''Spore'' will be a simulation that "ranges from the cellular phase to the galactic phase." It will consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play, with a range of gameplay styles, including elements of life simulation and real-time strategy. Wright also mentioned that he wanted players to be able to spend as much time as they prefer in each stage, without being forced to move to the following stage. In a February 12, 2008 ''Newsweek'' interview with N'Gai Croal, Wright mentioned that they added a difficulty selector to each stage, allowing players to choose the difficulty for each part of the game.
''Spore'' is a simulation that begins in the Cell Stage and progresses through to a Space Stage. It consists of several long stages, each with its own style of play, with a range of gameplay styles, including elements of life simulation and real-time strategy. Players are able to remain in any stage for as long as they wish, before moving on to the next stage. Players may also choose between easy, normal, or hard difficulties. For the purposes of this guide, we will assume you are playing on normal difficulty.
The games and films with which Wright associated the various phases are:
== Stages ==
# ''[[Pac-Man]]'' for the tide pool phase
There are five stages in Spore: [[Spore/Cell Stage|cell]], [[Spore/Creature Stage|creature]], [[Spore/Tribal Stage|tribal]], [[Spore/Civilization Stage|civilization]], and [[Spore/Space Stage|space]]. Each of these stages have their own unique style of play and creativity. Your choices in earlier stages will determine which abilities you receive later in the game.
# ''[[Diablo]]'' for the creature phase
# ''[[Populous]]'' for the tribal phase
# ''[[SimCity]]'', ''[[Risk (game)|Risk]]'', and ''[[Civilization]]'' for the civilization phase
# ''[[SimEarth]]'', ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', ''Star Trek'' and ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' for the space phase, with elements of sandbox gameplay. DICE 2007 referred to it as similar to ''Master of Orion''.
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.
===Cell Stage===
{{details|Spore/Cell Stage|the Cell Stage}}
He mentioned that the creatures' personality, whether it be logical or emotional, peaceful or violent, etc, is also affected by this gameplay.
The Cell Stage is the most basic of stages in Spore. You control a small organism that must eat to grow. As a carnivore, you must kill creatures smaller than you to eat them. As an herbivore, you will find small plants to eat. The more you eat, the larger you become. As an omnivore, you may eat both meat and plants. You also gain "DNA points" which you may use to upgrade your creatures abilities in the [[Spore/Cell_Creator|Cell Creator]].
During the 2007 TED conference seminar, Wright revealed that all phases could be accelerated, even having eons pass by in moments during the experimentation of a planet's biosphere. Furthermore, during the aforementioned ''Newsweek'' interview, it was revealed that players will be able to jump to any stage of the game, using pre-generated creatures if needed.
When you gain enough DNA points you will automatically evolve a brain. You may now choose to move on to the Creature Stage.
===Start of life===
===Creature Stage===
The game opens - and the dawn of life - with a comet plummeting onto a chosen planet, which hints at the concept of panspermia. The comet ostensibly supplies the complex molecules (ie. proteins) from which life will develop.
The Creature Stage follows your creature as he continues to evolve on land. By finding new parts, you may increase your creatures ability to fight or socialize using the [[Spore/Creature Editor|Creature Editor]]. You must eat to stay alive, as well as avoid predators that are stronger than you. Carnivores must kill other creatures to eat and herbivores can forage for fruit. Omnivores may do either.
The first phase of existence, the '''tide pool phase''' is sometimes referred to as the cellular phase or microbial phase. The player guides simple protean microbes around in a 2D environment where the microbes must deal with fluid dynamics, being eaten, and weaker microbes. There are many different types of cells, many of which can damage and/or eat the player's microbe. Once the player's microbe has eaten several cells, it forms an egg which, when clicked, opens the microbe editor which allows the player to modify the appearance, shape, and abilities of the microbe. The player can then add various offensive, defensive, and/or mobility abilities, spending "DNA points".
You have the option of befriending other creatures or killing them off to the point of extinction. Befriending creatures will entice them to join you as allies, helping you fend to off or kill larger creatures.
As the microbe gets larger, objects that are in the background move to the foreground, which can result in one's microbe being eaten by a much more massive microbe that had previously been swimming in the background. The surface land becomes more and more prominent, and the option to move to land eventually appears, allowing the creature to crawl onto land to begin the creature phase. Legs are ''not'' a prerequisite to moving to land; if the creature lacks legs, it will move slug-like on the land, which implies there will be a direct correlation between the cellular and creature phases. The microbe resembles a strange insect with cartoonish, human-like eyes, which were used "to make it cute," according to Wright during the 2007 TED seminar.
