Wright lets dev team talk Spore

by Ross Miller { Feb 9th 2007 at 9:00PM }

Given the conference's acronym, it only seems fit that Will Wright's ambitious Spore have a presentation at this year's Design, Innovate, Create and Entertain (D.I.C.E.) Summit. However, in an atypical move for the Sims mastermind, Wright asked four members of his development team to do most of the talking.

Ocean Quigley, Chaim Gingold, Jenna Chalmers and Alex Hutchinson discussed their roles in the development cycle and explained the hardship of trying to make the game not only work, but work efficiently and with as simple amount of input possible from the player:

Quigley focused on the challenges of letting players create their own species and objects while avoiding any potential problems associated with said freedom.
Gingold discussed making object editors simple and powerful, expressing his mantra that "if [the game testers] don't notice that it sucks, then it must be good."
Chalmers' presentation outlined all their ideas for the space travel missions, and how she hopes the final game will be able to create new, entertaining missions on the fly. Though she noted that many ideas will not make it to publication, one mission that gave us a chuckle was having to drop a T. Rex onto an unsuspecting planet.
Hutchinson's speech covered his role as the overall gameplay designer, and lauds Spore for its ability to splice genres.

Wright's example of "an interstellar war between the Care Bears and the Klingons" keeps us intrigued on the title, so long in development already. However, even though Wright has a great track record with delivering on promised goods, we can't help but worry Spore won't live up to the enormous hype that follows it around. We'll find out later this year when Spore spawns on the PC and, eventually, every platform known to the human race.

See Also:
Joystiq Video: Wired Spore Event, featuring Will Wright and Robin Williams

Tags: d.i.c.e., dice, maxis, spore, will wright, WillWright, wright

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sub @ Feb 9th 2007 9:18PM

Will Wright hasn't let me down yet, I have little reason to believe he will with Spore. If anyone can make this game come true, it's WW

Sol.. @ Feb 9th 2007 9:22PM

is that a penisaur in the upper right corner?

Sol.. @ Feb 9th 2007 9:27PM

lol excuse me upper left

Matt @ Feb 9th 2007 10:01PM

You see Penisaur wherever you look, don't you Sol? ;)

Jonah Falcon @ Feb 9th 2007 10:18PM

Super! Downloading now for my hungry hungry iPod. ;)

David @ Feb 9th 2007 10:32PM

Wil Wright is God.

Well at least in all his games. :)

Brandon @ Feb 9th 2007 10:53PM

Can't wait to play this on the DS

jaysins @ Feb 9th 2007 11:12PM

I am building a new RIG pretty soon and I will definitely sink a couple hundred extra into it just so I can play this game with settings on high. It is just the most fascinating game concept I've heard.

Will Wright has such an incredible track record and I would not feel right doubting a game he speaks so highly of. I hope this game is all it is cracked up to be and hopefully they will be able to update it with new content. Also, this game has been in development for over five years, which makes me think it will be as good as it's cracked up to be.

Final note. This game uses procedural generation to create a truly dynamic world and should be be unlike any other game. I think it's going to be awesome and would truly be disappointed if it is not.