Spore

Will Write has been working for awhile on a revolutionary new game called "Spore." The premise of the game is that you evolve a creature from a single celled organism to an all powerful-universe traveling race. It seems Mr. Write is trying to adapt to the monstrous scale of today's games. Classic games (with smaller textures, lower frame rates, and simpler concepts) could be programed by a handful of dedicated workers. Now, because of their complexity, games require buildings worth of programmers, designers, testers, voice actors, and others all working together. Video game budgets now include millions of dollars in development costs alone. Write is hoping to ease that with a revolutionary new game style. You, the player, create the characters. You create the enemies. You populate the worlds. The designers just give you the tools to do this. Spore's revolutionary AI and game physics learn how to make your creature walk with the legs you create for him. That is just the start. The game interprets your creatures physical make up to decide how it will mate, eat, hold items, fight, dance, and build. The creature editor seems intuitive to use and Write's team has gone through great lengths to make the vehicle and building editors operate similarly. But how do you populate the game world? Well it is not just you. Every creature you, your friend, me, and your mom make in the game goes into an online database. "Spore" will then examine your world and populate it with creatures other players have made. "Spore" is capable of making complex ecosystems with user made content. Write, creator of Sim City, The Sims, and other successful games, continues his tradition of making open ended games. There is no final victory. You progress you creature through different stages of development as fast as you want. The final stage which gives you the ability to travel the universe, terraform dead planets, and experiment on native life has been described as a "sandbox mode." By playing all stages in the game, you should learn how to manipulate it as a god race. I for one am excited about this game, but don't get your hopes up. The game is not set for 2007 release and the estimated release date continues to be pushed back.