Spore Creature Creator | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Maxis |
Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
Designer(s) | Will Wright |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Character editor |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Spore Creature Creator is a software that allows players to create their own creatures with a standalone version of the Creature Editor from Spore ; the software was one of the first aspects of the game to receive focused development, and underwent ten rewrites since the start of development. [1] It was rated E by the ESRB in early March 2008, indicating that the editor would be released separately well before the game's release as a utility program. Electronic Arts told MTV Asia that "EA Screen will provide visitors a chance to interact with EA's game producers hailing from the studios, and unveil the hugely anticipated SPORE Creature Creator demo version to gamers for the first time in Asia." [2] Electronic Arts VP Patrick Buechner stated on the Spore Facebook page that the editor would be released in June or July 2008, saying, "We are looking at releasing it two to three months before the launch of the full game."[ citation needed ]
The SimCity Box artwork showed a blurb stating that the creature editor would be included with it. [3] IGN revealed that the Spore Creature Creator utility would be available in two different versions on June 17, 2008. [4] There was a paid version (for $9.95) and a free demo that was downloadable from Spore.com and included for free, bundled with The SimCity Box. The free version of the editor only contained 25% of the available creature parts that were found within the full version. In Australia, on August 30, 2008, three state newspapers owned by News Limited offered the full version either free or for $2. [5]
The utility includes a test environment for players to see their creatures go through animations and allowed the player to import other user-created creatures through the Sporepedia at Spore.com. The utility included screen capture and video tools as well, [4] including YouTube functionality. [6] The editor also gave the user the ability to create animated avatars, [7] and output in RSS and embeddable HTML code to facilitate easy incorporation into such sites as MySpace and Facebook. [8] The software is automatically superseded by Spore when it is installed, since the Creature editor is already present on the game.
Shortly after its introduction, the Creature Creator was used to create creatures with oversized genitalia, either stand-alone or engaged in coitus (a phenomenon quickly dubbed "sporn"). [9] EA responded with e-mails sent to those who made pornographic machinima from its demo, and has flagged certain on-line accounts for "TOS violations". [10] Furthermore, YouTube pulled several such videos for violations of its own TOS. [11]
By June 24, 2008, users had already uploaded over one million creatures to the site.[ citation needed ] During Electronic Arts' E3 2008 presentation on July 14, 2008, Wright humorously noted that fans had done God's work at 38% efficiency by creating the same number of currently known species on Earth, 1,589,000, in about 18 days, compared to God's 6 days. [12] When Spore debuted on September 1, 2008, over 3 million creatures had been added to the Sporepedia via the Spore Creature Creator.
When installing Spore, Spore Creature Creator would be uninstalled.
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | 83/100 [13] |
Publication | Score |
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Eurogamer | 9/10 [14] |
PC Gamer (UK) | 90% [15] |
VideoGamer.com | 8/10 [16] |
Common Sense Media | [17] |
At the time of its release, the game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [13]
Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including The Sims, Spore and SimCity.
SimCity is a city-building simulation video game developed by Will Wright, and released for several platforms from 1989 to 1991. SimCity features two-dimensional graphics and an overhead perspective. The game's objective is to create a city, develop residential and industrial areas, build infrastructure, and collect taxes for further city development. Importance is placed on increasing the population's standard of living, maintaining a balance between the different sectors, and monitoring the region's environmental situations to prevent the settlement from declining and going bankrupt.
William Ralph Wright is an American video game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis, which later became part of Electronic Arts. In April 2009, he left EA to run Stupid Fun Club Camp, an entertainment think tank in which Wright and EA are principal shareholders.
SimCity 4 is a city-building simulation computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The game was released in January 2003 for Microsoft Windows and in June 2003 for Mac OS X. It is the fourth major installment in the SimCity series. SimCity 4 has a single expansion pack called Rush Hour which adds features to the game. SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition contains the original game and Rush Hour combined as a single product.
SimCity 3000 is a city building simulation video game released in 1999, and the third major installment in the SimCity series. It was published by Electronic Arts (EA) and developed by series creator Maxis. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and, through an arrangement with Loki Games, Linux.
SecuROM is a CD/DVD copy protection and digital rights management (DRM) system developed by Sony DADC and introduced in 1998. It aims to prevent unauthorised copying and reverse engineering of software, primarily commercial computer games running on Windows. The method of disc protection in later versions is data position measurement, which may be used in conjunction with online activation DRM. SecuROM gained prominence in the late 2000s but generated controversy because of its requirement for frequent online authentication and strict key activation limits. A 2008 class-action lawsuit was filed against Electronic Arts for its use of SecuROM in the video game Spore. Opponents, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believe that fair-use rights are restricted by DRM applications such as SecuROM.
