Spore E3 Q&A part 3: General
General Details
The developers are considering mandating five-minute minimum play sessions for each phase of the game before you can unlock the next phase. It was unclear if this would be a first-time tutorial or if it would be required for each planet; we suspect the former, especially since Vu said you could use the creatures you've imported from Sporepedia during the tribal phase. Vu said they are also likely not to let you go back in time, e.g. once you hit Civilization Phase, for that planet/instance you won't be able to go back to cell/tribal.
Want to know how Electronic Arts can milk the Spore cow? The tabs in all the editor menus were planned for multiple pages. Maxis has reportedly also discussed the addition of robot creature parts, but there is "nothing to announce" at the moment.
Compared to the recently-released Creature Creator, the creature phase will have more animations and better polish. Vu was unsure if the standalone Creature Creator would be updated in the future.
On the subject of Mac support, Vu said they might make Spore compatible with the older Intel Macs (with the older graphics cards), but likely not.
At the moment, there are no ways to import/export entire planets. Vu said they currently consider them as an instance and, should the dev team make them transferable entitites in the future, they want to make sure they get it right.
There are three difficulty settings, but they do not affect what you unlock. It's more so, said Vu, for people who feel like they need more or less of a challenge during the game.
There is a limit to the number of planets you can have in your galaxy, much like the number of plots of land in your neighborhood in The Sims.
There's a "strong possibility" you'll be able to export your creations to Maya. Same for music using its audio editor tools, although if that ever happens, Vu was unsure of the format.
Will Wright's cameo in Spore (i.e. spin the galaxy in the main menu and his head appears) was added by Maxis employee without Wright knowing, although he found it hilarious. There's another Easter Egg in the shipped version, said Vu, though he was mum on what it would be.
In case you missed it, Spore players are now 38% God.