Periodically, your brain will become larger until you can finally enter the Tribal Stage.
The main units of "currency" are '''DNA points'''.
===Tribal Stage===
{{details|Spore/Tribal Stage|the Tribal Stage}}
===Creature phase===
The Tribal Stage is the first stage in which you gain control over multiple characters. Your creature has evolved enough to learn how to use tools and has created a tribe. Your goal now is to become the dominant tribe on your planet, by befriending or destroying five other tribes. Meanwhile, you must still feed your tribe. This is accomplished by hunting, farming, or fishing for food. Also, you may give your creatures clothing, which boosts their abilities by spending food as currency.
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 specie 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 likewise be stronger than average predators. Creatures' characteristics are categorized with a 5 star rating system in six areas: '''Speed''', '''Stealth''', '''Defense''', '''Social''', '''Cuteness''', and '''Attack'''. The creature also gains the ability to perform actions, such as "Call" and "Jump".
When you are the dominant tribe, you will advance to the Civilization Stage.
In the IGN "Evolution" video, the creatures had names such as "Oddy", "Mephistopheles" and so forth. This seems to indicate that individual creatures are nameable.
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 right away; scavengers will attempt to steal the eggs and the player must defend them. (Conversely, the player may steal and eat other creatures' eggs as well, if they can get past the hostile parents.) 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, with certain features exaggerated such as the head, and have a higher pitched voice. 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 (for herbivores) or pack (for carnivores). Will Wright referred to this as a simplified version of the friend-making mini-game in ''[[The Sims]]''.
The Civilization Stage adds two new editors to the game: the [[Spore/Building Editor|Building Editor]] and the [[Spore/Vehicle Editor|Vehicle Editor]]. You now control a thriving society that is vying for power against other similar societies of the same creature. You now have three means with which to conquer your opponents. You may take their city by force by destroying their city until they surrender, convert them to your religion, or buy them off after trading with them for long enough.
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 sapien and the player progresses to the tribal phase.
It is currently unknown whether the game will feature swimming creatures. Strong evidence of flying creatures, unseen since the original presentation of ''Spore'', has been seen in recent hands-on previews.
You may buy new vehicles and cities using spice, which is the currency of the world. Cities also produce spice consistently if you have factories. Unfortunately, factories cause unhappiness in your citizens, so you must build entertainment centers to balance them. Further, houses are required to increase the number of vehicles you may have at one time.
The main units of currency are, as with the cellular phase, '''DNA points'''.
There are three types of vehicles: land, sea, and air. Land vehicles may attack cities and land-based spice deposits. Sea vehicles may attack coastal cities and sea-based spice deposits. Air units may attack cities and can cross the ocean, but they cannot take spice deposits.
===Tribal phase===
Once you have taken over the entire world, you may design and build your spacecraft, which will launch you into the Space Stage.
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. The player also gains a mini-map of the world for the first time.
===Space Stage===
{{details|Spore/Space Stage|the Space Stage}}
At this point the game is similar to a real-time strategy game 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, purchased with food that the tribe has gathered (replacing DNA points as the game's currency). The creatures' behaviors and personalities are affected by what tools the player decides to give them. Creatures also gain the option to wear clothes that demarcate their professions; for example, recruiters wear recruiting clothes while farmers wear farming clothes. At this point, tribe-to-tribe contact can take place, should the player choose to (whether that contact be diplomatic or violent - the July 10, 2007 IGN "Evolution" video featured a battle between two tribes of the same species, but with variations in their skin colourations. The player may also "tame" other non-intelligent creatures, and even use them as livestock. Domesticated creatures seem to undergo neoteny in contrasting photos of the same species, but it is unknown whether it is automatic or if the player was permitted to edit tamed creatures in the editor.
The Space Stage is the largest and arguably most complex stage of the game. Your goal is to reach the center of the galaxy. In order to do so, you must earn Spore Bucks with which to buy upgrades to your ship. To earn money, you may perform missions, buy and sell spice, and take over rival solar systems. There are now alien beings that you may attempt to ally or go to war. You may set up trade routes as well. In order to advance, you may have to take over rival planets. This is accomplished by destroying their cities or buying the planet.
Once the tribe reaches 15 members, the player can choose to progress to the civilization phase.
