According to Jeff Karp, EA’s head of North American publishing, there are plans to deliver Spore content for the next 10(!) years.
With “Spore,” EA already has plans internally to develop new content for at least 10 years. These plans include the traditional new levels and building blocks, but also “new ways to play and experience ‘Spore’.”
Exactly in what way is not mentioned; if this includes sequels or just expansion packs, add-ons and downloadable content.
Yesterday the official site posted the following press notice:
Spore is a game that inspires self expression through creativity yet links untold numbers of people together from around the world through sharing their creations online. We have found ways to enhance that experience by allowing players to email a screenshot of their creation to a friend directly from the game or upload a video directly to the web. Spore allows people to connect instantly in ways that have never been done before. Yet, for our incredibly creative team, this still wasn’t enough.
Our procedurally generated systems learn each player’s style and match the content to that specific person. For several months now, a side team has been working on ways to use this same technology to match players to each other, rather than just to the content. Our systems can analyze play style, aesthetic preferences, time spent creating versus playing, and more and then maps that against the data from other players to find a match. The surprising discovery in our focus group testing was that this is most often a love match.
Maxis is currently in discussions with several well-known dating sites to integrate our player matching system into the format of a dating system creating SporeDate. Since this program is being designed for the most dedicated fans, we are bringing the news to you here first. Starting today, we will choose players for our pilot program of SporeDate at random from our list of newsletter subscribers. So if you haven’t signed up, please do so today. We are truly excited to bring this new innovation to light and look forward to seeing you all on SporeDate!
Spore: more than just a game, it’s a way of life.
Love is in the air. Everywhere I look around…
Did you read the Gamasutra article yesterday? If so you know it had some new info regarding micro-payments in Spore. It turns out we were slightly mislead and EA had to step in to correct a few misunderstanding. This is how it is:
Sharing or “downloading” player created content is a core feature of Spore, not at all something that is part of the Spore Store or even under consideration for additional charge. The entire game is based on players making creatures, buildings, and vehicles which can be accessed from what we call our Sporepedia – a web based collection of all player created assets.
The Spore Store simply gives players the ability to purchase out-of-game merchandise such as t-shirts and posters or any additional game products we might make down the road such as expansion packs. For example, we are working with a company to provide the option for 3D versions of a player’s creature to be made and the Spore Store is where that purchase would originate.
We have also mentioned that we will be providing the Creature Creator tool as a stand alone product in the month or two before the game launches so that players can begin to design their creatures, but we do not have plans to sell individual parts via micro-transactions.
So not only are we free from the micro-payments yoke, but we also learn the planned timeframe for the release of the editor, and that figurines are indeed planned!
Ian Bogost over at Gamasutra visited the ICE 2008 conference Toronto last week, where he spent some quality time with Spore, playing with the editor and following the reactions of the visitors to its booth. He noticed some unexpected behavior patterns:
I have no doubt that the game will be a success, but I wonder if new players will pick up the box and think, “I’m not sure I’ll be able to create anything good,” or “I’m not the kind of person who toys with life.” And I wonder what marketing strategies and play styles might combat this.
We also get some tiny bits of information on how the editor behaves when performing certain actions. It’s a good read covering the whatif’s and but’s that you always encounter with innovative games leading up to their release. Discuss this further in our forum.
EV’s are points you get when you post in the forum, which in the near future will allow you to get cool gear and possibly other secret upgrades to your account. The first 100 to register at our forum gets 10 free EV points for later use. Not only that, but the first user who manages to reach 100 posts will recieve an additional 50 EV’s. So hurry on and grab yours today!
See various Maxis members tell us a little about of their work on Spore and in general.
Weather is definitely in. Belgian magazine PC GamePlay reports in a new hands-on preview that Spore features a number of different types; including:
Not only that, but in the creature phase you have to watch out for nocturnal predators at night. Apart from that little tidbit the preview offered no further surprises.
Thanks to The_Kev over at gamingsteve.com.
The fansite kit is now also available for download at the official site, at a considerably faster download speed. So grab it if you haven’t already, it’s worth it.
There’s also a small FAQ online with some interesting Q&A’s. On the topic of the much talked about system requirements they say that “While Spore offers a unique gameplay experience, our team is working hard to make sure Spore will be accessible to as broad an audience as possible.” So what to make of this? Wise from previous spec discussions and Maxis track record I think it’s safe to say that we are going to have to up our predictions a bit. The wording hints that such a complex game has to be somewhat demanding, and that they’re currently fine-tuning it to cut hardware requirements, but with no promises; hence the as possible. Hopefully though I’m just reading too much into it and we’ll end up with an acceptable result.
As previously mentioned there were some wallpapers in the fansite kit released. Since it was a pretty hefty download they have been uploaded for your pleasure to our wallpaper galleries, along with five Spore EVolve exclusives; chose between standard 4:3 format or widescreen. Our galleries now total over 200 items, so if you’re looking for some eye-candy head on over.
ComputerAndVideoGames.com got a one-page preview up that delivers some interesting pieces to the puzzle. Editor Tom Francis tells us of maracas producing factories, the art of diplomacy, and the epic monsters you might encounter during the different phases of the game.
…that race of fanged bunnies you experimented with on your first time through may come back to haunt you in hundred-foot-high form.
We are also told that the five sub-games are simple but addictive, and that you can unlock new features and bodyparts by eating and studying other creatures.
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