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A week with Spore Creatures: Conclusion
In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages: Justin McElroy Ross Miller Randy Nelson Alexander Sliwinski Kevin Kelly For the final day, we tried to commit ourselves to pulling out all the stops, but a very long day of blogging left us with some epic failures that will never see the light of day (e.g. Big Bird). We do feel, however, that we have a much better understanding of Spore's limitations. (You can read about them in our gallery.) You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.%Gallery-25321% Put your skills to the test and win some gear. BigDownload is offering BigPrizes to see your Spore creations.
Spore creature resembles an Xbox 360 controller
Spore Creature Creator creations are all the rage right now (yes, we've even been sucked into Spore's creative wormhole) as gamers set out to create the most evil, most adorable and (sadly) the most phallic looking creatures they can think of. But the little guy you see above takes the Portal cake for being the most Xbox 360 themed and impressive of them all, because if you didn't already notice, it's modeled after a 360 controller. Genius! Though, we wouldn't advise pressing his guide button, because no creature likes being poked in the eye. It's painful. Oh, we also wouldn't touch this controller's joysticks because, honestly, we aren't sure what disgusting activities this little creature uses 'em for.[Via Kotaku]
250,000 Spore creatures shared, interstellar plague to follow
Electronic Arts announced late last night that 250,000 new creatures had been uploaded to the Sporepedia since the program got into various Sporeophile's hands mandibles. The company claims two creatures are being shared every second, with the latest data from our Spore page (image after the break) showing that 377,200 creatures have been created since those numbers were last updated on Spore.com. Quick math break: 377,200 - 78,762 penis creatures = 298,438 actual creatures.We've certainly been having fun around here making our adorable animals, ready to rule the galaxy on Sept. 7. The Spore Creature Creator demo (with about 25% of the retail content) and the full $10 version are available now.%Gallery-25321%
A week with Spore Creature Creator: Day Three
In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages: Justin McElroy Ross Miller Randy Nelson Alexander Sliwinski Kevin Kelly Today's highlights include a living guitar, a chocobo and a failed attempt at recreating the faun from Pan's Labyrinth. You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.%Gallery-25321% Put your skills to the test and win some gear. BigDownload is offering BigPrizes to see your Spore creations.
A week with Spore Creature Creators: Day Two
In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages: Justin McElroy Ross Miller Randy Nelson Alexander Sliwinski For day two (new entries start here), we've got an elated peppermint, an attentive dinosaur, and a hiphopapotamous with flows that glow like phosphorous. You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.%Gallery-25321%
Sims Carnival is now in open beta
In the future, there will be no game developers. Well, to be more accurate, there will be no paid videogame developers, just a legion of unpaid game slaves, toiling away for a chance at e-stardom. Today, the inevitable future looms just a bit closer with The Sims Carnival going into open beta.Right now, you can play some of the offerings from closed beta folks, who've come up with some really bizarre entries like this terrible take on Mario Kart and this brûlée caramelizing sim. You can also design your own games for the general populace to partake of, enjoy and never, ever pay you for.
BigDownload offering big prizes to see your Spore creatures
How intelligent is your design? Our friends at BigDownload want to see your best work using the Spore Creature Creator demo, and they're offering 10 copies of the full version, a Wacom tablet and two NVIDIA video cards to tempt you. Click here for details and contest rules.
A week with Spore Creature Creator: Day One
In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this writer's progress via this Spore profile page. While we've got no Murlocs today, we did try our hand at making a Moogle. Check out all our creations via the gallery below. Each one contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.%Gallery-25321%
EA presents Sim City, MySims Kingdom, adorable costume
EA held an event in Japan last week to reveal the new Sim City Creator as well as MySims Kingdom. GAME Watch has direct-feed screenshots of both games, which should satisfy any would-be fake city-builder, whether they want to build on the micro- or macro-scale, in the past or in the future. There are also plenty of stills from gameplay demos of both games. Of the two, we find ourselves more drawn to MySims Kingdom, which looks like an RPG town creator, and forces players to think low-tech, with puzzles like gear mechanisms that must be turned by the motion of a nearby river.However, more than either of the actual games, we were impressed with the MySim costume used at the event. How can we build one of those?
