My pick of the show is definitely Spore. It’s funny. While I’m at E3, everything is a blur. I just take it all in, and now that I’m home, I can start to make sense of everything. But Spore was cool as soon as I saw it. Friday was my day-of-waiting. I’d seen everything else, so decided to wait on all the lines for things on Friday. After the Wii, Spore was my next stop. After about 45 minutes of waiting, I got in. To my surprise, Will Wright was driving the demo.
I’ve been very interested in this game since I first heard news of it. I like sandbox playgrounds. And this is the ultimate sandbox, where you can craft whatever interests you most. It’s like a mix of SimLife, SimEarth, SimCity and Master of Orion, with a dash of the Sims thrown in for good measure. Whoa-ness, I say.
First up, he demonstrated the creature game. He built a creature from scratch, and it looked awesome. He tossed on a beak, and hit a button to get it to make noises, and it animated and squawked in a totally appropriate sounding way. Then he hit some test buttons and it played reaction emotions, looking tired or sad or excited, which is pretty impressive for a strange shaped beastie. Here’s a bad shot of the creature creation in action.
My favorite quote from this part of the demo was (approximately) “Our goal was to have anyone able to come in and create in 5 minutes what it takes a Pixar artist 5 weeks to build.”
Will took his critter for a stroll in the big bad world. It just looked cool. The sounds, the animations, the whole environment seemed polished and lovely. He stole some yummy eggs from other creatures, avoided certain death at the claws of a pack of social beasties, and found and mated with another of his species. This lead him back to the creature designer where he upgraded some elements, then returned to the game. My favorite part here was that the game automagically baby-fied his creature. It took what he’d built and made it small with a big head and feet and eyes, and it was instant cuteness. That was super cool.
He demo’d some more stuff in the creature game and switched to the space game where he got to drive a spaceship around and suck things up by tractor beam. Or fling and splat things with the beam, which got a few chuckles.
The ambition and scope of Spore are so impressive. And the polish and possibility boggle my mind. There’s no one in the games industry trying such quirky different things. Of course, Will Wright has the luxury of having created the best selling PC game of all time. That gives you a bit of leeway in terms of experimentation rights and budget. But of everything I saw, Spore was the title that got me most excited about game today and tomorrow and into our future.
3 Responses to “Best in Show”
Will Wright is my hero! This game sounds just up my alley. I loved the game Creatures way back when. And I have a feeling I am going to be captivated by this one even more. I hope he incorporates a deeper aspect of genetics in this game than in the Sims 2. I love tweaking good ol’ Mr. DNA. Have a good day.
The fact that you can take your creature into the world and play with it may make it a lot of fun.
I’m still a lot more skeptical than other people, because I played SimEarth and SimLife and found both of them interminably boring. When it’s described to me like that it’s a real turnoff.
Happily, they are making a different game than those, so maybe it will be fun.
I must admit, the more I read about Spore, the more I wonder if Gabe is right about it not really being a game. Or at least, you know, not an overly objective-filled game. I mean, I bought and played the Sims, and Sims 2, and I’d say they’re innovative and clever and everything. But I still got bored of them within a few hours, let alone days or weeks, and uninstalled them. After a few minutes of the usual Simming, I was doing the imprisonment schtick that EVERY Sim player does, and after that I was done. When I think about how quickly Will Wright summed up the stages of the game, I honestly wonder just how long it will hold my attention.
Still one of my most anticipated games, though.