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== Gameplay == | == Gameplay == | ||
Revision as of 04:45, 20 August 2007
Gameplay
Spore will be a simulation that "ranges from the molecular phase to the galactic phase". It will consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. Will Wright also mentioned that he wanted the player to be able to spend as much or as little time as they wanted in each stage. If one person likes the creature stage, the game will not force them to move on until they are ready.
In his original Game Developers Conference speech, Wright likened the style of gameplay of each of the six phases to an existing game. During the annual Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences DICE Summit on February 7, 2007, a slide was displayed which lists a total of eight phases.
- 1. Molecular
- 2. Cellular
- 3. Creature
- 4. Tribal
- 5. City
- 6. Civilization
- 7. Terraform
- 8. Galactic
Each phase of the game determines the starting point of the next phase. In the Game Developers Conference presentation, the creature that Will Wright was "guiding" through the creature phase was based on his earlier cell creature. It had three legs, a tail, eyes and a mouth in roughly the same position. He had evolved this creature through gameplay of the prior phases. He mentioned that the creatures' personality, whether it be logical or emotional, peaceful or violent, etc, is also affected by this gameplay.
Molecular phase
Very little is known of the molecular phase after its revelation on February 7, 2007. Current rumors state that the Molecular Phase might not be a part of the playable game. Current evidence states that the Molecular stage was a name used as the specific beginning of the Cellular Stage.
Cellular phase
The cellular phase is sometimes referred to as the microbial stage or the tide pool stage. The player guides simple microbes around in a 2D environment where the microbes must deal with fluid dynamics, being eaten, and weaker microbes. There are at least three other types of cells, two of which can eat the player's microbe.
Once the player's microbe has eaten several cells, it forms an egg which, when clicked, opens the creature editor which allows the player to modify the appearance, shape, and abilities of the microbe. The player can then add offensive abilities. For example, in Wright's 2005 demo, he added a small spike, which allows the player's microbe to attack the organisms that previously ate the player's microbe. Each time the player's microbe progresses to the next generation, it grows larger. Once the microbe grows to a certain size, the player leaves the 2D world of the microscopic and enters the creature phase.
Creature phase
While the tide pool phase introduces the player to the game and its editor, the creature phase plays a big part in terms of what the player's creatures will look like in the later phases. It is similar to the tide pool phase, but there are several important differences. The most obvious one is that it is a 3D environment. There will be other creatures inhabiting the world and most, if not all, of them will have been created by other players. If there is a lack of predators in the ecosystem and weak herbivores are everywhere, the game will automatically download a new race of predators that another player has created and load them into the current player's world to balance the ecosystem. The game will also download creatures in relation to how strong the player's creature is. If the player creates a bigger, tougher, creature, the predators that are downloaded will, like-wise, be stronger than average predators.
In Wright's 2005 demonstration, the creature with which he began looked remarkably similar to his earlier microbe. This led many people to believe that the creature was based upon the microbe's appearance. However, in a 2006 video from E3, narrated by a senior programmer, it was said that the player will initially begin as a slug-like animal. The narrator further stated the reason for this was to allow for more player creativity. It is unsure which method will be used in the final game however, as a new video demonstrates the essence of the cell creature emerging from a pond.
In this stage, the basic goal is the same: Hunt food to earn DNA points, reproduce, and avoid being eaten by predators. Unlike the asexual reproduction in the tide pool phase, the player must now locate a mate. Once the player's creature has laid an egg, it does not hatch straight away; scavengers will attempt to steal the eggs and the player must defend them. Before the egg hatches, the player will have the opportunity to 'evolve' their creature further into the next generation, which can be done by spending DNA points to buy body parts. When the egg hatches, the player becomes a baby version of the creature that spawned it. Aesthetically, this version of the creature will be smaller (but with certain features exaggerated such as the head) and have a voice of a higher pitch. This stage will have a profound effect on the creature's social skill evolution, as the baby will be making friends and forming its own herd; Wright referred to this as a simplified version of the friend-making mini-game in The Sims. The ultimate goal of the creature phase is to increase the creature's brain capabilities slowly using DNA points. Once they have increased sufficiently, the player's creature becomes sapient and the player progresses to the tribal phase.
