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Dave Perry gives first video tour of Gaikai

by Ben Gilbert { Jul 1st 2009 at 1:30PM }

Between OnLive and Gaikai, we're not sure who to trust less. Both systems are clearly operating under some form of unknown dark magic, allowing the mysterious services to stream high-def gaming directly into your television and computer browser. Both services though -- luckily and necessarily -- have representatives willing to happily test our skepticism in OnLive's Steve Perlman and Gaikai's Dave Perry.

The video (found after the break) has the latter demoing Gaikai, streaming games from Mario Kart 64 to Spore to EVE Online, all from his Vista-powered PC running Firefox on an 800-mile trip between the server and his home. He claims in the video to be streaming all of the games demoed from sub 1-megabit internet speeds and says that "even a NetBook" could run Gaikai with no problems. From what we can see, things are running smoothly, though unlike OnLive, we've yet to get our hands on the equipment. Perry says we'll see more at this month's Develop Conference, so for those of you itching for more Gaikai, you've got a two-week wait on your hands. Perhaps you should play some of those old, less magic-filled gaming consoles you have.

[Via Edge Online]

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Robot Chicken's downloadable Spore adventures are totally tasteful, just watch

by Randy Nelson { Jun 19th 2009 at 6:30PM }

When we first heard that the creators and writers of adult swim's stop-motion comedy goldmine, Robot Chicken, were going to be creating DLC adventures for Spore: Galactic Adventures, we knew the results would be ... unique. Now EA has released a short video showing Seth Green, Tom Root and the rest of the show's writing staff "at work" on the content, followed by a run-through of what they came up with. "Unique" doesn't describe it; in fact, we're not sure any word could. "Nutshit," maybe.

So thanks, Robot Chicken. You've managed to make us want to re-install the game, if only to find out whether Whiney rhino actually obeys the evil clown and shovels the poo he fears so much. Spore, June 23 is your day to shine.

Robot Chicken creators making DLC for Spore: Galactic Adventures

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 19th 2009 at 9:00AM }

The Robot Chicken writing team is designing a free downloadable campaign pack for Spore Galactic Adventures, set to be available at launch on June 23. The campaign was conceptualized by Seth Green and Matt Senreich, then presumably executed by their underlings. The DLC includes "exploding poo, angry yetis, ruler yielding librarians and more," of course.

The team's exploits (in creating the DLC, we hope) will be tracked at the Spore WTF site. At least getting the Robot Chicken crew involved might get "the targeted demographic" talking about Spore again.

EA officially details Spore Hero, Spore Hero Arena

by Jason Dobson { May 12th 2009 at 10:15AM }

Electronic Arts has elaborated on what playing Spore will be like once the primordial goo takes shape on the Wii and DS later this year. The Wii's motion-sensitive Spore Hero will play out as a story-based action game, as players save their planet from being blown to bits while collecting more than 250 creature parts. EA also notes that this take on 2008's evolutionary experiment will feature a new version of Spore Creature Creator, one that's been "enhanced" for the Wii. We expect minigames are somehow involved.

For would-be gods on the go, Spore Hero Arena instead will focus more on combat. Here, creatures travel between planets to slug it out to become the champ and collect spoils, which, in this case, are special abilities to give a creature enough of an added boost and inflated ego to take on the next rival evolutionary misfit. Spore Hero Arena will also support local multiplayer battles for up to three players, or allow two players' creations to go up against each other over Wi-Fi.

Neither Spore Hero nor Spore Hero Arena have been given an exact release date yet, with both expected to evolve onto store shelves sometime this fall.

Gallery: Spore Hero (Wii)

Gallery: Spore Hero Arena (DS)

Robot Chicken and Spore to be combined ... somehow

by Justin McElroy { May 11th 2009 at 11:30AM }

There are few things that aren't better when you mix them with adult swim's 15-minute comedy series Robot Chicken. Mario was better, GTA was better and, we're hoping, that Spore will be improved whenever Maxis shows what it's working on with the show's creators.

A teaser site has been launched at www.spore.com/wtf, promising some combination of the IPs to be revealed on May 19. You can also find a teaser video after the jump that features Du Jour's Breckin Meyer discussing exploding raindrops. Consider us intrigued.

