Will Wright
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Wright wants you to love the companion cube, save SETI
This isn't so much a news post as it is a 129-word, one pic reminder of why we love Will Wright so very, very much. Reason 1: He made (is still making?) Spore, a game that's so whimsically flexible that everyone's favorite three-dimensional friend, the Weighted Companion Cube, can be recreated fairly faithfully.For reason two, you're going to have to squint a bit at Wright's shirt ... yeah, that's right, "SAVE SETI AT ARECIBO." Will Wright isn't afraid to take on the tough issues, mister, like the effort to convince Congress to continue to fund Arecibo Observatory and our continuing search for life beyond earth. We don't know what kind of nerd cred card you were thinking about playing today reader, but don't bother. It's already done been trumped.
Joystiq hands-on: Spore (the whole thing)
click to enter gallery var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Joystiq_hands_on_Spore_the_whole_thing'; As equal parts excuse and contrition, I feel it's necessary to add the following disclaimer to this writeup: spending thirty minutes with something like Spore is like spending thirty minutes on the history of the Russian space program or spending thirty minutes on the theory of evolution (or any other seemingly disparate discipline you may find in one of Will Wright's famously schizophrenic presentations) – it may be deep enough to wet your toes but there's an ocean out there. At a recent EA event in Los Angeles, myself and the rest of the E3 Judges had an opportunity to get our feet wet (figuratively, of course). Before being lead into a private demo area with a half-dozen high-end gaming rigs outfitted with the latest build of Spore, Will Wright – along with what seemed to be every other team at EA – gave a short presentation covering ... well, he covered a lot (see above). I was able to extract two fascinating details from my furiously scribbled notes. First: Wright (and EA we presume) was hoping to have 100,000 creatures created by the time the game ships in September; of course, they beat that in the first couple hours. In fact, they had announced the night before that 250,000 creatures were created and, after getting a quick real-time check during his presentation, estimated they would hit half a million before the end of the day's event. (They did).Second: Wright told us that they expected to "exceed the world population of 3D models in Spore" within the first couple months. If we heard him right, that means there would be more 3D models in the Sporepedia than every other game, movie, you-name-it combined. And, wrapped in the embrace of Will Wright's own special reality distortion field that afternoon, nothing seemed more plausible. %Gallery-26579%
Will Wright talks Spore and defensive cows
1UP has a nice video interview with Will Wright where he discusses various elements of Spore. He covers the different stages of evolution in the game, the AI built into the creature creator and tells a good story about a really mad cow. For Civ IV fans, Wright also briefly talks about Soren Johnson's contribution to the game. Johnson left Firaxis last year to go work on Spore and help the team streamline the title. The full interview can be found after the break.%Gallery-15870%
Sporemon: Spore Creature Creator meets Pokemon
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Sporemon_Spore_Creature_Creator_meets_Pokemon'; The Spore Creature Creator. PC enthusiasts have been enjoying the thing for a bit now, creating wild and imaginative creatures. Well, it's also been used to create other things, such as controllers and ... rabbids. We figured there must also be a vibrant Pokémon population thriving within the virtual walls of the editor, as well. And, sure enough, we found lots of fun and inspired Pokémon recreations. So click on the bottom-right button there to check out some of the Pokémon users have come up with!
Spore Creature Creator spawns Wiimote and nunchuk
Click for super-huge image Much like the creature that resembles an Xbox 360 controller, someone has gone ahead and created the Wiimote and nunchuk-like combo you see above. While we haven't played any Spore Creature Creator ourselves, we do hear it's fun. Heck, if you can make the thing above there, it can't be all bad.Any other gaming controllers or characters you've seen done up in the game?[Thanks, Amiculi!]
