| Spore |
| Developer: | Maxis |
| Publisher: | Electronic Arts Games for Windows |
| Designer: | Will Wright |
| Released: | In development |
| Website: | http://spore.com |
| PCG Types: | Procedural generation User mediated content Dynamic systems |
Description
Spore is a god game simulation that contains multiple levels of play, from starting as a multi-celled organism in a tide pool, up to exploring a dynamically generated universe with advanced UFO technology.
Use of Procedural Content Generation Methods
Spore features procedural content generation as a central mechanic. All entities in the game will be generated by other players using the in-game editors, and shared: Will Wright has described this as a 'massively single player game'. The editors themselves use procedural generation techniques such as procedural animation to determine how the creature moves depending on the design the player creates.
It is not clear at this stage whether worlds are created using runtime random level generation or dynamic world generation: probably a combination of both techniques are used to allow a galaxy of content to be delivered.
Music is procedurally generated in game by software written by Brian Eno.
External Links
Spore - Wikipedia entry for Spore.
Development of Spore - Wikipedia entry describing the development of Spore.
The Science of Spore - video hosted by We Game linked from Rock Paper Shotgun.
Cell Phase Trailer & Screenshots - video hosted by Game Trailers linked from Rock Paper Shotgun.
Will Wright and Spore - Spore presentation by Will Wright to the Game Developers Conference, 2006.
Will Wright and Brian Eno Long Now Foundation Speech, 2007
Will Wright vs. The Spaceman - Spore presentation by Will Wright to NASA, 2008.