[Via BD]

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Over 100 million creatures made in Spore

by JC Fletcher { May 4th 2009 at 9:34AM }

Since the release of Spore -- in fact, before the release of Spore, thanks to the Creature Creator -- players have brought new life into the fake world over 100 million times. According to Spore Illustrated, the Spore community crossed the 100-million threshold on April 29. "There was a massive flood of entries right at the 100 million mark," SI said. "An estimated 90,000 creatures were uploaded just after 2pm in an attempt to make a mark in Spore game history. EA will reveal the history-making 100 millionth monster soon. [Update: And it has!]

Of course, that number doesn't include banned products of the massive worldwide Spore penis monster team (otherwise known as every teenager with a copy of Spore), but presumably does include the millions of monsters who look just different enough from wangs to avoid notice.

[Via Kotaku]

Will Wright involved in the future of Spore, consoles a possibility

by Ben Gilbert { Apr 21st 2009 at 11:00PM }

Ex-EA employee and enormously popular developer Will Wright is apparently only halfway out of EA's doors. Talking with GameDaily, Wright confirmed his intention to stay on as a consultant for EA Maxis (the development team behind Spore). Saying, "I'm spending a certain amount of time every month actually working with the Spore team on future versions of Spore and expansions," Wright (seemingly for the first time) announced his plans beyond his work with upcoming venture, the Stupid Fun Club.

Additionally, Wright commented on the possibility of console iterations of Spore, frankly stating, "For us it's really an opportunity/cost issue ... we either do that [consoles] or we continue creating new applications on the PC or we kind of go into the handheld arena." Guess he forgot about that upcoming Wii title, Spore Hero! While we're looking forward to what Wright's next move is with SFC, it's good to hear the man behind Spore is still helping to develop the game moving forward. The money problem doesn't hurt either, eh?

Maxis designer on college lecture tour

by Richard Mitchell { Apr 14th 2009 at 8:50PM }

Electronic Arts has announced that Stone Librande, lead designer at Maxis, is now embarking on a lecture tour through some of the United States' game design colleges. On the tour, Librande will be teaching students the art of "designing playfully," while also giving students a first look at the upcoming Spore expansion, Galactic Adventures. That's right kids, they're luring you to class with video games! Librande will be showing students how to use the game's Adventure Creator and also "inspiring and teaching them how to make game concepts come to life." Sounds like a heckuva guy.

The tour already rolled through the Georgia Institute of Technology last week, with the next stop being the University of Southern California on April 16, followed by the final stop at Carnegie Mellon on May 1.

GDC09: Paper prototype of Aperture Science + Left 4 Dead

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 28th 2009 at 3:15PM }

Game designer Stone Librande works at EA/Maxis as a game designer, and we mean he designs games quite literally. Whenever developers run into problems, they'll bring Stone in to create paper versions of the project in order to solutioneer a fix. He worked on Spore in the early days of the Cell Stage development, and had so much stuff rattling around in his head that he created a cell level game on the side of his refrigerator. For free.

He said they might not always turn out to be fun, but they do aid as a tool in the development process, especially since it's hard to get everyone to gather around a computer screen to check a problem out... but they'll actually come out of hiding to check out paper gaming pieces. We want to design a board game to fix issues at Joystiq, and then fight over who controls the pewter Justin McElroy gamepiece. Check out his "Aperture Science meets Left 4 Dead" board game above, and a gallery of more of his creations below. Just imagine what his board game collection must look like.

Gallery: EA/Maxis Paper Games

Spore Galactic Adventures coming June 23rd, bringing gameplay

by Ben Gilbert { Mar 24th 2009 at 8:50PM }

Spore publisher EA has dropped a new trailer and a handful of new screens for the game's upcoming expansion, titled "Galactic Adventures," and with them, a release date finally. According to the EA press site (and confirmed by EA Maxis rep. Amanda Taggart), the gameplay-heavy DLC hits the cyber autobahn as well as brick-and-mortar stores on June 23rd, though the pricing is still "TBA."

