Spore - Overrated gameplay, Underrated game development

Tribal Phase of Spore I played

Just last Saturday, I had the chance to play Will Wright's so-called "next big thing" which is the Spore. Four years or more of development, hyped up presentations by Will Wright thru Game Developers Conference, E3 and this game has received most of the positive and negative criticisms alike last year upon its release.

While many game critics applauded its one of a kind god-mode gameplay concept, they quickly threw away its promise as the countdown of its release diminished. Gamers and review writers alike were caught in the middle of game thinking "That's it?" and yes, truthfully, that's it. With all the design, procedural programming, autonomy and other brilliant ideas popping out in this unique game, the gameplay lacked length and depth. In the cellullar phase, creatures need to eat and eat and eat to survive. And that's just about it. And so forth and so on that every phase features a short length of gameplay that you'll crave for more. For the hype it has been, and for all the salestalk on how this game can easily surpass the best selling game of all time - The Sims, it couldn't live up as the golden franchise. But don't get me wrong. I was one of those fans of Will Wright who criticized gaming review sites for rating it lower than what is expected of it. And yet 8 months or so after its release, after playing it for the first time, I was shocked myself with the lack of depth. However, for those people who loved The Sims, I'm expecting positive feedback from them because they play with excitement and imagination towards the game. Exploration, autonomy and creature and object designers are its selling point.

And while it has gaming review sites quick to forget and regret they rode the bandwagon that this game is, they were also, sadly, quick to dispose appreciation of its game development. If you've followed Will Wright's speeches regarding the unique attack on game development and how it is applied into a real game which is the Spore, you will be amazed at how this was actually ever cleverly done and brought to life. And as a developer too, I am still amazed at the brilliant concepts they've put into the game. If you've played The Sims 3, you'll be quick to notice that maybe just maybe, some of the Spore's concepts were adapted to it as well. Just as Nintendo has started to attract casual and non-gamers alike to play our games, maybe other game developers especially the mother game producer Electronic Arts as well must learn to adapt its ideas. Sure graphics is clearly the way to go to attract gamers but money spent on production of these games are not getting cheaper by the minute. More and more game developers are required to work on the game's physics, graphics and other eyecandy which tends to getaway with the actual gameplay quality.

Spore maybe failed on its way to becoming such a great legacy game that gamers will look upon on. However, don't take away the brilliance of its creation. It's still one of a kind. And maybe you won't find anything like this again. Let's learn to appreciate how games were developed and not just on how these games are played. After all, gameplay comes after game design.

Spore Game Review at Gamespot

A few days to go before the official shipping of this so called first god-game, GameSpot has reviewed the 5-year-old game that Will Wright has long been waiting to release.

As casual as the game may sound, may play, may look and even be too mediocre for hardcore gamers, I'm frankly disappointed on how GameSpot lets itself run a business by being an iconic gaming review site by always and always giving biased bad ratings over these type of games. Anything not hyped with action, gore, blood and not called Grand Theft Auto will definitely produce such a low rating for them.

Going back to the game Spore itself, isn't it that GameSpot itself reported on how their writers got amazed on how this game may change the gaming industry itself on Will Wright's speech in the Game Developers Conference circa 2005?

Is this how the way hardcore gamers really see the value of this one of a kind game? Perhaps this low of a rating given to the Spore gets the biased and largely irrelevant comparison between Spore's rating and a Super Paper Mario in the Wii console rating?

Yes it may seem difficult to believe in your own rating of the game as a writer and be the representative of GameSpot letting other review sites know that they felt it was just a so-so game but quite easily, this is one of the best games even of the decade. Let's just see and wait on how the rating of other gaming review sites will be for this game. I'm sure players who bought it will really have a far better rating than GameSpot and hopefully will give justice to this game.

Spore E3 Evolution Gameplay

Around 5 years in the making and the Spore will hit the market on September this year! That's right Will Wright's masterpiece will definitely be a giant leap not just for the gaming industry but for the programming/ web development as well.



I sure hope the reviews coming from gaming sites like GameSpot be fair enough for open-ended games such as this.

Will Wright's Imagination

Whether the Spore, Will Wright's new god-mode simulation game, kicks ass or not, Will Wright's legacy in game development is a living proof that games are not just made popular thru high-end power hungry graphics, innovation of already proven genres and countless hours of eyecandy features. Games are also created thru the game developers' creative minds.

Will Wright captured the eyes of both gamers and non-gamers alike thru the best-selling PC game of all time - The Sims. He started the craze with The Sim City, Sim Ants and then dreamt of creating a virtual world where you can control people - much like Tamagochi. Although one of the game's weak points may be the open-endedness, which a lot of hardcore gamers tend to get rid of, it also became one of the most attractive feature of the game as the gamer keeps on playing the game without even having to put pressure in himself finishing the game. Bored with the simulation process? Get interested on the design stage wherein you'll be able to build houses for the Sims families you've been playing with.

Now, he and the rest of his team will be soon releasing the Spore - the much awaited game which has been under development for years.
I think probably the bottom line here is that he was never afraid to continue to challenge even his own masterpiece to create another soon-to-be-legendary game. The ability to not only extend the game beyond possibilities but also increase the game's hardware performance thru what he called it as "procedural programming" without affecting the game itself is something that huge game developers must learn to appreciate and adapt within themselves upon game creation.

With that in mind, developers won't be really having a hard time creating a long storyline, realistic heavy graphic-reliant, redundant games but instead consider games that both the hardcore, casual and non-gamers alike will like.