next »

[shinygerbil]

fuck yeah. That's exactly how I feel.

Definitely the most unique game I've played in years. And - a trend I've been noticing with my gaming tastes in the last few years - more than anything else, I love the experience. It doesn't matter that the controls aren't perfect, it doesn't matter that it's a Dumbed Down Experience^TM, it doesn't matter if one particular stage is "unbalanced" or whatever. This game doesn't need to focus on any of those things.

I start off as a single-celled organism. I eat stuff and try to stay alive, grow bigger and bigger, basically growing bigger and bigger through the first 4 stages by eating some stuff and running away from the rest, just keep getting bigger and better, improving myself, until I'm fucking LORD OF THE FUCKING GALAXY.

Whatever you may have to say about the gameplay, it's FUCKING EPIC.

And the fact that you can go to another planet and find another creature in the process of doing the same is also epic. There's a whole galaxy to explore. Randomly-generated or not, that's still a shitload of stuff. Plus there are probably some other secrets nobody else has found. I wonder if you get something awesome if you manage to destroy the whole Grox Empire...

[Cymon]

Someone needs to make the ships from Star Control II for space age.

It's been done.

[Lucaz]

I'm in the space phase. I don't like it much. First, there was the dissappointment in the ship designer. And now, I can't play for five seconds without something happening in a colony, and me going all the way back home to save them. And even when I had a chance to go around freely, I found it boring.

[Tanner]

Someone needs to make the ships from Star Control II for space age.

It's been done.

I don't think that I've double-clicked a shortcut so fast in my entire life.

[Valter]

So, Zero Punctuation apparently didn't like it, but that's no surprise. Did he think it lived up to the hype? Short answer: No. Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-

Right, I think you get the idea.

[Cheater‽]

So, Zero Punctuation apparently didn't like it, but that's no surprise. Did he think it lived up to the hype? Short answer: No. Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-

Right, I think you get the idea.

It also featured Flow.

Also, I made a Girraffe Top Hat wearing civilization.

[BMcC]

Wait, wait...  What's Spore?

[Bod]

Ah I love Spore. I'm currently flying around in space doing some shit. It's all good.

[Dacke]

I spent 6-8 hours grinding space on hard, hoping to get some feeling of accomplishment (which I never got). Then the game crashed on me and all progress was lost.

[Lucaz]

No auto save in a game like Spore is like the biggest design flaw I've ever seen.

[Rolf_Soldaat]

If you stay in one phase long enough, would it be possible to become strong enough to fight against higher phases?

say, could a single highly powerful creature destroy a city?

[Dacke]

If you stay in one phase long enough, would it be possible to become strong enough to fight against higher phases?

say, could a single highly powerful creature destroy a city?

Your question almost warms my heart. You are talking about the Spore that only existed in the marketing campaign, a game everybody loved (and I still do). No, the Spore you can get in the stores has no real connection between the different stages and no gradual transition. Once you are done with the cell-minigame you are jumped straight into the creature-minigame and after that abruptly enter the tribal miniamge. Any hint of a connection between the stages is just smoke and mirrors.

[Rolf_Soldaat]

Thanks, you just saved me about 50 euros.

[Dacke]

Thanks, you just saved me about 50 euros.

Kein problem!

[Tanner]

Hey guys, there's a patch out, try the next gen graphical filter.
Cool stuff, man.

[FARTRON]

EA Download Manager keeps asking to install flash. Why the fuck would you make the updater in flash. You can't even get into the settings page without flash 9 installed. I hate EA.

[Tanner]

Waterboy is the shit, maaaaaan.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Interesting article on how Chris Heckler ruined Spore against the wishes of Will Wright. According to that there was a battle between Heckler's side (cute, casual) and Wright's (focus on the theme or idea of the game, like the Powers of 10 thing), and Wright lost.

Read here.

"It seems to me, the cute crowd led by Chris Hecker is responsible for a number of things. The ecosystem dynamics were removed. The Creature Game was replaced with a simple "Good or Evil" RPG where you either play Simon Says or grab your +5 Swo- uh I mean Hand and go grind on a few Generic Monster Nests. In addition, for the purpose of "creative freedom", a ten-foot tall SPORE can be as effective as a Lion in combat, as fast as a Cheetah, and as stealthy as a one foot tall chameleon. And because this is so, the Sporepedia is filled with such impractical creations.

"Maxis moved away from Will Wright's original design choices and away from the theme of the original prototype. The resulting game is conceived as not meeting the expectation created by seeing the prototype. Why they chose to overturn the design decisions of their lead designer is beyond me. It seems to me the past few years were spent making the game less entertaining than the prototype, because the prototype was "too complex" for us dull consumers. We wouldn't be able to take that hard science. Ironically, I hear better reviews of the gameplay of the free released prototypes than the game itself."

This was a big deal for me. In the extremely early versions that I toyed around with, I was able to make creatures that shifted under their own weight. Creatures that exploited the length of their arms or legs for greater reach. Creatures that behave and move true to how they were built. A short bunny-creature would definitely be out-run by the long-legged dragon-giraffe. That was very neat, and it implied several exciting possibilities in gameplay.

For instance, creature morphology actually mattered. This implied deeper strategy to creature creation. You have a small inkling of this in the Cell stage where placement of parts somewhat mattered. For example, spikes placed behind your creature saved you from being bitten when chased. But, the strategy that earlier prototypes implied went beyond placement of parts. The length of limbs or spine felt like it mattered. If you had a forward-heavy animal with legs placed in the back, it would run poorly as it tries (and fails) to counteract its own weight.

[policedanceclub]

 



Also, are the prototypes available somewhere then?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Scroll between 3 and 5 posts up.