Impossible Creatures is a 2003 steampunk real-time strategy game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Its unique feature is that the armies used in gameplay are all created by the player, and involve combining two animals to make a new super creature with various abilities. The concept was inspired by H. G. Wells' novel The Island of DoctorMoreau. The player-created armies are capped at 9 creatures; each one is a combination of any two animals from a list of 76. Many animals possess inherent abilities and players can multiple such abilities or compensate for weaknesses as they plan units and armies. There is an extensive single-player campaign as well as online multiplayer functionality with different game modes, add-ons, custom maps, mods, and scenarios.
Chaim Gingold is an Israeli-American game designer and writer, noted for his work with the computer game Spore, where he designed the game's creators, including the Spore Creature Creator. Gingold was also a key member of Spore's design and prototyping team. He has presented at the Game Developers Conference and is an active participant in the academic game studies community.
The Sims 3 is a 2009 social simulation video game developed by the Redwood Shores studio of Maxis, and published by Electronic Arts. Part of The Sims series, it is the sequel to The Sims 2. It was released on June 2, 2009, for Microsoft Windows, MacOS, and mobile versions. Console versions were released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS in October 2010 and a month later for Wii. The Windows Phone version was released on October 15, 2010. A Nintendo 3DS version, released on March 27, 2011, was one of the platform's launch titles.
SimCity is an open-ended city-building video game franchise originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, SimCity, was published by Maxis in 1989 and was followed by several sequels and many other spin-off Sim titles, including 2000's The Sims, which itself became a best-selling computer game and franchise. Maxis developed the series independently until 1997, and continued under the ownership of Electronic Arts until 2003. EA commissioned various spinoffs from other companies during the 2000s, focusing on console and mobile releases. A 2013 EA-Maxis reboot was subject to what has been described as "one of the most disastrous launches in history", which may have triggered the 2015 shutdown of Maxis Emeryville and the end of the franchise.
Spore is a video game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright, released in September 2008. The game has drawn wide attention for its ability to simulate the development of a species on a galactic scope, using its innovation of user-guided evolution via the use of procedural generation for many of the components of the game, providing vast scope and open-ended gameplay.
Spore Creatures is a 2008 science fiction adventure game developed by Griptonite Games and published by Electronic Arts. The game is a spin-off of Spore in which a player controls and evolves a creature of their creation to save another creature from the clutches of an alien who plans on dominating the galaxy.
Spore Origins is the mobile device spin-off of Spore, and focuses on a single phase of the larger game's gameplay - the cell phase.
Spore is a 2008 life simulation real-time strategy god game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Designed by Will Wright, it covers many genres including action, real-time strategy, and role-playing games. Spore allows a player to control the development of a species from its beginnings as a microscopic organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation. Throughout each stage, players are able to use various creators to produce content for their games. These are then automatically uploaded to the online Sporepedia and are accessible by other players for download.
Spore Galactic Adventures is an expansion pack for the multigenre game Spore, developed by Maxis Emeryville and published by Electronic Arts. The US version of the game was released on June 23, 2009. The European version was released on June 26, 2009.
Spore Hero is 2009 action-adventure game developed by EA Montreal and published by Electronic Arts. It is a Nintendo Wii spin-off of Spore in which the players focus on creativity and evolution using the controls of the Wii. The game was released in October 2009.
Spore Hero Arena is a science fiction action-adventure game for the Nintendo DS and is a spin-off of Spore Hero which was released in North America on October 6, 2009, and worldwide on October 8. This game is the second Spore game for the Nintendo DS, and focuses more on battling than its predecessor, Spore Creatures. Creatures are now rendered in full 3D and the creature design system has been overhauled. The online functions/multiplayer were closed on 30 June 2014.
Spore Bot Parts Pack, also known as the Dr Pepper Parts Pack, is a promotional expansion pack for the multigenre game Spore, developed by Maxis Emeryville and published by Electronic Arts. Bot Parts introduces 14 new robotic parts usable by players in the creature editor of Spore, or in the standalone version of the editor, Spore Creature Creator. The expansion was released on 1 January 2010 as part of a promotion run by the soft drink company Dr Pepper; download codes were available on bottles released in the United States throughout 2010. The expansion generated some controversy due to causing some installation issues and only being available in the United States.