Spore: Creature Stage wanders onto land, into blog post
click to enlarge EA just dropped a handful of screens and a short recap of Spore's second stage – the Creature Stage – into our laps (we have a hand there ... and some eyes ... and mandibles). Of course, they did the same thing last week for the opening "Cell Stage" and we presume they'll keep doing so in the coming weeks; we've still got Tribal, Civilization, and Space to look forward to.The Creature Stage jumps from Cell's 2D world into three dimensions, where you'll gather DNA points which you can use in the Creature Creator (check out our hands-ons and meet Sporky) to expand your critter's abilities. Here you'll encounter other strange species as you explore your world – "all of them created by other players" – and you'll "race" to "become the first sentient being" on your planet. It's like massively single-player online gaming. %Gallery-23862%
Lorne Lanning confirms he's on the new Oddworld
Recently confirmed by the head of Maxis and now effectively double-confirmed, the new Oddworld game will have involvement from the series' original creator. Previously thought to have left the World of Odd for aspirations in CG movie making, Lanning and his studio, Oddworld Inhabitants, are returning to the universe of their namesake with the next-gen Oddworld. While that game will still be under wraps for some time, it's good to know that the original creators are involved, even if they do have their hands full.
Another Oddworld title confirmed by creator
Co-founder of Inhabitants and one of the creators of the Oddworld universe, Lorne Lanning, has confirmed a new Oddworld title to be in development, but remains tight-lipped on any sort of details. the boss of Maxis, Jeff Braun, let this news slip last week in a speech, so it's nice to get a solid confirmation at last. There's not much else to say, really. There's a new game in development with graphics apparently comparable to an animated movie, the two guys are working together on it, but anything else is a complete mystery. We'll keep looking for more info, but until then, discuss what sort of collaboration could result from these two. Sim-Oddworld, perhaps?
Joystiq hands-on: Spore Creature Creator and the birth of Sporky
click to get up close with "sporky" var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Hands_on_Spore_Creature_Creator_and_the_birth_of_Sporky'; We dropped by Maxis' offices today to get our feet wet in the stand-alone "Creature Creator" component of The Sims architect Will Wright's epic cell-to-galactic-civilization sim, Spore (which hits in September). Set to launch on June 17 in two flavors (a $9.99 "full version" and free downloadable demo, also included with The SimCity Box) the creator could be incorrectly described as a "utility" – in fact, as we found while tinkering with it, the Creature Creator could very well have a life of its own. Read our full impressions after the break.%Gallery-15870%
New Oddworld game in the works, may be 'years' off
It's been more than three years since we last frolicked about in Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, but according to Maxis co-founder Jeff Braun a new game set in Lorne Lanning's Oddworld universe is currently in the works. According to Wilfrid Laurier University student newspaper The Cord Weekly, Braun confirmed his involvement with developers Oddworld Inhabitants on the project during a presentation at the school earlier this week.Few details were revealed about the upcoming game, though Braun noted that the title will feature a "revolutionary new 3-D animation system" and "cinematic quality on a '1 to 1 scale' to that of computer-generated motion pictures," adding that the same assets could be used to create both a video game and film version in parallel. This isn't the first time talk of CG features and Oddworld have been mentioned in the same breath, with Lorne Lanning himself refocusing his company in 2005 to create both games and accompanying CG movies, the first of which was announced a year later as Citizen Siege. However, as that title has yet to see the light of day, it doesn't exactly surprise us that Braun admits that the next Oddworld release could be "years" away from seeing retail shelves, and may even be released in an episodic format when it's all said and done.
