Will Wright's New Game: Spore

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
I take it back; this looks like it could work and not be stupid. It just doesn't attempt a quite *serious* imitation of each level.

Yeah, pretty much that. Basically only the player does things. No detailed models on each level that run in the background all the time. Or rather, replace models with triggers, scripts and random events.

[FrostyBoy]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


High resolution bitmap images are staggeringly large.



I don't think it's the eye candy part that is difficult. There are enough sophisticated programs out there to create photorealistic images and animations. With the progress in storage facilities, that should not be a problem. The big one has always been the game design itself.



I am not sure what you are getting at. The computer has always been doing all the interacting bit - e.g. who gets shot when - all along, from the very crude Pong days.

ok, UR, your replies are telling me that you don't know exactly how the engine works.

I'll just try to correct you here, I hope you can pick up what Spore is.


First of all, there are no bitmap images in the game. (maybe apart from the interface, but that's unimportant in this case).

Secondly, you say that the computer IS doing all the interacting, but that is not what I was talking about. I was talking about the fact that the engine works out on the fly how to make a creature walk or how to make a creature interact with other creatures and objects correctly. Because at the moment, this sort of interaction/animation has to be created by graphic designers and programmers, not the computer. With Spore, it is the computer that does the work that the graphic designers would otherwise have to do.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Sn00py

Would Will Wright have to set up a team that checks each and every civilization that gets loaded up onto the server? A momental task if you have 100,000 people playing.

They handle The Sims content just fine... There's enough innuendo in the game that it isn't really an issue to anyone who has the game, anyways.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by nostromo
About what?

About it being easier with multiple posts in such cases.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Sn00py
On GameSpy's Forums, a guy mentioned that anyone could create a Civilization of penis's; now, while this would be hiliarious to come across while playing your game, I'm starting to see that this game could create a lot of issues.

How do you rate a game that can potentially create images that are unsuitable for children?

Would Will Wright have to set up a team that checks each and every civilization that gets loaded up onto the server? A momental task if you have 100,000 people playing.

Eh, all online games have the disclaimer "game experience may change during online play". It's not part of the rating.

[DrSpike]

I've never really understood what that means.

[FrostyBoy]

I always thought it was about lag.

[Aramis]

I thought it had something to do with hallucinations.

[Nikolai]

I never play online games, and have therefore not seen such a disclaimer.

[DrSpike]

If the game experience doesn't change during online play I want my money back. Doing the same thing month after month gets boring.

[Nikolai]

So true.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Sn00py
First of all, there are no bitmap images in the game. (maybe apart from the interface, but that's unimportant in this case).

There are two kinds of images: bitmap and vector. All Wintel graphics are bitmapped, AFAIK.

Originally posted by Sn00py
Secondly, you say that the computer IS doing all the interacting, but that is not what I was talking about. I was talking about the fact that the engine works out on the fly how to make a creature walk or how to make a creature interact with other creatures and objects correctly. Because at the moment, this sort of interaction/animation has to be created by graphic designers and programmers, not the computer.

Hm, anything the computer "knows" how to do is programmed. For example, a game uses some kind of collision detection algorithm to see if somebody gets shot.

Originally posted by Sn00py
With Spore, it is the computer that does the work that the graphic designers would otherwise have to do.

No. All the work still has to be done by graphic designers. If the graphics are to be generated programmatically, you still need the designers to layout what the program is to generate.

[vovan]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
There are two kinds of images: bitmap and vector. All Wintel graphics are bitmapped, AFAIK.

Errr... I'm pretty sure Sn00py isn't talking about the format of the images in the game. He is talking about where the images come from. The point he is making is that they are not shipped with the game, but rather are generated by the game.

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Hm, anything the computer "knows" how to do is programmed. For example, a game uses some kind of collision detection algorithm to see if somebody gets shot.

Actually that's a very interesting point, almost philosophical. And really it's not true in the general sense. For example, with self-programmable hardware, a computer can change its own hardware to learn things it was not technically programmed to do.

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
No. All the work still has to be done by graphic designers. If the graphics are to be generated programmatically, you still need the designers to layout what the program is to generate.

Hmmm... I think I already kind of addressed this point above, but I will reiterate. All of the things in the game - creatures, buildings, etc, are not created by the designers. They are purely made by the players of the game through the game's own interface. Now, some of these players could be designers, but they don't technically have to be. The engine is smart enough to figure out how a thing should behave no matter how it looks like.

[Kloreep]

Originally posted by vovan
The engine is smart enough to figure out how a thing should behave no matter how it looks like.

This means we'll have a limited number of organs and appendages for the creatures, I imagine? Don't know how the buildings would work (i.e. if the player's graphical design will have any effect on what they do). Still, so long as they spend enough time polishing it, and devote enough manhours to creating the kind of general content needed for a variety of options in these editors, it could be very nice.

[FrostyBoy]

Well I'm sure Maxis will provide basic shapes to help people along.

From one of the screenshots I noticed a spine inside of one of the creatures in the creature creation window, I figured that would be the starting point to creating a creature that needs bones.


I can see now, that having these stages is a good thing; if the player is asked to create the entire and final creature from scratch on the spot, it would feel like a large task each time you wanted to start a new game.

I think these stages will allow the player to slowly create their creature in small steps, which wouldn't be such a huge task.



Graphic Designers will have an advantage over graphically-challenged people, but I'm sure that's not the problem, as Will Wright stated, people love to just create what they want, even if what they have created sucks.



I have another question that you might be able to answer for me vovan. Can or does the creature evolve by itself?

And if one creature has 20 powerful arms and 10 Jaws each with the power of a Hippo's jaw, does that creature have more of a chance of killing a civilization of Smurfs? The reason I ask is because this game's engine is based on real life physics I presume, so if one creature's physical attributes are more powerful than anothers, then the weaker creature is going to die no doubt?

Also, I'm curious, what would the disadvantages be if I had an extremely powerful creature? Would I have to feed it a lot maybe?

Does it have to be a creature? Can I make an insect that stings people with deadly poison? Or what about a virus? Ok, a virus can't travel the universe by will, but I might be able to hitch a ride on another UFO that happens to land on my planet.