Flying and swimming creatures
Not much had been discussed about the possibility of flying creatures in the game, but a flying creature was briefly seen in the GDC 2005 demo. No other examples of flying creatures have been seen, so their existence is still speculative. The game does include the option to place feathers on a creature, though it is still unknown whether the feathers would be functional, or just decorative, as they are on the Featherump. Similarly, the underwater phase has not been seen since the demo, leading to fears that it may have been cut. Additionally, in the SXSW 2007 demo, each phase has a mentioned text goal on the screen, and the stated goal of the tidepool phase is "become large enough to move onto land," by implication omitting a creature-underwater phase. However in the July 2006 issue of PC Gamer (UK) their preview of Spore suggested that players would not only be able to create aquatic creatures, but would be able to develop them into a fully underwater civilization. The opening Flash player cinematic of the official site does feature underwater evolution of a creature, so it is possible that the underwater phase is simply a part of the larger creature phase, though the site has not been updated since August 2006, and the flash piece has a still older creation date.
Tribal phase
After the player's species evolves its brain capacity far enough, it enters the tribal phase. At this stage physical development ceases (as does the player's direct control over an individual creature), but the player is given a hut and several of the creatures designed in earlier phases. At this point the game is similar to an RTS in that the player can order the tribe members to move, attack, etc. The player may give these creatures tools such as weapons, musical instruments, and campfires. The creatures' behaviors and personalities are affected by what tools the player decides to give them. At this point, tribe-to-tribe contact can take place, should the player choose to (whether that contact be diplomatic or violent). Once the tribe reaches 20 members, the player will progress to the city phase.
Civilization phase
In his GDC presentation, Will Wright described part of the civilization phase as "a simplified version of SimCity". The player's tribal camp has grown to a city, which must be cared for. Players can use a building editor to change the appearance of the buildings in their city. As in the creature phase, the game will attempt to detect what style of content the player prefers, download similar content created by other players and add it to the buy menu. Players will also be able to make relations between their civilization and other civilizations on their home planet, whether peaceful or war-torn.
Once players reach this point they are allowed to zoom out further for the first time, and view the entire planet from space. Once the player zooms out past a certain point, the realistically detailed features of the planet become more stylized. For example, the cities of the planet change from a properly-scaled view with all individual buildings visible to a more stylized, cartoon-like depiction for clarity. As in the tribal stage, players can meet other creatures of the same species in other cities to attempt either diplomacy, for opening trade routes and eventually forming an alliance, or for the purpose of attacking them. At this point, a vehicle editor is opened, allowing the player to construct a large variety of land vehicles, aircraft, boats, and submarines.
The goal in this phase is to gain control of the entire planet, and it is left for the player to decide whether to conquer by warfare or diplomatic means. Once players have gained enough credits in this phase, they unlock the UFO and the UFO editor, and can proceed into the space phase.
Terraform and galactic phases
After the civilization phase, the space phase begins. During the 2007 DICE Summit, it was revealed that the space phase was divided into two separate phases: terraform and galactic, denoted by the advancement of the race the player controls; terraforming represents a limited form of power to slowly change planets within one's own system, whilst the galactic phase represents a more God-like power upon the acquisition of the interstellar space drive: being able to travel outside of one's solar system.
- The player may terraform and colonize uninhabitable planets with special tools that are purchased with credits (water tool, volcano tool, etc.) The ultimate power in that area would be a technology which Wright dubbed the Genesis device, named after the device in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, both of which have the same purpose: transform a dead world into a planet capable of sustaining life in a matter of minutes. Players may colonize hostile worlds or deep under the ocean once they gain the ability to create bubbled cities, similar in function to self-sustaining arcologies. Once the world around them becomes habitable, the city loses the bubble.
- The player may travel between star systems and make contact with other civilizations on distant worlds, most of which are created by other players. Interactions revealed so far include impressing civilizations with fireworks, attacking them with weapons, or trying to establish a language with the civilization. These civilizations may react violently to the player or worship them, depending on that civilization's behavior and the race's personality.
- The player could try to conquer the galaxy by different means: beginning an interstellar war, diplomatically creating an interstellar union, etc.