You now have the option to [[Spore/Terraforming|terraform]] other planets, making them inhabitable. This allows you to colonize planets to capitalize on their spice deposits.
The main unit of currency is '''Food'''.
When attempting to reach the center of the galaxy, you will evidently run into the Grox. The Grox are a powerful, malevolent race that will attempt to prevent you from reaching your goal. There are numerous ways to deal with the Grox, but they are a force to be reckoned with.
===Civilization phase===
Reaching the center of the galaxy ends the game, though you have the option to continue playing.
Originally, the '''city phase''' was to follow the tribal phase, but it was merged into 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 tribal 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 rival 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, aircrafts,ships and submersibles.
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. Before they may proceed into the '''space phase''', they must paint their planet purple with the UFO; the contextual purpose of this is currently speculative.
The main unit of currency is '''Spice'''.
===Space phase===
After the civilization phase, the '''space phase''' begins. 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. During the 2007 TED conference, Wright showed off the planetary effects the UFO can have, such as pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to increase the amount of greenhouse gases, which over time caused the oceans initially to rise and flood coastal cities, then eventually evaporate and transform the world into an arid desert planet, followed by a molten rock in space. Wright semi-jokingly called it "a sequel to ''An Inconvenient Truth''. The player may cause icy comets to crash into a planet to create water, or force volcanoes to erupt to increase atmosphere. Players may also 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. The player finds other sapient species by running the mouse over other star systems and their individual planets to try to pick up radio static or noise that can indicate intelligent life. When the UFO visits that world, they may impress the beings with fireworks, attack them with weapons, or try to establish a language with the civilization via a ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''-styled musical mini-game. These civilizations may react violently to the player or worship them, depending on that civilization's behavior and the race's personality. 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 malevolent species, it would be very difficult for the player to negotiate with that species. On a grander scale, the player could try to conquer the galaxy by different means, such as beginning an interstellar war, diplomatically creating an interstellar union and so forth. As a show of great force, the player may even use a weapon to completely destroy a planet (similar to the capabilities of the Death Star from the ''Star Wars'' saga), which will sometimes bring retribution from that species and its allies.
During exploration of other worlds, the player may scan content and add the information to a database designed like a trading card series called the ''Sporepedia''. The player may also abduct creatures (familiar or unfamiliar, sapient or animal) 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. Conversely, the player may beam down his/her creature to interact directly with an alien species instead of through the UFO. The player may interbreed different species genetically, or place a monolith (in the style of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'') on a planet, triggering evolution of intelligent life, then come back later to see what has evolved. On lifeless worlds, the player may also find strange "artifacts" with unknown purposes to be used later on, possibly adding tools for the UFO.
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 Space 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. During the 2007 TED Conference seminar, Wright used accelerated time dilation during the Milky Way view to show the dynamics of the entire galaxy, as supernovae exploded in brilliant points of light, and the galactic arms slowly turned. He pointed out the nebulae, which the game features in real-life separate categories of planetary nebulae and reflection nebulae, each of which perform their actual functions in space. He also brought the UFO close to a black hole, keeping a cautionary distance from the structure.
The main unit of currency is, as with the civilization phase, '''Spice'''.
===="Sandbox" mode====
The Space Phase is sometimes referred to as a '''sandbox''' mode, because the player has near-complete control of everything. Rather than presenting the player with a finite goal, as earlier phases do, the Space Phase gives the freedom to accomplish any variety of tasks they wish to perform. It has been mentioned that the Space Phase works on two axes: a horizontal axis (the ability to interact with many planets in a variety of different ways) and a vertical axis (the ability to revisit different phases of gameplay).
==Elements of gameplay==
===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 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, showing how it would move around, fight, interact, etc. There is also the hut editor (tribal phase), the building and 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.
In the "2012: Stories from the Near Future," the Creature Editor was shown to have been altered so that the hands and feet were already attached to the limbs. There are also some curiously bat wing-shaped appendages added to the editor. At the 2007 TED conference, Wright created a bizarre one-eyed creature with two mouths on its forelimbs and a mace-like clubbed tail.
In the IGN Evolution video, one screenshot of the Creature Editor showed the limbs and hands without claws or fingernails. In the Youtube 2007 Gadgetoff video, it was confirmed that the player can add alternate hands/feet ''with'' talons, fingernails, etc. through a separate section with a hand icon.
