Proof of Evolution

By Jonathan Pu

Spore is proof of evolution. That’s right. Spore. It’s an interaction simulation that shows the progression of species as they start in tide pools, grow limbs (or not) to climb onto land, form tribal existences, build up civilizations, and then finally blow up other planets.

I really hope you didn’t believe a word of that first paragraph because if you ever wrote a thesis saying that Spore proved Darwin’s theories, society would shun you, your family and anybody else associated with you.

Honestly though, Spore’s a game currently in development, and has been in production for a long while now. It’s planned for plenty of platforms including the standard slew of consoles, the PC and Mac, as well as other platforms such as handhelds and cell phones. At a recent I-Con seminar on Spore, some details recently kept under wraps were revealed to a small audience. The two main features discussed were the music system in Spore and the spaceship designers.

Spore’s music system is as unique as the game itself. Unlike most games, Spore’s music will be, more or less, completely randomly generated. The music system will key into certain aspects of your style of play to generate music that best fits the culture of the creatures you create. Say you make a militaristic society. Your species will be very rigid in their movements and the layout of cities will reflect this with straight roads. However, the music will key into this as well and align itself to more of a marching beat with a strict tone to it. Also, unlike what’s been come to be expected, the music in Spore will always be changing. Even though the overall tone might stay the same, there’s no strict pattern that’s adhered to. Rather, the music will be constantly generated and you will pretty much never hear the same thing twice.

The spaceship designer was also a big part of the presentation as it was mostly kept a mystery to the public. Much like the other designers for creatures and architecture, the spaceship builder is free form enough to let you build pretty much anything you want and then to color it any colors you desire. In the power point presentation, we were shown a few of the spaceships, of which included a Nintendo GameCube shaped ship. I guess with the Wii taking over the GameCube’s functionality, it seemed only proper to give it some other role.

If you’ve seen any other Spore previews, you already know how exciting this game is without the two aspects I just briefly went over. However, if you haven’t, it’s about time to check it out, seeing as the game’s been in the works for years now. Expect a revolutionary evolution this September 7 for PC and Mac gamers (pfft, a Mac gamer?!) with the title coming to other platforms shortly thereafter.