Azerothian Spore creatures continue to crawl in
That Murloc was just the beginning -- since the Spore creature creator demo dropped officially yesterday, and along with this cute little C'thun (thanks, Andrew!), there are a whole crowd of Warcraft-related creatures showing up on the Sporepedia. We've collected our favorites so far in a gallery below -- while you'll need to actually put the creatures in game to see them shuffle, saunter, and dance around in Spore, you can get a pretty good idea of just how versatile Will Wright's little creator is. I've said it before and I'll say it again: while everyone is expecting Warhammer to give WoW a run for its money, the PC game that Blizzard should really be worried about this year is Spore.If you see any other great Warcraft-related creature creations in Spore, feel free to send them along and you just might see them here. And in the meantime, our sister site BigDownload (who are also hosting the demo) is holding a creature creator contest -- send them your best creature and you could win a EVGA NVIDIA e-GeForce 8800GT, EVGA NVIDIA e-GeForce 9600GT or a free upgrade to the full version of the creature creator game. It's Sporelicious!Seriously, look at the C'thun. We haven't seen a tentacled, ancient monster this cute since, well, Hello Cthulu.%Gallery-25480%
Quirks: the 1980 board game equivalent of Spore
As you know, we sometimes like to cut the wires and take things Off the Grid, which can lead to bouts of surfing through websites like BoardGameGeek until 5 in the morning ... allegedly ...However, all of that browsing paid off in spades when we stumbled across Quirks, a board game from the magical year of 1980. Looks a bit familiar, doesn't it? We wonder if Will Wright ever sat down with this back in the day. He would have been around 20 years old when it came out, and he's admittedly a huge fan of board and strategy games, so you do the math. Find out more about genetic manipulation in the 80s after the break (spoiler: it wasn't all big hair, bangle bracelets, and friendship pins).
Spore Creatures evolves new screens, Japanese release date
In the beginning, there was a confirmation.Shortly thereafter, a release date and gameplay details emerged from the primordial ooze a Newsweek interview, and an involuntary chemical reaction a Joystiq hands-on session soon produced screens. Then, for some time, nothing. Until this morning, that is, when we found that the screens had suddenly multiplied in number, and had inhabited our gallery!The newly developed screens were joined by boxart for the Japanese version of the game, which sort of reminded us of Pokémon Trozei!'s box, and a Japanese release date: September 11th.So goes the ongoing story of the evolution of Spore Creatures.%Gallery-15944%
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%
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%
Spore Creature Creator and demo coming June 17
If you're the megalomaniacal sort who wants nothing more than a race of sentient creatures of your own design bending to your every whim, we have good news! The Spore Creature Creator, once only dated for the murky, fingerprinted window of June, has now been specifically nailed to June 17. If you're megalomaniacal but also too cheap to spring the $9.99 for the game, you'll be happy to hear that a free demo will also arrive that day on the Spore site.Once the full game arrives on September 5, you'll be able to import in all your created beasts. Until then, they're a perfect way to see if friends and family love you enough to feign interest in the computer animal you made. Gallery: Spore
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%
The Sims surpasses 100 million units sold worldwide
The top-selling video game of all time has just surpassed another milestone, as EA announced that The Sims, which has been released in more than 20 different languages, has now sold 100 million copies the world over since it sprang from the mind of super-developer Will Wright in 2000. The first game's expansion-laden release was followed by The Sims 2 in the fall of 2004, while the recently announced The Sims 3 will drop sometime in 2009, for the first time letting sims venture beyond their front doors and into the neighborhood. The idea of 100 million of anything is difficult for us to wrap our brains around, so we cornered Rod Humble, the brand's studio head, to pick his noodle on The Sims, particularly with regards to the franchise's expansion-heavy history. So, with pets, night-life, and even magic tricks to pick from, what add-ons do players continue to ask for that's not yet available? Says Humble, "Right now our players are keen to playing an expansion pack that focuses on living in a big city...other ideas I've seen in the community include a rave/party pack and science fiction pack." Little green sims? We can support that.Look for the complete interview with the EA exec on The Sims franchise, expansions, and where it goes from here later today.
