I wrote a lot about Spore when it launched. The sad part is the potential it offered will likely never be realized with Wright gone from EA.
It was the first game to aggressively try to marry bits and atoms. Bing Gordon wanted the creature creation tool to serve double duty as a way to make customized "Pokemon" style games offline. It was the first game designed to have the characters 3D printed.
It is the kind of launch only a big company could do successfully and unfortunately it didn't work out. I hope they would at least consider open sourcing the design tools. I agree with the general sentiment that the game was just terribly boring. Put the tech in the hands of someone who gets gameplay and there is still potential.
It was the first game to aggressively try to marry bits and atoms. Bing Gordon wanted the creature creation tool to serve double duty as a way to make customized "Pokemon" style games offline. It was the first game designed to have the characters 3D printed.
http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2009/01/review-spore-sculptor-...
The metadata in a .png file could be used to recreate the design in the editor.
It was a terrible game, but probably the best entry level cad program I ever used. You could do just about anything.
http://replicatorinc.com/blog/2009/02/75-creative-uses-of-th...
It is the kind of launch only a big company could do successfully and unfortunately it didn't work out. I hope they would at least consider open sourcing the design tools. I agree with the general sentiment that the game was just terribly boring. Put the tech in the hands of someone who gets gameplay and there is still potential.