==="Massively single-player metaverse"===
Wright calls the game a "massively single-player online game". Simultaneous multiplayer gaming is not a feature of ''Spore''. The creatures, vehicles, and buildings the player can create will be uploaded automatically to a central database (or a [[peer-to-peer]] system), cataloged and rated for quality (based on how many users have downloaded the object or creature in question), and then re-distributed to populate other players' games. The data transmitted will be very small — only a couple of [[kilobyte]]s per item transmitted, according to Wright. This was due to procedural generation of material.
During Wright's Long Now Foundation seminar with Brian Eno in June 26, 2006, he mentioned that players would receive statistics of how their creatures would be faring in other players' games, referring to this as the alternate realities of the ''Spore'' metaverse. The game would report to the player on how other players interacted with them (for example, how many times other players made alliances with their race or destroyed their planet). The personalities of user-created species are dependent on how the user played them.
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Spore is a simulation that begins in the Cell Stage and progresses through to a Space Stage. It consists of several long stages, each with its own style of play, with a range of gameplay styles, including elements of life simulation and real-time strategy. Players are able to remain in any stage for as long as they wish, before moving on to the next stage. Players may also choose between easy, normal, or hard difficulties. For the purposes of this guide, we will assume you are playing on normal difficulty.
There are five stages in Spore: cell, creature, tribal, civilization, and space. Each of these stages have their own unique style of play and creativity. Your choices in earlier stages will determine which abilities you receive later in the game.
The Cell Stage is the most basic of stages in Spore. You control a small organism that must eat to grow. As a carnivore, you must kill creatures smaller than you to eat them. As an herbivore, you will find small plants to eat. The more you eat, the larger you become. As an omnivore, you may eat both meat and plants. You also gain "DNA points" which you may use to upgrade your creatures abilities in the Cell Creator.
When you gain enough DNA points you will automatically evolve a brain. You may now choose to move on to the Creature Stage.
The Creature Stage follows your creature as he continues to evolve on land. By finding new parts, you may increase your creatures ability to fight or socialize using the Creature Editor. You must eat to stay alive, as well as avoid predators that are stronger than you. Carnivores must kill other creatures to eat and herbivores can forage for fruit. Omnivores may do either.
You have the option of befriending other creatures or killing them off to the point of extinction. Befriending creatures will entice them to join you as allies, helping you fend to off or kill larger creatures.
Periodically, your brain will become larger until you can finally enter the Tribal Stage.
The Tribal Stage is the first stage in which you gain control over multiple characters. Your creature has evolved enough to learn how to use tools and has created a tribe. Your goal now is to become the dominant tribe on your planet, by befriending or destroying five other tribes. Meanwhile, you must still feed your tribe. This is accomplished by hunting, farming, or fishing for food. Also, you may give your creatures clothing, which boosts their abilities by spending food as currency.
When you are the dominant tribe, you will advance to the Civilization Stage.
The Civilization Stage adds two new editors to the game: the Building Editor and the Vehicle Editor. You now control a thriving society that is vying for power against other similar societies of the same creature. You now have three means with which to conquer your opponents. You may take their city by force by destroying their city until they surrender, convert them to your religion, or buy them off after trading with them for long enough.
You may buy new vehicles and cities using spice, which is the currency of the world. Cities also produce spice consistently if you have factories. Unfortunately, factories cause unhappiness in your citizens, so you must build entertainment centers to balance them. Further, houses are required to increase the number of vehicles you may have at one time.
There are three types of vehicles: land, sea, and air. Land vehicles may attack cities and land-based spice deposits. Sea vehicles may attack coastal cities and sea-based spice deposits. Air units may attack cities and can cross the ocean, but they cannot take spice deposits.
Once you have taken over the entire world, you may design and build your spacecraft, which will launch you into the Space Stage.
The Space Stage is the largest and arguably most complex stage of the game. Your goal is to reach the center of the galaxy. In order to do so, you must earn Spore Bucks with which to buy upgrades to your ship. To earn money, you may perform missions, buy and sell spice, and take over rival solar systems. There are now alien beings that you may attempt to ally or go to war. You may set up trade routes as well. In order to advance, you may have to take over rival planets. This is accomplished by destroying their cities or buying the planet.
You now have the option to terraform other planets, making them inhabitable. This allows you to colonize planets to capitalize on their spice deposits.
When attempting to reach the center of the galaxy, you will evidently run into the Grox. The Grox are a powerful, malevolent race that will attempt to prevent you from reaching your goal. There are numerous ways to deal with the Grox, but they are a force to be reckoned with.
Reaching the center of the galaxy ends the game, though you have the option to continue playing.
