SDCC: Wright Shows Off SPORE

By: Edward Goodsmith
Date: Monday, July 28, 2008

Last year at E3 video game visionary Will Wright showed a game that blew the minds of geeks everywhere. That game was Spore, the totally editable, life simulator. This year at Comic-Con, Will was here to show us actual game play. No tapes this time around. He was actually playing the game just as we will in a few short months.

He started off with a speech about what makes video games fundamentally good, and how he found the recurring theme that the more customizable the game the better it would be. He then started to mess with the game, showing us just how editable it truly was. We’ve all seen the creature creator, and if that blew your mind just wait until you see the other creators.

He started by showing us the civilization levels that have you controlling cities on just one planet. In the civilization portion of the game there’s an entirely different take on the idea of world conquering. You can always use the military options to take over you city, but there are also other, less destructive techniques. For instance, if you’re an economically driven empire then you can drop a propaganda bomb on to an opposing city, and brainwash them in to following you.

After Wright took over the planet it was time to build a space ship and shoot for the stars. Of course there was an incredibly simple, yet powerful, space ship creator. Now that his creatures are in space they can begin inhabiting other planets, and trading with other races all over the universe. There are even black holes that have become the transit network for traveling across the universe in the blink of an eye.

There are also thousands of cultural references in the game. The first one I spotted was the happiness booster that Wright placed to make his people happier. It was a Wacky Waving Arm Flailing inflatable tube guy from the now famous scene in family guy. Wright said he is excited to see just how many of the references people can spot.

After about 45 minutes of game play I was sold, I immediately pre-ordered my copy, and have been waiting impatiently since. Unfortunately, Spore can’t be had until September 7th. Keep an eye out for news as it become available.

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