- The player can run the mouse over other star systems and their individual planets to try to pick up radio static or noise that can indicate intelligent life.
- The player may abduct creatures (familiar or unfamiliar) and transport them to other planets. Players can do this to test a planet's inhabitants to see if they are friendly or not, or to merely test a planet's habitability.
- The player may interbreed different species genetically.
- The player may cause icy comets to crash into a planet to create water.
- The player may place a "monolith" (à la 2001: A Space Odyssey) on a planet, triggering evolution of intelligent life, then come back later to see what has evolved.
- The player may use a weapon to completely destroy a planet (similar to the capabilities of the Death Star from the Star Wars saga).
- The player may scan content and add the information to a database designed like a card game called the Sporepedia.
- The player may also find strange objects with unknown purposes to be used later on, possibly adding tools for the UFO.
The galactic phase is sometimes referred to as sandbox mode, since the player has near complete control of anything and everything. Rather than presenting the player with a finite goal, as earlier phases do, the Space Phase gives the player freedom to accomplish any variety of tasks they wish to perform. Planetary zoos, alliances with other races and interstellar warfare have all been mentioned, and are all believed to be possible in-game. Every race will have a 'personality' that will change how a player interacts with them. (At GDC, Wright has mentioned that the races of Star Trek have influenced these "personalities"). User-created races uploaded to the player's machine will behave as that user played them; that is, if a user played a race pacifistically, that user's race would behave in the same manner to the player. Conversely, if the user played that race as a hostile species, it would be very difficult for the player to negotiate with that species.
In the E3 2006 demo, Will Wright explained that there would be over half a million different stars, each one having its own planets, more than anyone could visit in a lifetime. As is traditional with most of Will Wright's games, the game never presents the player with an absolute ending and the galactic phase continues for as long as the player wishes. The exploration remains fresh from uploaded content and on-the-fly procedural generation by the software.
Sporepedia
The Sporepedia is essentially a heads-up-display, cataloging all stars/solar systems, planets and creatures (and, presumably, buildings, vehicles and flora) you have discovered. It has the look and feel of a pack of cards, with the name of the content in the top, an image and general stats for the represented content, and the name of the creator in the bottom. The player will be able to bookmark or blacklist a certain creator in order to prioritize or ban content from that particular creator.
Editors
Spore's major concept is that nearly everything is created by the players. Will Wright has stated that in addition to being simple, all the editors will be as similar as possible to each other so that content creation skills are easily transferable from one editor to the next. There are several different editors, each one dealing with a different type of content.
In concept, the editors start simply in the cellular phase and move to higher levels of complexity acting as tutorials for progressive levels of gameplay. For example; the tide pool editor as demonstrated so far has a small set of choices (three sensory, three movement, and three attack options) and a two-dimensional structure compared to the E3 2006 creature editor demo which, for sensory alone, had nine options of four tiers each for a total of 36 options as well as three-dimensional structure. Editors move from a spine or body model in the early editors to presumably more free-form editors for the civilization or Sim-city phase. Planet-molding is perhaps the most ambitious, free-form and least detailed editing option; whether or not it will involve a true editor or an array of tools available to the "UFO" is unknown.
At E3 2006, Wright showcased the creature editor. It allows the player to take what looks like a lump of clay with a spine and mold it into a creature of their choosing. Once they are done molding the main form, they can then add legs, arms, feet, hands, eyes, mouths, decorative elements, and a wide array of sensory organs like antennae. Many of these parts affect the creature's final abilities (speed, strength, diet, etc.), while some parts are purely decorative. Once the creature is designed to the player's satisfaction, they can paint the creature using a large number of textures, overlays, colors, and patterns. After the player feels their creature is complete, it can be tested in a small enclosed area. There are also the building editor (city phase), the hut editor (tribal phase), the vehicle editor (civilization phase), the flora editor (from tribal to space phase), the UFO editor (civilization/space phase) and the terrain editor, and all work from the same basic software.
At the DICE summit, designer and senior art director Quigley revealed the difficulty of making the editors (the creature and vehicle editors in particular) extremely accessible, stating it was like "art directing a million incompetents... Gamers don’t have good sense as to what makes a good character, so you have to put in all these techniques and tools, so when they do something, it looks good."