EA Maxis' reveal of Darkspore earlier this week made a few people scratch their heads. Maxis is known for their sim games like Sim City, The Sims and others. What did that team known about making an sci-fi action-RPG title? As it turns out the team is getting some help from a studio that has had a few RPG games on its resume.

GameSpot reports from the San Diego Comic-Con that fellow Electronic Arts development studio BioWare will be assisting Maxis on Darkspore, which takes the core of Maxis's 2008 game Spore with its Creator Creator and puts it in a totally different gameplay mechanic. GameSpot's article, based on attending the Darkspore panel at Comic-Con, goes into more detail on the game's features including some influence for Magic: The Gathering in making the game's monsters. Darkspore is due out in 2011.

Update: Destructoid clarifies that Malcolm Azania, a writer on the BioWare team, is the lead writer of the fiction behind Darkspore.