12-03-2005 19:31									#1
	Will Wright's New Game: Spore Put an end to popups!

quote: Will Wright's Friday morning GDC speech, the disingenuously-titled "The Future of Content in Games," was in truth a trojan horse -- the real purpose of his talk was to reveal his latest project, a game called Spore. Spore could end up being quite literally the biggest and most ambitious game ever attempted. Although it begins at the microscopic level, with players taking control of a monocellular organism in a tidal pool, the scale changes as the creature evolves and grows. The end result: A massive adventure spanning an entire galaxy with player-driven gameplay and design shared seamlessly online among the entire Spore community. Spore seems to be a concise summary of Wright's virtuosic approach to game design. In tackling the most significant issues and trends facing developers moving into the next generation of games, he appears to have designed a project that gracefully encompasses a wide array of genres while giving players an unprecedented level of control over their game experience.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1775487,00.asp

Sounds intriguing. I wish he would resurrect his SimMars project though.

	12-03-2005 19:35									#2
	Tired of ads?

It does sound cool. I wonder how smooth the transitions between different levels of scale will turn out though. To be honest I've become very wary of these huge promises being made by 'name' developers like Will Wright and Peter Molyneux when the games invariably turn out to be merely above-average rather than stunning. How about not talking your game up beforehand and surprising us, eh boys?

	12-03-2005 20:33									#3
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

merely above average - i cant speak to Molyneux, but i dont think thats the case for Wright. SimCity WAS groundbreaking, one of the greatest games/toys of all time, I think, showing us what this hobby is capable of. I havent played The Sims, and I know most people here dont care much for it, but it cant be denied that its created virtually a new genre (even if that genre is 98% dominated by Maxis) certainly has accounted for a HUGE share of all the PC games sold in the last few years. What has Wright designed thats been disappointing? Maxis has put out some disappointments, but IIUC those were not Will Wright designs.

	12-03-2005 20:34									#4
	Full PM-box? Change here!

this game sounds cool. look forward to hearing more about it.

	12-03-2005 20:46									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Looks suspiciously like a Sims style game.

	12-03-2005 20:57									#6
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This is going to be ten times worse than MoO 3, because this Spore thing sounds way too ambitious.

The Sims sounded cool initially too, and it turned out to be turd.

	12-03-2005 21:09									#7
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Eh, I didn't mind The Sims, but it's not that great. I did think that SimCity 4 was a bit of a disaster really - it still runs slow on a 3ghz comp with a gig of RAM and new graphics card. Plus it's not very fun.

I'm not saying that Wright and Molyneux haven't created great games, because obviously they have. I just think that their output has dropped in quality quite a bit lately, while at the same time they spend a lot of time giving interviews and talks about how great their *next* game will be. Although to be fair this applies to Molyneux more than anyone else (/derail).

Anyway, if Spore is as good as it sounds, it'll be a truly incredible game

	12-03-2005 22:10									#8
	Suffering from ads?

There's already a game called like this.
It's called Real Life, ever heard of it?

	12-03-2005 22:37									#9
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Whoa...a lot of skepticism in this thread. It really sounds cool, IMHO. If he can pull this off, he'll have created a really groundbreaking game, and possibly a new genre.

I'm excited.

Asmodean

	12-03-2005 22:51									#10
	EVO Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Doesn't the first bit of Sid Meier's game smack a little of evo the old SNES game? I think he should dump that whole evolution junk.

Anyways though the whole idea of starting out as a small town and becoming a massive interplanetary empire intrigues me. God know how many Civilization games I've played where I finished up and wondered how cool it would be to continue exploring past sending a ship to alpha centauri, i.e. Moo2.

	12-03-2005 23:35									#11
	Increase Your PM Length

Multiplayer wise though it could lead to problems in gameplay or lack of realism. The first person to develop some critical technology could gain an exponential lead and steamroll over the rest.

	12-03-2005 23:43									#12
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quote: Originally posted by VJ There's already a game called like this. It's called Real Life, ever heard of it?

Are yout alking about Spore?

	13-03-2005 00:20									#13
	Put an end to popups!

I think that was Sarcasm


As for Spore, for the moment its still vaporware. Isn't it great that vapour always seems to fulfill to everyones ideal game?

I'll take a look at it once its ready. In the meantime there's plenty of other fish in the sea. For some short games try out experimentalgameplay.com

I found it mentioned in the "Burning Down The House - Game Developers Rant" (with Warren Spector, Brenda Laurel, Jason Della Rocca, Chris Hecker.) Interesting and frank discussion about the state of the industry right now btw.
http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wond...the_house_.html

	13-03-2005 00:34									#14
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

P.S
Try out Goo tower while you're there. I've never had so much fun building a tower out of goo. Short, refreshing and sweet.

