Life | 4/13/08

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Another slow news week, another game column. This week I'd like to sing the praises of "Spore," a game coming later this year (hopefully) for PC. "Spore" was designed by Will Wright, the incredible brain behind "SimCity," "The Sims," and pretty much anything else with "Sim" in the title. If "Spore" shared that prefix, the best way to describe it would be "SimEverything," which was actually the game's less catchy early working title.

Since its unveiling in 2005, "Spore" has sprouted-pun totally intended, sorry-into what may be the biggest game ever made. The player begins by taking control of a single celled organism, then guides its species through evolution (mixing and matching body parts at choice), and follows essentially a whole civilization from start to finish. Species can even gain the power of space travel, allowing players to zoom out and give the game a quality reminiscent of the film "Powers of Ten," which Wright has claimed was an inspiration for "Spore."

The unique species creation system and the use of a concept called "procedural generation" mean it is very hard for two players to have the same experience or the same creatures. The game is the definition of the sandbox genre. Several years ago I had the opportunity to see the character generator demonstrated. It was deep then, and it's deeper today. This may sound cheesy, but the only limit to the kinds of creatures that can be built is the imagination. From there, the game decides how it thinks the creature ought to move and animates it accordingly.

The player essentially builds the adventure to watch it unfold. Wright once 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." The player essentially becomes the dungeonmaster to all the madness, which is, of course, all the fun.

As your species advances, it gains knowledge. It builds tribes, then cities. But not all is peaceful. Other alien races visit, who may or may not come in peace. If the player isn't careful, the game can turn into a "Star Wars" reenactment.

And when your species' story is complete, and it has blossomed into a huge civilization with bustling cities all over its planet, players can go start life on another planet and do it all over again. Or pump enough carbon dioxide into it to set it on fire and ruin it. Or just blow it up. Your choice.

The main game is planned for PC, but spinoffs are currently planned for the Nintendo DS, Wii, and cell phone. "Spore Creatures" for DS has been widely discussed as a 2D, RPG-style game that focuses more on the creation aspect. It's been said to be a little like "Nintendogs" with less dogs. For Wii, the game will be rebuilt to take advantage of its unique control scheme.

While the game's awesomeness is almost assured given Wright's artistic vision, one thing not quite as certain is if it will ever see release this century. The game was shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2004 through 2006 with a promise of a release that year. Obviously, that never happened. Many attribute the delays to the game's sheer scope and Wright's perfectionism. At the moment, the game is due to hit this September, according to publisher Electronic Arts. But like all great game releases, that is subject to change.

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