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Behind the prototyping of 'Spore'

Electronic Arts' much anticipated evolution game, Spore hits store shelves Sunday in North America, and for those that have been on the project since the beginning, it has been a long road from concept to completion.

The game's creator, Will Wright, who is famous for previous games like SimCity and The Sims said recently that the game has been seven years in the making, meaning the project was getting under way not long after The Sims launched and became the best-selling PC game of all time.

Wright has talked at length about how Spore's origins lie in the SETI project and other flights of his fancy.

"The original concept was sort of a toy galaxy you could fly around and explore," Wright told me last month. "As we thought about, it became apparent that evolution was a very important component. Some of the very first prototypes involved how you would move around and visualize the galaxy."

In the highly anticipated lead-up to the Spore's release from EA studio Maxis, in Emeryville, Calif., almost all the attention has been on the game itself or on its Creature Creator, which gives users an easy and sophisticated way to create complex beasts and which was made available in June as a free download.

But for many people, an equally exciting element has been the series of prototypes available for free download on the Spore Web site, each of which provides a look at the origins of a small piece of the larger game.

In fact, the prototypes were a crucial part of making Spore a reality. For example, since the procedural animation of the creatures in the game is one of its most-heralded elements, it's notable that before the system was ever built into the game, it started as a prototype.

"The earliest prototypes were making strange topology creatures and seeing if we could teach the computer to make them move plausibly, and later, show emotion and behavior," Wright said. "We had to find out whether the project was doable or not, or if some part of it wasn't doable, where we have to scale it back."

The first programmer on the Spore team was a Maxis veteran named Jason Shankel. Prior to joining Wright on his evolution project, he'd been working on a project known as SimMars, which was essentially a Mars terraforming game that was supported financially by NASA before the plug was finally pulled. … Read more

For Mac, EA's 'Spore' requires Leopard, Intel chip

For Mac users, one of the best pieces of news of the year was the announcement in January by Electronic Arts that it would be releasing a version of its long-awaited evolution game, Spore, on their beloved platform.

But if you're one of those Mac users who is shaking with anticipation at playing the new game by SimCity and The Sims creator Will Wright, and you don't have both an Intel-based machine and the Leopard version of the Mac OS X operating system, I'm afraid you're out of luck.

This news isn't new, as it'… Read more

Let the 'Spore' advertising blitz begin

SAN FRANCISCO--If you're a video game fan, you are probably quite aware that Electronic Arts' evolution game Spore is just days away from launch.

You've played with the Creature Creator, you've read the stories, you've watched the videos. Maybe you've even had a chance to see Spore's creator, Will Wright, give one of his famous talks on the subject.

But if you're not a gamer, you might not have any idea what Spore is. Until now, that is.

As I was returning from lunch Wednesday, I noticed a giant billboard on the side … Read more

Will Wright on the origins of 'Spore'

On September 7, Electronic Arts will release its long-awaited and much-anticipated Spore. For many, this will be the biggest video game event of the year, and possibly even the last several years.

Spore, which was first announced in 2005, takes players through the process of evolution, from simple cell-like creatures, step by step, on out into space, is the latest from The Sims and SimCity designer Will Wright.

There is little question that Wright is one of the industry's most important figures, as evidenced by the packed houses he always speaks to and the reverence everyone from gamers to … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Apple finally speaks up on iPhone 3G glitches

Apple has finally acknowledged the iPhone 3G reception issues being reported by consumers. CNET News reporter Tom Krazit talkes about what the company said, and whether the problems have been fixed.

Privacy is a big concern for many Web surfers, and it looks like Microsoft wants to capitalize on that interest by adding a safe-browsing mode to the next version of Internet Explorer.

Plus, mark your calendars, Sims fans. February 20, 2009, is the day The Sims 3 will debut.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Apple acknowledges iPhone 3G reception issues

Report: iPhone app crash fix coming next month… Read more

'Sims 3' coming on February 20

Electronic Arts has announced that the third installation of The Sims, that game that rivals World of Warcraft in the "I got so addicted my boss almost fired me" department, will be debuting on February 20, 2009.

That's a worldwide release date for both in-store purchases and digital downloads. EA has famously devoted an entire division (or "label") to the blockbuster Sims franchise, in which players create their own families of virtual characters (or "sims") and let their lives unfold. The game was designed by Will Wright, whose new game Spore is hitting … Read more

Running the show at EA Games

Electronic Arts, the world's largest video game publisher, announced Thursday that its long-awaited Spore had gone "gold."

The announcement means that the game, the latest from famous designer Will Wright, is finished and on its way to manufacturing for a September 7 release. It's a momentous step for EA given that it is probably the most anticipated video game of 2008, and one of the most important titles the company has worked on in years.

Last year, the company reorganized into four separate divisions, or labels: EA Games, EA Sports, EA Casual Entertainment, and The Sims, … Read more

Q&A: Will Wright talks 'Spore,' 'Sims,' science

His all-time favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey and as a child, he aspired to be an astronaut so he can form colonies in space and help solve world overpopulation.

Now 48, Will Wright has yet to make it to the Milky Way, but he can take some pride in having created the best-selling PC game franchise of all time, The Sims. First released in 2000, the video game has sold over 100 million copies across the globe.

Developed at Maxis, which was co-founded by Wright and is now part of Electronic Arts, The Sims shot the American game designer to fame, earning him widespread recognition as one of the most important figures in the realm of video games.

Wright was in Singapore for the first time this week as part of a global promotional tour for EA's much-anticipated simulation game Spore, slated for mass release September 7.

During a game demo, he said the concept for Spore was spawned from a desire to encapsulate everything else that The Sims was unable to--leading to his initial moniker for the game, "SimsEverything."

His inspiration for the game also came from the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, an organization that aims to explore the origin of life and seek potential life-forms in the universe.

Wright explained that the fundamental concept behind entities such as SETI and the Drake Equation all seek to answer one simple question: "Is there somebody out there?" Developed by astrophysics professor Frank Drake, the Drake Equation attempts to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy.

With these in mind, Wright laid the foundation for Spore. Set in the backdrop of space galaxy, the game lets players develop civilizations and create species, allowing these creatures to evolve from a unicellular organism into intelligent social beings.

Described by Wright as a unique hybrid of single-player and massively multiplayer online games, Spore can be played as a standalone single-player game, as well as an online real-time strategy game where players can develop and share their own user-created content.

EA inks two partnership deals, including Epic Games

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--Electronic Arts announced partnership deals with two independent games companies Thursday, including Gears of War publisher Epic Games.

The news of the two new members of the EA Partners program, which also revolved around Japan's Grasshopper Manufacture, publisher of games like No More Heroes, was part of EA's annual Studio Showcase event here.

During just over an hour of announcements and presentations, EA showed off 17 games it didn't show at E3 last month, as well as unveiled the partnerships.

Grasshopper Manufacture will create an all-new action horror game for EA. It will be … Read more

'Spore' goes gold

As was first reported here last month, Electronic Arts' hotly-anticipated new evolution game, Spore, was about to go "gold."

Now, EA says, the game from SimCity and The Sims designer Will Wright has indeed done so, meaning that development on it is finished, and Spore is off to manufacturing.

Now all that's left is for the Spore marketing operation to kick into high gear, getting ready for the game's September 7 launch.

It's hard to imagine that this video game, which was first announced in 2005, and which has had its ship date redefined several … Read more