	13-03-2005 01:20									#15
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Spore could end up being quite literally the biggest and most ambitious game ever attempted. Although it begins at the microscopic level, with players taking control of a monocellular organism in a tidal pool, the scale changes as the creature evolves and grows. The end result: A massive adventure spanning an entire galaxy with player-driven gameplay and design shared seamlessly online among the entire Spore community.

This sounds like satire. If it's real, I think Wright is getting senile - it sounds retarded. "A massive adventure"?

	13-03-2005 01:45									#16
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Spore sounds like a more personal variant on SimEarth -- a classic 1991 game where you started off with a molten rock and ended ten billion years later after nursing many sentient species to an interstellar exodus.

	13-03-2005 09:07									#17
	Get a bigger avatar today!

Creationists might feel a bit left out with the premise of this game. Perhaps a Christian variant will emerge where you have to manage Adam and Eve and their offspring through human history and into the New Jerusalem?

	13-03-2005 10:25									#18
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by VJ There's already a game called like this. It's called Real Life, ever heard of it?

Simcity, the Sims - when does Wright do a game that ISNT modeled on some part of RL? And yet sells in the gazillions. Not all games have to be about fantasy, ya know.

	13-03-2005 10:28									#19
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger This is going to be ten times worse than MoO 3, because this Spore thing sounds way too ambitious. The Sims sounded cool initially too, and it turned out to be turd.

Lets see - MOO3, commercial disaster, bargain binned after a couple of months.

The Sims - constantly atop the charts, xpack after xpack, and now a hit sequel.

	13-03-2005 13:09									#20
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark The Sims - constantly atop the charts, xpack after xpack, and now a hit sequel.

Perhaps this is how UR defines a turd

Asmodean

	13-03-2005 15:26									#21
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by CapTVK I'll take a look at it once its ready. In the meantime there's plenty of other fish in the sea. For some short games try out experimentalgameplay.com [/url]

Some real fun stuff there! Me and my GF really enjoyed tower of goo and opposites attract. If a girl can enjoy it then they have found the secret formula

	13-03-2005 15:43									#22
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by Bkeela Creationists might feel a bit left out with the premise of this game. Perhaps a Christian variant will emerge where you have to manage Adam and Eve and their offspring through human history and into the New Jerusalem?

Nah they can just have a god mode where they just......win.

	13-03-2005 22:47									#23
	Increase the size of your Attachments

quote: Originally posted by St Leo Spore sounds like a more personal variant on SimEarth -- a classic 1991 game where you started off with a molten rock and ended ten billion years later after nursing many sentient species to an interstellar exodus.

They really need to make a new version of that to take advantage of the much more powerful computers we have now, and to update the science the game is based on. For example, the level of oxygen tended to stay close to 21% because of fires, but we know now that the levels of oxygen have fluctuated greatly over the past 500 million years, from 35% (late Carboniferous) to less than 15% (early Triassic).

	13-03-2005 23:28									#24
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Say, does anybody know if there is a transcript / video of that speech on the net somewhere? For one thing, I don't like to rely on sites like Gamespot or IGN or PCMag to tell me what was said, because they often tend to twist words around and say what they want to see in the game as opposed to what was really said, and also, Wright is coming to my university to give some lectures Monday through Wednesday next week, and so I wanted to learn more about what he said, so I could bug him with an actual intelligent question, rather than, uhhh, could you tell us more about Spore?

	14-03-2005 00:38									#25
	Tired of ads?

Ask him when they started developing the game, that wasn't in any articles I read. I would believe him more if the game has been in development for a good chunk of time.

	14-03-2005 01:08									#26
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by Snotty Some real fun stuff there! Me and my GF really enjoyed tower of goo and opposites attract. If a girl can enjoy it then they have found the secret formula

Indeed, it shows you can have as much as fun with simple concepts. This is how many games were made in the 8-bit early 16-bit era. Although there was plenty of crap and imitations/clones in those days as well. Plus the occasional attempt on a megagame. Who remembers "The great space race"*?


P.S
If you liked those. You should also try out square off, sort of a version of pong were you have build blocks and throw them at each other in a 2 player game.





*I was keeping this game in reserve for "Name the Game" competition but I guess there's only one person here who would know the answer.

	14-03-2005 01:11									#27
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

This reminds me of SimEarth in a much larger scale...

	14-03-2005 01:22									#28
	Re: EVO Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by GreenCrescent evo the old SNES game?

That game sucked...

	14-03-2005 02:15									#29
	Re: Re: EVO Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Odin That game sucked...

EVO was a great game.

	14-03-2005 02:42									#30
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Gamecube64 Ask him when they started developing the game, that wasn't in any articles I read. I would believe him more if the game has been in development for a good chunk of time.

From some of the articles I read on the net, it seems he wasn't just talking, but also showing off some demos of the game, so I understand there's something playable there. But then other sources don't mention anything to that extent. That's why I wanted to see a transcript of the talk, to see exactly what was going on there.

Vovan