The trailer above shows off a variety of new end-game content that, to be perfectly honest, looks to be a lot of fun. Commanding fleets of space-faring creatures across the galaxy, subjugating everyone along the way? Where do we sign up?! And remember, Spore Galactic Adventures is just the first of four Spore titles coming to various platforms (Wii/DS/PC/Mac) this year, so keep those pocketbooks open.

Gallery: Spore: Galactic Adventures

Overheard@GDC09: TTP = Time To Penis

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 24th 2009 at 4:09PM }

During the "Spore's Wake: What Seriously Happened?" panel at GDC, we learned a fantastic new meme that we have to share with you. "Time To Penis" (or just "TTP" in the streetz) is defined as the amount of time it will take children to make something rude out of a set of tools they've been given -- typically, that object is a penis. Apparently, TTP can be measured down to the near-second. In Spore's case, TTP was actually a negative factor since "children" were making penis monsters before the Creature Creator was even officially released!

Did you know? That little guy on the right is generally considered to be Spore's first penis creature. Don't stare, though -- he's shy.

SXSW 2009: That Doesn't Suck! Inspiring Creativity With Spore

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 15th 2009 at 4:30PM }

Although Spore's ship date has come and gone, many people are still fervent about creating new creatures, vehicles, buildings, and more for the game, and they've chalked up over 86 million users creations and counting so far. This panel was about the the wealth user created content out there, and also served as a springboard for talking about the first full Spore expansion pack: Galactic Adventures.

Caryl Shaw is a producer at Maxis, and she showed off the new expansion pack, and talked about the tools that Maxis and EA strive to give users so that they can create their own open-ended adventures, which is what Galactic Adventures promises to do. She tooled around inside the game for a bit, showing off the planet terraforming features and a combat-focused user created adventure. But what caught our eye most of all was the sheer amount of extremely creative user creations that just stagger the imagination.

While Spore might have come out and disappointed some, this panel was enough to make us want to bust it out again when we get home and either get busy creating, or get busy exploring some of the jaw-dropping user content. Check out the highlights after the break.

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Spore Hero: details on the Wii's Spore spinoff

by JC Fletcher { Mar 9th 2009 at 2:45PM }

EA is finally bringing Spore to the Wii, sort of: Spore Hero is coming this fall, but, of course, it won't be exactly the same as the PC game. Spore Hero, as revealed to MTV Multiplayer today, is a heavily motion control-dependent adventure based on the "creature" stage of Spore. The same creature editor from the original is present in Hero, allowing players to create new life with the Wiimote's pointer.

Players will now directly control the creature in "a series of quests and adventures in a kind of open world that you can take at your own pace." New parts can be added that will translate to new motion-controlled moves. Some moves, like jumping, will open up new areas to explore. EA is currently "taking a look" at MotionPlus for Spore Hero, for improved sensitivity for the motion-based gameplay.

This sounds a lot like the DS's Spore Creatures -- whose sequel, Spore Hero Arena, is still scheduled for a fall release on DS.

Will Wright to keynote SIGGRAPH 2009

by Jason Dobson { Mar 5th 2009 at 9:06AM }

There's just something about Will Wright that makes us melt. His choice in games. His geeky good looks. His ability to play god. Whatever it is, maybe the esteemed game designer will shed some light on our infatuation when he takes the stage as the keynote speaker at SIGGRAPH 2009.

His presence marks an "expanded" gaming focus for the CGI tech fest, which normally centers on what's new and bleeding edge with all things graphics. The topic of Wright's discussion has not yet been released, though we'll be listening with bated breath when the show opens its doors in New Orleans in early August.

Spore Galactic Adventures vids show new game editing features

by Jem Alexander { Feb 8th 2009 at 3:00PM }

If you're a Spore fan then you're probably already aware that the best thing about the game was the creation tools, which allowed you to make your own aliens, buildings and vehicles. Spore Galactic Adventures, the upcoming expansion pack, looks to add more of these to the game, not only allowing you to create your own customized planets but also to build an entire game, LittleBigPlanet style.

Check out the videos after the break to see these new editor features in action. Perhaps some playable user generated content will make up for the disappointing gameplay in the original title.

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