Spore is a 2008 multi-genre single-player god gamedeveloped by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore. A special edition of the game, Spore: Galactic Edition, additionally includes a Making of Spore DVD video, How to Build a Better Being DVD video by National Geographic Channel, The Art of Spore hardback mini-book, a fold-out Spore poster and a 100-page Galactic Handbook published by Prima Games.As part of its license, Electronic Arts released Spore Origins, an arcade-style game for mobile devices, and Spore Creatures, a light RPG for the Nintendo DS, Spore: Galactic Adventures, an expansion pack for the PC game, Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena for Wii and Nintendo DS respectively, is in the fall 2009 lineup, and Spore Creature Keeper were announced as part of the 2009 lineup.A screenshot of a near-final prototype cell stage. The monstrously large creatures in the background will come to the foreground as the player's organism slowly grows and evolves.
Covering many genres including action, real-time strategy, and role-playing games (RPG), Spore allows a player to control the development of a species from its beginnings as a microscopic organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as aspacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay andprocedural generation. Throughout each stage, players are able to use various creators to produce content for their games. These can then be uploaded to the online Sporepediaand downloaded by other players.Once the microbe has found a part, the player can call a mate to enter the editor, in which they can modify the shape and abilities of the microbe by spending "DNA points" earned throughout eating organisms in the stage. A player may choose to remove a part, which will refund the full price of DNA, or add more parts, despite the quantity he already has of them. The player may scale the parts of his cell, including the spinal cord, eyes, and mouth to personalize the look. The paint editor, accessible from the parts editor, also gives a variety of patterns and colors for a nice look.
As the game progresses it becomes possible to make creatures omnivorous as compared to just herbivorous or carnivorous, allowing them to eat both plant matter and smaller living cells by earning theproboscis mouth or by using both the herbivorous and carnivorous mouths together. The balance of what type of food is eaten (plant matter vs. meat bits) determines whether the creature will be a herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore for the following stages. Despite the given mouth, the food the player has eaten directly affects the types of mouths available for him in the creature stage. Parts are acquired by seeking out special "part tokens" from meteor fragments and other organisms, which provide new parts to use in the editor, including spikes, mouths or better propulsion mechanisms.
Spore was released after several delays to generally favourable reviews. Praise was given for the fact that the game allowed players to create practically any creature, vehicle and building. However, Spore was criticised for its gameplay which was seen as shallow by many reviewers; GameSpot remarked: "Individual gameplay elements are extremely simple." Controversy surrounded Spore for SecuROM, its DRM software, which can potentially open the user's computer to security risks.In biology, a spore is a unit of asexual reproductionthat may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavorable conditions. By contrast, gametes are units of sexual reproduction. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, fungi and protozoa.In bacteria,spores are not part of a sexual cycle but are resistant structures used for survival under unfavourable conditions.
Spores are usually haploid and unicellular and are produced by meiosis in the sporangium of a diploidsporophyte. Under favourable conditions the spore can develop into a new organism using mitoticdivision, producing a multicellular gametophyte, which eventually goes on to produce gametes. Two gametesfuse to form a zygote which develops into a new sporophyte. This cycle is known as alternation of generations.
The spores of seed plants, however, are produced internally and the megaspores, formed within the ovules and the microspores are involved in the formation of more complex structures that form the dispersal units, the seeds and pollen grains.Spore allows the player to develop a species from a microscopic organism to its evolution into a complex animal, its emergence as a social, intelligent being, to its mastery of the planet and then finally to its ascension into space, where it interacts with alien species across the galaxy. Throughout the game, the player's perspective and species change dramatically.Spore is a game that is separated into stages, each stage presenting a different type of experience with different goals to obtain. The five stages are the Cell stage, the Creature stage, the Tribal stage, the Civilization stage, and the Space stage. In order to advance to the next stage of the game, players must complete the objective for each stage. Once completed, the player has the option to advance to the next stage, or to continue playing.
The game is broken up into distinct yet consistent, dependent "stages". The outcome of one phase affects the initial conditions and leveling facing the player in the next. Each phase exhibits its own style of play, and has been described by the developers as ten times more complicated than its preceding phase. While players are able to spend as much time as they would want in each, it is possible to accelerate or skip phases altogether.Some phases feature optional missions; when the player completes a mission, they are granted a bonus, such as a new ability or money. If all of a player's creations are completely destroyed at some point, the species will be respawned at its nearest colony or at the beginning of the phase.The first four phases of the game, if the player uses the editors only minimally, will take up to 15 hours to complete, but can take as little as one or two hours. Note that there is no time limit for any stage: the player may stay in a single stage as long as s/he wishes, and progress to the next stage when ready. At the end of each phase, the player's actions cause their creature to be assigned a characteristic. Each phase has three characteristics, usually based on how aggressively or peacefully the phase was played. Characteristics determine how the creature will start the next phase and give it abilities that can be used later in the game.