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Spore Creature Creator builder creates iPhone game about destroying
Chaim Gingold spent the past few years creating ways to create things in Spore, most notably the game's Creature Creator. Now the former Maxis design lead has decided to take a different path, making an iPhone game that's all about destroying things ... as a creature. Titled Earth Dragon, Gingold's debut effort on the App Store puts players in control of a dragon with some very simple needs: Laying waste to castles and enemies, and abducting princesses. It relies on simple tilt and tap controls to fly, smash and breathe fire. In an interview with Gamasutra, Gingold spoke of his philosophy on iPhone development, saying, "My mantra while developing Earth Dragon has been 'Make Donkey Kong, not Super Mario Bros.' Think small! If people like it, you still care, you can pile in the other million ideas you have later." As for what he'll do next, it seems that iPhone will again be his platform of choice. "I have a ton of ideas sitting in my personal prototype vault that I've never been able to figure out what to do with, but I think many of them would work nicely on the iPhone, which is exciting to me." If you're keen on playing the game -- which, in Gingold's words, contains "the most intense level of cartoon violence Apple allows" -- hit this link to the iTunes App Store. Just want to see it in action? Check out the video after the break.
Spore's power struggle: freedom vs. beauty
What is a magic crayon? If you're envisioning Harold and his purple outlet of creativity, you wouldn't be far off from the intended metaphor. Chaim Gingold, design lead for Spore's editors and cell game, described the magic crayon as a toy that is simple to use and yet gives the user enough power to create something they'll appreciate. Gingold kicked off his presentation, one of the last after a marathon of lectures and roundtables at this year's Game Developers Conference, by defining a magic crayon through example. Photoshop is not a good magic crayon, for example, because it is very hard for most people to use. Neither is Super Mario Bros., since you are not changing anything in the world. Kid Pix fits the schema for a magic crayon, as does the Mii creator, which is an "absolutely beautiful, wonderful magic crayon," he said.
Joystiq interviews Spore's Chaim Gingold and Chris Hecker
On the first day of the Montreal International Game Summit, Chaim Gingold and Chris Hecker presented a keynote on the topic of "advanced prototyping," specifically as to how it pertains to Spore, the game that currently occupies their time over at EA/Maxis. The same talk, given at the 2006 Game Developers Conference, was rated higher than any other presentation, including Will Wright's, their boss's. Before the keynote, Joystiq had a chance to chat with both Chaim and Chris, and discuss their impetus for joining Maxis, the evolution of Spore, and the relationship between Maxis and EA.You're both at Maxis now. How did each of you get there?CHRIS HECKER: We both started full-time the same day, actually.CHAIM GINGOLD: Yeah. I was at Georgia Tech doing a masters program in integration design and technology, and there was a required internship over the summer. My advisor asked me "where are you going to work?" And I was like "I don't know." She was like "Didn't you have an interest in working with games?" and I was like "It would be fun to work with Will Wright, not that that would ever happen. That would be totally crazy." And then one day I got an e-mail from him, saying "We're looking for interns." And then an hour later I got an email back saying "You got it." And so I got the internship, and at the time there were like four or five people working on Spore. That sort of really small team, and I spent the summer working on that. Everyone was crunching on TSO [The Sims Online], and when I got done they asked me back, so I came back.When was that?CG: I've been there four, five years now.CH: So, I was working in indie games for, like, eight years, and my wife was basically paying the mortgage. She kinda had the high-powered, executive job. And then, we had a baby, and she decided: "Well, I'm quitting. It's your turn to actually work." And I was like "Uh-oh! I guess I'm going to have to make some money." Indie games don't pay that well.
