spore-creature-creator posts

If you still haven't tried out Spore yet and don't feel like downloading the free version of the Spore Creature Creator, Electronic Arts has something planned for you. They are supposed to launch a Flash-based version of the creator in a 2D format on the spore2d.com web site. We say "supposed to" because at the moment the site doesn't appear to be working yet.

Once the site is operational, EA said you can use it to make any kind of creature you want or import any creature to the web from the Sporepedia site and even play with them in the Spore Creature Trainer mini-game. You can show off your 2D creature via email or your favorite social networking site as well.

Update: The spore2d.com site appears to be working now.

This patch updates Spore to v1.04. It addresses a number of gameplay issues and includes game enhancements. Additionally, there's a patch for the Spore Creature Creator, bringing it to v2.01. The Creature Creator demo can be downloaded here. Continue reading after the jump for a list of changes.

Download Spore v1.04 Patch (84 MB)
Download Spore Creature Creator v2.01 Patch (173 MB)
Download the Spore Creature Creator Demo (205 MB)
Check out all Spore downloads

Will Wright's latest game Spore may not have been the be all and end all of PC games but it's character creator tools and its animation features that make those creations move with no pre-generated movements is certainly a huge accomplishment.

That's likely the reason why the game was given a Jim Henson Honors award this week. What? The late and beloved creator of the Muppets has his own awards? Well, sort of. The Jim Henson Company launched their awards in 2005 to, in their words, honor "organizations, individuals or products that reflect the core values and philosophy of the legendary Jim Henson and the company he founded."

For the 2008 edition, the technology category award was given to Spore. In giving out the honor the Jim Henson Company stated, "The game is meticulously conceived and executed with infinite detail, allowing a gamer to design and create his own character – a digital alter ego - providing for an unprecedented level of user creativity as his being evolves from a single-cell organism to a galactic god over hundreds of millions of years." It also might not have hurt that a lot ot the creatures created in the game happen to look like Muppets but we could be wrong.

However you may feel about Spore's gameplay, the creature creator tools for Electronic Arts' alien evolution sim are indeed very impressive and easy to use. Now EA has announced a way for Spore players to have their creatures made into real miniature sculptures via the Z Corporation.

Players can upload their Spore creations to the Sporesculpture.com web site and pay $49.50 to have their creatures created into 3D miniatures using Z Corporation's 3D printers. Here's some more info on the actual making of the sculptures:

Z Corporation 3D printers use a powder-binder technology, to create parts directly from digital data. First, the 3D printer spreads a thin layer of powder. Second, an ink-jet print head prints a binder in the cross-section of the part being created, mixing color as it does. Next, a build piston drops down, making room for the next layer, and the process is repeated. After printing, the Spore Sculpture is cleaned off, given a quick dip in a resin bath, packaged and shipped.

Spore continues to stay atop the best selling list of PC games and today the game's publisher Electronic Arts announced a new contest where one person could win a trip to next month's Spike TV's Video Game Awards just by creating a 60 second movie using Will Wright's alien evolution sim game.

Using Spore or the Spore Creature Creator (either full or trial version) you are asked to create a wild 60 second video and upload that movie to the Spike TV site by Dec. 2. The winning video will be selected by a panel of judges (which will include Wright himself) and the winner and a guest will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the awards show and meet with Wright himself. He will also be getting Spike TV's first 'Game God" award at the event.

As promised last week, Electronic Arts has released a new patch for their best selling alien evolution sim Spore (the patch is only available via automatic in-game downloads or through the EA Autodownloader program). In addition to fixing some bugs the patch also adds 24 new and free creature limbs that players can use in their creature editor to customize their creations some more.

You can see what the new free limbs look like in the above image. Of course you can also make the lead and actually buy the Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack which ships out this week in stores. This first Spore commercial expansion adds even more creature parts for use in the editor.

If you though you had to pay money to get new creature parts for EA's alien evolution sim game Spore, think again. According to the email-sent Spore newsletter, the next patch for the game will have some free content, "Patch 3 is coming soon - make sure to download it when it arrives. We're happy to include 24 free new limbs for your SPORE creatures - dial up your creepiness with insectoid and exoskeleton legs."

Meanwhile the first paid expansion for the game, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, is due out next week for $19.99. EA has a released a YouTube-exclusive trailer showing off some of the new content in the expansion.

Last month, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Electronic Arts' DRM set-up for Spore, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the publisher, alleging that EA did not disclose the use of the SecuROM software in the alien evolution sim game. Now Game Politics is reporting that EA has been hit with two more lawsuits, each alleging the install of the SecuROM software without their knowledge.

One lawsuit centers around the software being installed with Spore Creature Creator, the stand alone creator editor. The other is for the software being installed with The Sims 2: Bon Voyage expansion pack, released a year ago. In the latter case, the person claimed problems with their PC arose after installing the expansion. All three plaintiffs in the SecuROM lawsuits are represented by the same lawyer. EA has yet to comment on these lawsuits.

Time magazine has posted up a list of what they think are the 50 best inventions of 2008 on their web site. In between selections like the Mars Rover, the moving skyscraper, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (that qualifies as an invention, apparently) the list include's EA's alien evolution sim Spore at number 20.

The listing, which refers to Spore as "The Everything Game", is like reading about Will Wright's latest creation before its release last September, when everyone was thinking it would be the next major PC game title. We are wondering if Time has even read a review of the actual product which have described the game as good but not great. The magazine needs to go back to the drawing board on this list; it clearly is misinformed.

Remember how Spore creator Will Wright said that his alien evolution sim would help stimulate interest in science? Well a bunch of real scientists have just given the game a failing grade. The magazine Science (published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science) has posted up an extensive article on the game on its web site where it states, ",...the problem isn't just that Spore dumbs down the science or gets a few things wrong--it's meant to be a game, after all--but rather, it gets most of biology badly, needlessly, and often bizarrely wrong." The article goes into quite a lot of detail of what's wrong with Spore, both as a game and as the way it protrays real science.

Not only do these scientists feel that Spore is a disservice to the things it's supposed to champion, some were upset that they were interviewed for a documentary about the game that was included as a DVD in the Spore Galactic Edition (and also shown on the National Geographic Channel). According to the article, "They said they had been led to believe that the interviews were for a straight documentary about 'developmental evolutionary' science rather than a video promoting a computer game."