spore is that unlike many other 'sandbox' titles, the game starts out very focused. Players begin the game very goal-oriented: they just need to survive the different phases of life, starting from the most simplistic form of all. Then, once they've gotten familiar with the editors and every stage of a life form's development, they're turned loose with a UFO and the ability to simply play with whole species, worlds, and solar systems.

In the process players can play out whatever science-fiction cliché they want. Invasion? Supervision? Uplifting? First Contact? Abduction/Cross-Breeding? Diplomacy? The game is what players make of it.

The important thing to take away from this is not "Will Wright is making a cool game," but the way that he is making the game. He's sidestepped the whole idea of massive teams of content creators in favor of a system of building games based on player-content and emergence. The results are stunning.

At the end of his talk Wright pointed out that the hardest part of making this game was not the act of making it, but his own imagination. For a while he didn't think it was possible. Then, once he got over that, he went big. He encouraged everyone else in the room to do the same -- not to be intimidated by what everyone is saying about the next generation of content -- but just to go out and make great games! "
 

Serry

Obliviot
That is a really cool article, very much worth the read, sounds like one of those games that would just suck players in and never let go ^_^ I cant wait to try it out the mere thought of having control over everything has a subtle pleasure to it, and that it really is unique to each persons experience. Will Wright is definately on the right track with this concept :)
 

madstork91

The One, The Only...
What i liked about the concept is that hes using coders who think SMALL!

Kinda reminds me of an argument i had with a certain person about how rediculous some games were getting with file sizes... *cough*death*cough*

Also... If this idea is carried over to MMORPGs then ill be the happiest man alive.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
That's a very cool article, thanks for linking us GG.

Moreover, because the creatures are defined simply and animated using these procedural techniques, the data files are incredibly small -- as small as 1K each!

Wow.. that amazes me. If games are created like this, then install sizes may be getting lower and lower, rather than vice versa.

The only thing I was thinking about though, that I didn't see mentioned there, is texturing. Things need to be textured.. unless you use ones they provide. Did I miss something?
 

madstork91

The One, The Only...
From reading the article (twice in some parts) you get teh impression that there will be both user defined texures and preloaded ones.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I believe I heard before the holiday season, but I could be wrong. Hopefully within the next three months though. I can't seem to find a release date anywhere.
 
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