Spore 'Cell Phase' flOwts into view
click to magnify EA today passed out some new media of Spore's first stage, the "Cell Phase," a top-down 2D minigame that looks a lot like flOw (but, you know, maybe, actually ... fun). Perhaps not coincidentally, flOw's original designer Jenova Chen was briefly employed by Maxis, suggesting that Spore's Cell Phase may be a direct evolution of Chen's elegant Flash-based creation. Like its predecessor, Cell Phase features a player-driven microorganism, a little fish in the primordial ooze, which can be designated as herbivore, carnivore or omnivore before crashing into the ocean by way of immaculate meteor. The primary objective is to eat -- and not be eaten -- as you "earn DNA" and collect parts to enhance your creature's abilities (read: grow legs and get on to the good parts). Everybody's gotta start somewhere, eh?Don't miss the Cell Phase trailer posted after the break!%Gallery-23321%
Free, retail versions of Spore creature editor coming in June
While reaffirming Spore's September 7 release date, VP of Marketing at Maxis Patrick Buechner has told IGN that both trial (free) and retail (premium) versions of the creature editor are coming in June. The trial version will be available for download and in The SimCity Box, while the retail version should be available in stores around the same time Box launches."The free Creature Creator has about 25-percent of the creature making parts from Spore. The retail version will have 100-percent," said Buechner. Any creations you conjure can be shared online via the upcoming Sporepedia, and they will be compatible with Spore once it's released. No price was given for the retail version, and it wasn't mentioned whether any discount would be given to those who pay a premium to be teased about Will Wright's evolutionary time sink.%Gallery-15870%
Rumor: Spore Creature Creator included in SimCity Box
Ever since EA announced the early release of Spore's Creature Creator, we've been wondering how the company planned on distributing the pre-game title. Fingers were crossed for a free demo, but now it seems that EA would rather entice players into buying their SimCity Box, which will reportedly include the Creature Creator amongst its lineup of classic SimCity titles.On the game's Amazon product page, the box art indicates the presence of the "Creature Creator Trial Version" as a bonus feature. This same bonus is stated in the product description. If Amazon is to be trusted, we still don't know whether the "trial version" indicates a limited demo of the soon-to-be-released creature editor, or whether the editor is considered to be a "trial version" of Spore.We also don't know if this is EA's only intended method of distribution for the Creature Creator. We've contacted EA for further clarification, and will let you know once we have a few more facts.[Via GamerTell]
Nintendo tops 2007's Develop 100 list
And what such a prestigious achievement amounts to is, well, an awfully large amount of money. You see, the Develop 100 aims to rank "the world's most successful game studios" based on the revenues earned by their products at UK retail. Leaping to the top of the list for 2007 is Nintendo, its titles earning £129.83 million ($256 million) and boasting a significant lead over the £68.78 million ($136 million) belonging to number 2 producer, EA Canada.Other notable studios in the top ten include Ubisoft Montreal with £52.17 million, Konami with £41.67 million and Maxis, which raked in £36.84 million. You'll also spot Infinity Ward with £39.6 million and Bungie with £31.45 million, both of which coasted in on a single game.[Final "million" word count: 9. 10 if you count that "million." Oh, great, now it's 11.]
Sims 3 teaser posted, more info coming March 19
If there was any doubt that EA would continue to milk the lucrative cash cow that is Will Wright's Sims franchise, that doubt can now be officially expelled. EA has created an official page for the next title in the series -- titled, appropriately enough, The Sims 3.The site features little else besides the above image, which teases more details coming on March 19. Our Holmesian deductive reasoning lets us assume that this title will be a return to form for the Sims series, as opposed to another entry in the adorable but divergent MySims line. With work on Spore wrapping up after eight years, it's also possible that Mr. Wright himself may take an active role in the game's development. Guess we'll all have more information come March 19 (finally, something to anxiously look forward to besides Brawl).[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sim City 2 constructs Japanese release date, new screens
Town-planning enthusiasts who are also adept at reading kanji rejoice! EA just declared that Sim City 2 DS will be layin' pipes and buildin' roads in Japan on March 19th.Don't get too excited, though. One look at any screens of Maxis' build-me-do should let you know that this is not most people's idea of an import-friendly title. There are lashings of Japanese text, and if the user interface is anywhere near as confusing as the one found in the first Sim City DS (which we struggled to understand in English), we may as well just give up now and wait for news of a western release.Go past the break for a sprinkling of new screens.%Gallery-12347%