EA releases first details, screens of Sims 3
click to enlarge If you're a Sims fan you've probably been obsessively counting down the days until March 19 when EA would reveal more details on the next iteration of their profit center popular series: Sims 3. The official site seems to be down at the moment [update: it's back up!], but we received some details from EA in a written statement we can pass on. Expect a new engine with a new, much more detailed Create-a-Sim feature. There are more physical and personality options for Sims, in fact, the release boasts over 700 million combinations. All of the objects in the world are going to be more customizable too. Also, as we already knew, your neighborhood is going to be a bigger factor in your gameplay. It all sounds promising, but don't get too excited just yet: There's no specific date, but EA says the game won't drop until 2009.%Gallery-18710%
Promotional Consideration: City planning
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.We applaud any video game ad that eschews the common official-art-and-screenshots approach, a template that's been in place for as long as we can remember. This week's piece abandons those conventions, marketing EA's SimCity DS port and its city-management features in a much more creative fashion. Expand you commercial zoning, lower industrial taxes, and join us past the break!
Spend a virtual evening with Will Wright
Do you love Will Wright? Like, really love Will Wright? Do you love Will Wright so much that you could listen to him talk for a half hour about things that are only tangentially video game related? It's for the special fan like you that we present "An Evening With Will Wright," a talk held at an off-site bar during last month's Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco.We were there, so here are some simple instructions if you want the full virtual experience: get yourself some mini hot dogs and french fries (the victuals at the event) and some free booze. You'll probably find yourself irritated at the people talking over Will Wright and wanting nothing more than to have fists so large that you could simultaneously punch all of them in the face. Trust us, that's part of the experience too. Part 2 is right after the break.
Overheard@GDC: Who's Will Wright?
"Who's Will Wright?""'Who's Will Wright?' You're out of my personal fan club. Have you ever played Sim City?""No."[Awkward silence.]-Two dudes at last night's Will Wright party
GDC08: An evening with Will Wright minus friends (video)
I applied for, and received an invitation to 'An Evening with Will Wright and Friends', held in Mezzanine, a swanky club in San Francisco's SOMA district on Thursday evening. I didn't know what exactly to expect, but I knew two things: 1) It wasn't going to be about Spore, and 2) It was Will Freaking Wright. How did I know Spore wasn't on the offering? 'Cause we're all kind of Spore'd out, aren't we?I was right about the lack of Spore, but was pleasantly surprised and gratified to hear Will speak on a variety of topics -- James Bond, cosmonauts, Gilligan's Island as the predecessor of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics, Godzilla, Care Bears, Lost, Walt Disney, Battlestar Galactica, Spiderman, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -- before finally wrapping it all up with the observation that the stories that resonate with us are deconstructible; we can reduce them to components, and using those components, build our own stories. Finally, accepting questions from the audience, I asked him what advice he'd give NASA as they create their MMO. His friends never showed up, but man, Will Wright is always worth a listen. He knows his stuff so well and is such a wonderful speaker ... check out the video I shot after the break, and you'll see what I mean.
GDC08: Will Wright talks the importance of worlds, community ownership
Tonight had a chance to attend a speech given by Will Wright at the Mezzanine in San Francisco. "This is the first time I've ever spoken to a drunk audience," he quipped. Before the speech, Electronic Arts PR Neil Young warned everyone that this would not be a speech about Spore. That's all subjective, of course -- Wright's talk, spanning everything from social science to pop culture, show an insight into his psyche and drive for Spore better than any video game session could.The point Wright started out was the negative connotation in the use of words such as franchise, brand and property, instead preferring the term "worlds" (though, we should note, he used franchise and brand a few times). Star Wars is presented as an example of a fractal timeline, with smaller iterative stories adding to fill in the gaps in between and around the major arc originally presented. Other successful worlds include LEGO, James Bond and Godzilla.%Gallery-16662%
GDC08: We're at the Will Wright party
So, we've just arrived at the Will Wright party and we're literally awkwardly sitting in a corner. We're typing on our laptops while attractive people mill about and eat lots of food (mini-hot dogs and french fries) and drink. It's the same club as last night at the Sony event but this is clearly more of a video game industry crowd. (You can tell from the bigger crowds around the food table.)We're hoping that Will Wright comes out sporting a cane, then pretends to fall, does a somersault, and then kills us off one by one with an elaborate series of candy-themed traps. We'll let you know.%Gallery-16662%
